The original G1 Blurr first appeared in the original transformers movie. He's been represented in several different toy lines since then, but next to the original, this is my favorite. All it needs is metal.

Transformers Animated continues to be a fantastic toy line with great designs, too bad the show is being supposedly canceled.

I didn't care for the show at all, but usually if there's no show, there's no toy line. But with Hasbro, who knows.

The original G1 Blurr first appeared in the original transformers movie. He's been represented in several different toy lines since then, but next to the original, this is my favorite. All it needs is metal.

In car mode, Blurr is a futuristic race car. His lines are sleek, reminiscent of the Mach 5 from Speed Racer.

The color scheme evokes a very Tron like aesthetic, which I am a sucker for.

The vehicle rolls freely and the only gimmick is an Energon saw that pops out from under the front of the vehicle.

The tips on the front of the vehicle are rubber, a nice choice, likely for safety reasons.

Transformation to vehicle mode is pretty straightforward and what you get when you are done is a fantastic looking, super articulated robot form. The Transformers design team have really found their groove with these Animated figures.

Blurr stands over 7 inches all and is pretty well articulated, especially below the waist. The large pointy shoulders hinder some of the movement of the arms, but it's not too bad. Despite the spindly appearance, Blurr has tight joints that makes posing a breeze.

The Energon saw that was stashed under the hood is now a shield in robot mode - affixed by a peg to the arm.

The head has a gladiator-style look to it, and features the standard light-pipe effect.

This guy is really fantastic, even if you are not a fan of the show. Grab one while you can.

"While I function, Earth is under my protection."

Video review included!

Optimus was a young and optimistic recruit in the Autobot Academy, wanting to face off against real Decepticons in a battle as part of the Elite Guard. Unfortunately, he missed the war by a few million years, and eventually failed to pass the Academy. His ambitions and dreams crushed, Optimus was instead assigned command of a small maintenance crew for the tedious and boring duty of repairing and cleaning-up the Space Bridge network. But when the Autobot crew accidentally comes across the very powerful, life-giving All Spark which was lost at the end of the war, they are suddenly ambushed by the greatly-feared leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, and his own broken army of experienced soldiers in their search for the legendary artifact. The Autobots get away from the Decepticon warship, and Megatron is destroyed in a fluke explosion, but damage causes their ship to crash on an unknown planet. Optimus Prime and his crew go into emergency stasis lock for 50 years, and reactivate in the future underneath Lake Erie near Detroit, Michigan. The Autobots reformat their alternative forms to match those of Earth vehicles so as to blend in. As they begin to explore Detroit, they come across a human girl named Sari Sumdac, whose father owns the largest robot manufacturer on the planet. When she sneaks aboard their ship to see more of the transforming alien robots, Sari encounters the All Spark, and it rebuilds her electronic key card to carry many of its own powers. With Sari’s help in understanding Earth’s unusual cultures and customs, Ratchet, Prowl, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Optimus Prime swear to protect the All Spark from rogue Decepticons until Elite Guard reinforcements arrive.

After a surprising engagement with the leader of the Decepticons thousands of stellar cycles after the end of the Great War, the crash landing of his small Space Bridge maintenance ship on an unknown planet, and the startling discovery the legendary & powerful All Spark, Optimus Prime is finally living out a dream that had been quashed hundreds of years ago- the chance to be a hero. But now, a lot of responsibility has been placed on the shoulders of this young Elite Guard washout, and he must summon the strength & integrity to bring his small band of miss-matched Autobots together as a team to protect the All Spark until their great leader Ultra Magnus can send reinforcements to recover it. But first, they must determine what kind of planet they have crashed on. With biological life infesting this planet, there exists a level of technology through which they can blend in. Taking the form of a “fire engine”, Optimus Prime leads his crew into Detroit, Michigan, where they come across a young human female named Sari Sumdac. Though wanting to preserve their anonymity while on this Earth, this is soon defeated when they are forced to reveal themselves to the world, and they become instant celebrities... and heroes. Dealing with primitive humans, Sari and Bumblebee getting into mischief all the time, Bulkhead breaking things left-and-right (as usual), Prowl following his own solitary agenda, Ratchet grumbling about how things were different during the war, the most valuable artifact in the universe in his cargo hold, and a bunch of Decepticons hunting them - how is a bot supposed to deal with all this!? The only way Optimus Prime can: with perseverance, wisdom, courage, honor, responsibility, and dedication.

Optimus Prime’s vehicle mode (back) is that of a futuristic 4-wheel fire engine, with a water cannon on the back. Now, the most-obvious deviation for the toy from his counterpart in “Transformers Animated” is that his vehicle mode does not include the trailer/back half. On the other hand, the trailer is never seen on-screen in the series except in vehicle mode, so what happens to it when he transforms is up to speculation. What is clear, though, is that in the series Optimus can still drive around without the trailer. And this is no different for the toy- the top section behind the over-engine cab can be detached, and he still can move about just fine, albeit a little more front heavy than before. And when that top section is removed, then he more closely resembles (back) his predecessor(s) from 1984-onwards. Being a fire engine, the passenger cabin has a pair of non-functional blue strobe lights on top. Above the narrowing light gray front bumper is the passenger compartment, decorated in Prime’s trademarked red & silver, but enhanced with black as well. While the windows in the side-doors are not painted in, the two angular windshields are transparent-blue ABS. Upon closer inspection, a further detail is that there is circuitry molded in on the inside of the windshields, giving them a techy look; while they may be transparent, the inside of the cabin is black, so it’s very difficult to tell if there are other molded details within. All four wheels are the same size and design, but the front ones are narrower from a forward profile. While he no longer has cylindrical fuel tanks visible, the blue back half is rather poorly set up to disguise his legs from robot mode, especially when that top section has been removed.

Other than the wheels allowing him to roll very easily across any flay surface, the Water Cannon from the top section can be freely twisted around 360°, though always at an angle.

Automorph Technology is a special feature which was introduced in the “Transformers: Armada” (2002-03) line, and returned in “Transformers: Cybertron” (2006); though it was not called such until the debut of the toy line based on the first live-action film “Transformers” (2007). What Automorph does is- depending on which toy is involved- use a series of internal levers & gears, triggers, and buttons to move one part of the figure without you having to move it yourself; it automatically transforms for you. Sometimes, an Automorph feature will be electronically-powered, though this is reserved for special larger sets only.

For Optimus Prime, there is one Automorph feature:

• After separating his ankles, and flipping the front bumpers/wheels around to become part of his lower legs, there is a small black button on the back of the cab just above his legs that needs to be pressed downwards. When depressed, the blue back half of the vehicle mode will automatically twirl sideways and downwards to become his legs! Then, when they stop turning, you can press the now lower torso/legs forward just a little, and they’ll snap into final position, preventing the mechanism from accidentally engaging when not intended.

This spinning transformation feature is a direct reference to the style of animation in the series which all of the Transformers utilize, which is a whirl of motion while transforming which is untraceable by the eye.

. . .

While the leg Auto-Conversion is a very cool effect, it’s kinda tricky to put back. But then, everything else involved in transforming him falls into place easily enough. Although, I will say flipping the shoulders forward the first time threw me off because there are pegs that they’re fitted to on the back of the cab that they don’t tell you about, so you have to really tug on them to get ‘em loose.

And finally, how Optimus Prime transforms is very similar to his G1 predecessor- arms deploy from the mid- and back of the cab, legs fold out from behind, red cab becomes his chest, engine grille becomes his stomach, the wheels end up on his legs (albeit in a different location), and a panel needs to be opened & closed so that his head can flip up. About the only things that are different is where the front bumper ends up, how his legs deploy, and where/how his hands deploy!

Optimus Prime’s robot mode (back) is the newest incarnation of, and tribute to, the character so beloved since 1984. This one, however, has a very strong posture thanks in large part to the animation style used by Cartoon Network for “Transformers Animated”. While the coloring scheme remains red, blue, and silver, black is added along the outside of his lower arms & waist. From a side profile, his shoulders and neck are aligned in the same position with his ankles, but his chest & hips are- forgive the expression- thrust forward rather arrogantly, giving him a very curvy back. However, he is in no danger of tipping over whatsoever, with those huge feet. His head is very traditional in design, though one thing that a lot of fans complained about was the decision to make his mouth light blue. (I was indifferent to such an issue. To me, this was comparable to painting flames on the movie version of Optimus Prime from the 2007 film- it fit the design style enough that it wasn’t distracting.) I don’t know why, but in addition to the traditional paired pointed antennae for his ears, I always see the forehead for this incarnation of Optimus as very reminiscent of the peaked cap worn by military servicemen in dress uniform. (Perhaps an intentional throwback to his earlier days in the Elite Guard Academy...?) For a change, the headlights of the truck form are preserved on his chest, right below the identically-positioned windshields, and to either side of the truck’s front grille at his stomach. The transparent-blue strobe light array now rests on the top of his back, though you can now see that the red coloring was painted on since it does not appear there in robot mode. His arms are near identical to his cartoon counterpart’s; though incorporating black paneling along the forearms, and black elbows. The front bumper of the alt. mode, rather than remaining preserved as a belt across his waist, has been separated and repositioned behind the back of his legs. Indeed, the front wheels, which traditionally rest at his hips, have also been moved down with the halved bumper to occupy his ankles along with the inward-turned back wheels!

The range of motion on this figure is pretty good. About the only thing on him that doesn’t move around are his ankles. And even though they move during transformation, the wrists are locked in place by those panels on the outside; the only way to counter this is to un-snap the panels, and then the fists can rotate in-and-out, but the panels would just hang there instead. Each shoulder also features double joints which fold out and allow him a greater range; they also allow him to fold his arms forward without bumping them into the vehicle mode’s side-view mirrors on his chest. His waist, not unsurprisingly, can turn through the full 360° quite easily. Too easily, I’d even say- his torso is so loose that it turns the first chance it gets. However, because the mechanism is disengaged (if you remembered to do that final snap after the legs have spun down), you won’t strip the gears or break anything else accidentally. Though his head can’t look up or down, it can still spin side-to-side all the way around. The only real problem I have with the poseability is in the hips- like the Voyager-class Autobot Grimlock figure, they can’t bend that full 90° forward, but I’ll say that the range is better than Grimlock’s.

. . .

For special features, Optimus Prime is loaded. The closest one to being seen in the series is his faceplate. This is usually stored on the front of his neck (which helps contribute to his “...Animated”-styled long chin). There is a tiny blue lever on the back of his neck that, when pushed downwards, will slip the faceplate upwards to cover his light-blue mouth; thus giving him a closer resemblance to many of his predecessors! The second is that his eyes are also made of transparent-blue ABS, and when light shines through the back of his head, they glow. (Does it work...? I’d say it is average and not as great as other figures, but- hey, at least it works!)

The other two features are his weapons...

While he does have a single-blade extendable rocket-powered Energon ax in the series (crazy as that sounds), that is represented only with the smaller Deluxe-class Optimus Prime (Cybertron Mode) figure. Here, the Ion Ax (back) is very wide and double sided, and is formed by the majority of the top section from the vehicle mode; though not resembling the one in the series in any way.

Since none of the Autobots in the series have dedicated weapons (other than the occasional shuriken or rocket-powered Energon ax), they usually depend on their internally-mounted Space Bridge maintenance tools to get by. Being disguised as a fire engine- which are usually designed for many different types of rescue operation- Optimus Prime comes across in the series as a living multi-tool with all kinds of features. Unfortunately, cool as all this sounds, the Voyager-class toy is not as well equipped as Batman himself is. And so, we must settle for a simple Water Cannon. While mounted internally on the back of his fists in the series, this one is big enough that he can grip it like a blaster. Now, when I say that it is a Water Cannon, I mean that it can hold actual water inside of it! There is the smallest of black rubber stops) under the blaster that can be popped-off (it remains attached via a soft cord), and the small reserve can be filled with tap water. To squirt the water, press in on the front of the nozzle.

(Now, I don’t plan to fill mine with any water, so I can’t give you range or how many shots you’ll get. But I’m guessing there might be enough for about ten good squirts out to about a foot-or-two.)

The instructions also specify that when opened up, the Ion Ax can be placed on Optimus Prime’s back, to act as a jet thruster pack. The Water Cannon can also remain attached in this form as well. (While he cleverly uses his Energon axe in the series for very short boosts, he is nowhere-near capable of flight in such fashion!)

What the Instructions *Don’t* Tell You

[fanfare sounds]

The Voyager-class Optimus Prime set, fortunately, has only two marks in this frustrating category:

• The faceplate has a small blue point on his chin which slips through a hole in the red plastic when it’s moving up and down. Unfortunately, this hole disappears when you twist the neck to either side, preventing the faceplate from going either direction. So the lesson here is that Optimus Prime must always be looking straight ahead when you move the faceplate around.
• While this is rather an omission rather than something that was completely unexpected, this is still something important that was overlooked. What they fail to elaborate on, unfortunately, is how to reverse the process of transforming the legs back once they’ve been spun down. Through guesswork on my part, I’ve determined that the waist needs to be pointing to the right before you un-snap it to reengage the mechanism. Then, holding the red cab section, rotate the legs/lower torso clockwise, slowly & gently helping them pitch (i.e. rotating the cab back) at the same time. The mechanism is spring-loaded, and so while it will easily spring downwards, it cannot do the reverse; you have to help it get back. And then, once the legs are near-horizontal again, you need to depress that black lever again so that it can be re-locked.

I’ve heard of people simply forcing the waist section up without spinning it, and I greatly fear that this will rapidly wear down the mechanism inside, and so I strongly recommend that you not do that! So long as you take your time and remember to start the process with the legs & waist facing the right direction, you should do just fine.

...but the instructions don’t tell you any of this.

Many people and longtime Trans-fans were once more greatly disturbed by the newest incarnation of those famous shape-shifting alien robots in disguise; for example, turning the famous Optimus Prime into a measly wannabe with no ambitions and trust issues, or the overall design style of merging & graceful lines/curves matching that of other recent cartoons such as Disney’s hugely-popular “Kim Possible” (2002-2007). And yet after a rocky start in trying to win back the minds of the fans, the show has become a hit on its own as much as it is a tribute to the original G1 series from 1984. Plus, “Transformers: Animated” is an original American series like “Beast Wars: Transformers” (1996-99) and “Beast Machines: Transformers” (1999-2001) before it, rather than being a dubbed anime production from Japan. The same can be said of the toys thus far in their initial releases. But as word has spread across the Internet, the toys have come to shine on their own- not just for their functionality, but for their absolute and striking similarities to their on-screen counterparts, which has never been as fully successful before- where proportions were usually off, colors were wrong, and functions were off or not mentioned. In other words, after 23 years, we are finally getting in our hands what we see on the screen in a way never seen before in Transformers history.

This is another figure that I was looking forward to with great anticipation from the very moment that I saw it online in late 2007. And it has not disappointed in any way. Perhaps some of the tabs and the holes that they fit into are a little finicky when you transform him, but that’s no big deal. While this is a feature that has appeared in the past, the Water Cannon, I thought, was a nice idea, but I’m sure that other collectors like myself will also never be putting water into it. Though I knew the Ion Ax would not look anything like its on-screen counterpart, I was glad that at least the figure came with a large ax of some kind. Next time, though, I expect the one seen in the show to be in the same box. And attaching the two weapons to his back was also a cute little gimmick, and it didn’t sacrifice any other part of the toy to accomplish, which was really nice for a change! The moving faceplate, also, was nice and a good alternative to using a separating accessory piece for those who couldn’t stand his blue lips. The Auto-Conversion legs were, of course, really awesome, and a great way of paying respect to the ninja-quick insta-transform that these characters go through. But, of course, with the exception of the large ankle kibble, this is another fine, fine example of Takara’s hard work of bringing us a toy that so closely matches its on-screen counterpart, and yet plays homage to the past great leaders of the Autobots. Things to change? Yeah- give him an Autobot symbol somewhere, mnn? In the series he has a red symbol on each upper arm, but the only indication of such is an indented panel on the front of his right upper arm! I am also a little annoyed with how easily his waist turns after I lock it in place when transforming him. Oh, and in the future, I’d like to see a fully-functional fire engine trailer section to go with this figure. As is, though, I am very satisfied and I highly recommend getting the Voyager-class Autobot Optimus Prime (Earth Mode) figure.

Oh... and please forgive me my little, um... AT-ST moment here; I couldn't resist.

--Renewing the Charge--

[DISCLAIMER: This last section is not supported, advertised, or endorsed by either Hasbro, DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, or Warner Brothers Records. It is a fan-supported effort completely independent from all companies affiliates with the 2007 film "Transformers".]

Not even a week after "Transformers" entered theaters on July 3rd and became a blockbuster, scores of fans were clamoring for a copy of the original musical score by Steve Jablonsky. However, WB Records said in an official statement that the score would not be released for the foreseeable future. In protest, a fan-supported online petition was set-up to persuade the record company to reconsider. By the end of two months, over 5500 signatures had been recorded (your's truly at #1112).

Victory for the signers was claimed when “Transformers: The Score” was released in October that same year, containing just-shy of one hour of the original score. Jablonsky also personally wrote to the creators of the petition thanking them for their efforts. The CD would go on to become the 32nd best-selling soundtrack on Amazon.com at the time of its release.

However, victory was short lived. Because the CD was so popular, it disappeared from shelves rapidly, and was not restocked. By the end of 2007- a mere two-and-a-half months later- new CDs were no longer being produced, but were still being sought after. Reports of online price scalping were not uncommon when stores ran out, easily selling for double the original prices. (Don't worry- I got my own copy in October, and loved every minute of it!)

. . .

Well, the folks at The Knight Shift who brought you the first petition have come back, and they are saying "Give the people what they want". I recently learned that a new Petition 2.0 is now up, and is accepting signatures once more. This new effort is directed at Warner Brothers Records, and is asking for an extended reissue of "Transformers: The Score", with the potential for additional original tracks to be added.

(Yours truly is petition signer #563.)

If you signed the original petition, I both thank you and ask you to put forth your effort on this new petition as well. If you did not sign the original petition, but got the CD, please sign this new petition. If you are a fan of Steve Jablonsky, please sign this new petition. If you are long-time Trans-fan, or you simply enjoyed the film the movie, then please sign this new petition. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the original CD release, and I want others to share in it as well.

"Cybertron is cool, but Earth rules."

The great evil leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, has been resurrected on Earth! Using a stolen key card modified by the legendary All Spark to rebuild his old body into a new form, he finally sheds his repulsive guise as an “Autobot” in front of his long-time and ignorant companion, Professor Isaac Sumdac, within his private lab in Sumdac Tower, and blasts through the Autobots’ defense. Entering their small maintenance ship for the second time in fifty years, Megatron finally claims the true All Spark as his own after millions of stellar cycles of searching, and immerses it within his chassis, making him near-unstoppable. But through determined teamwork and trickery, Optimus Prime recovers the key card, and uses it to make the All Spark in Megatron’s chest explode! Though with only minor injuries, Megatron kidnaps Professor Sumdac, and escapes with the other Decepticons. Then finally, the Autobot Elite Guard arrives on Earth a few days later, with the great and noble commander of the Autobots aboard, Ultra Magnus. Though initially doubtful of the claims of Optimus Prime’s small Space Bridge maintenance crew, he sees that they are telling the truth, and tells them to keep up the good work, and continue to hold Earth safe as Decepticons throughout the galaxy rise up from word that their leader is still alive. Meanwhile, it is discovered that the All Spark was not destroyed, but rather fragmented and dispersed across Detroit. With new un-allied Cybertronians being created randomly across the city from All Spark fragments, Megatron on the loose, and Sumdac’s young daughter, Sari, wrongfully evicted from her only home, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Prowl, Ratchet, and Optimus Prime have their hero work cut out for them... but they’re up to the challenge.

While the self-fulfilling and arrogant Sentinel Prime was filling Ultra Magnus’s audio receptors with horror stories of potential organic contamination from this Earth, and great mistrust & doubt of his former Academy classmate Optimus Prime, Jazz was more open-minded on both subjects. Though hearing troubling tales about giant organic alien spiders from Sentinel, Jazz was quick to realize that even though Earth and humans were vastly different from Cybertronians, they had their own ways of doing things that strangely struck a chord in him. Of particular interest to him was the fact that each human is created uniquely from all others- whereas all Autobots share similar structures and forms with unique Sparks. Trained in a higher level of Cybertronian martial arts than Prowl, this makes him equally sensitive and open-minded to things that others would not immediately recognize. And no matter what he does, he always puts a personal flair into it. This also certainly applies to his fighting style: cool, fast and impressive with his twin Energon-powered nunchaku- with which he can deflect energy shots, and slice through hard metal. Otherwise, the way Jazz figures, it just ain’t worth doin’ if he can't do it in style.

The voice of Autobot Jazz is performed by cartoon and television actor Phil LaMarr, as his only character in “Transformers Animated”.

Jazz’s vehicle mode (back) may no longer be a Porsche 935 Turbo, but it sure invokes the feeling of his original G1 disguised form, particularly with the red and blue stripes along the rounded nose. While no longer a racing vehicle, he retains the look of a sports coupe, though with the exaggerated styling of the “...Animated” line. The passenger section is lower than you might expect, and is flanked on either side by stylized extended side-view mirrors. Believe it or not, the front and side windows are actually made of the same transparent-turquoise ABS plastic, but for whatever reason, they have been completely blackened out [by whatever method]. Rather than being placed in back, the four exhaust pipes are located prominently on either side of the two doors. And in back, the tail lights are raised on high flairs above the back wheels.

One obvious paint error is found here: on the character’s vehicle mode in the series, the red and blue stripes continue all the way up and over the car, but on the toy they occupy only the hood. The reason this was done, however, is because when Jazz is transformed, he has no blue and red stripes along the front of his lower legs... which are made up from the roof of the vehicle mode. (So, if this toy is true to the character’s appearance in that regard, then does this mean his transformation is different in the series...? I’m inclined to say “No”.)

Unlike most of the figures I’ve reviewed so far from “Transformers Animated”, Jazz is one of the very few that does not have an assisting Auto-conversion feature. Not to spoil anything here--

“Spoil what exactly...?”, you ask.

--but the only ‘special feature’ he has is his robot mode’s weapon. Beyond that, you do it all yourself. (Of course- sarcasm aside- there’s certainly nothing wrong with that!)

One thing about his transformation I will comment on, though, is that it’s rather difficult to get the bottom panels of the lower legs to slip past the windshield when transforming him between either mode. While bending the hips helps a little bit, I’m afraid that someday that windshield might declare it’s had enough, and finally crack or warp. (Unfortunately, the panel on the lower leg cannot be trimmed down by you because he needs it to stand upright!) So you’re just gonna have to deal with it as is, and be aware that’s you need to be both careful and patient.

Oh, also, you don’t have to store his hands folded inwards 90° when he’s in vehicle mode; they’re just fine stored as if they’re extended for robot mode.

Jazz’s robot mode (back)- unlike his disguised form- does not nearly as closely resemble his G1 counterpart from 1984. Perhaps the closest comparison might be that the car’s nose, wheel wells, and hood become his upper torso, and that’s about it. While the roof and back of the car still become his legs, they are reoriented to point downwards and are placed on the front of his legs rather than the back. His head, while an original design, does carry one familiar trait- the light blue visor. The visor is transparent, so that when light shines on the back of his head, the visor will glow. (Does it work? It’s a “Transformers Animated” figure- of course it works! And quite clearly too!) While he carries the now-trademarked large chin that all characters do in this series, his gray face is narrow with sharp features, similar to Prowl’s. Because Jazz always appreciated hip-hop and pop culture, one awesome detail they added was a pair of black headphones molded directly into the sides and top of his head over his even more-subtle white flat cap-shaped forehead! Perhaps the most stand-out features of the arms other than their flexibility is the storage clips for the upward-pointing nunchaku on the outside of his elbows, and that his hands are opened up a little rather than being solid fists [which, notably, transforming toys in the “...Animated” line do not utilize nearly as much as its predecessors did].

Notice also that, not only is Jazz the first character toy to have a red Autobot symbol on his chest (all of the Autobots' are red on-screen), but he is the first release to display the winged Autobot logo created for the series which designates him as part of the Elite Guard.

As Jazz is a smooth operator in everything he does, his range of motion is equally fluid and impressive, with ball-&-socket joints in his neck, shoulders, wrists, and hips, and everything else twisting freely, including a waist joint! Perhaps the only objection I have with Jazz is that his ‘headphones’ bump into the back of his neck when turned side-to-side; so when he looks to either side, his head tilts downwards quite a bit, and he can’t really look upwards. The proportions of the figure, also, are only slightly off from his on-screen counterpart- his lower legs are slightly longer than they should be, and his upper legs aren’t long enough, but there is no interruption in style or function to be a problem. While the clips for his nunchaku do indeed shift to that upwards-position in the series, the weapons themselves do not appear- stored internally instead until needed. But here, since they are big enough, their correct orientation has them rising quite a bit beyond the elbows. While poseability is in no way a problem, if you wish, you can remove the weapons and leave their clips open to recreate the more series-accurate look. Perhaps this would be the only consideration of “kibble” I would apply to this figure other than the windshield on his back (which really doesn’t get in the way of anything anyways).

. . .

Jazz has only one weapon feature- two pairs of nunchaku (aka nunchucks), which are stored on the outside of his elbows. They can be easily separated from each other- each pair being tied together with small pieces of white string- and placed in both of Jazz’s hands, though the curved sections will not fit at all.

This is another first for me in the world of Transformers®- I have never own any character by this name before (though I would certainly like to get a G1 ver of him). But I can tell that, like many of the characters from the first season, this one was crafted with a little TLC by the good folks over at Takara, and was brought to life by the wonderful animators over at Cartoon Network. You cannot look at this guy and deny that he is a tribute to the classic hip-hop-bot from the ‘80s, but now with a crafted body to match his personality and legacy. The poseability is awesome, and though he doesn’t have any shooting weapons, the nunchaku, I thought, were a nice change from a blaster or missile launcher or- heaver forbid!- a sword; we haven’t really seen that kind of weapon on a Cybertronian before. Even more-so than some of the other figures I have, the proportions chosen by the animation development team translates very well into toy form. I mean- headphones on a robot? That is an awesome idea, and, again, it fits the character! So, complaints? Other than having a difficult time getting his legs past that windshield when transforming him, not really. So, I give full marks and a high recommendation for the Deluxe-class Autobot Jazz figure. I hate to sound clichéd, but seriously... he rocks!

--Renewing the Charge--

[DISCLAIMER: This last section is not supported, advertised, or endorsed by either Hasbro, DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, or Warner Brothers Records. It is a fan-supported effort completely independent from all companies affiliates with the 2007 film "Transformers".]

Not even a week after "Transformers" entered theaters on July 3rd and became a blockbuster, scores of fans were clamoring for a copy of the original musical score by Steve Jablonsky. However, WB Records said in an official statement that the score would not be released for the foreseeable future. In protest, a fan-supported online petition was set-up to persuade the record company to reconsider. By the end of two months, over 5500 signatures had been recorded (your's truly at #1112).

Victory for the signers was claimed when “Transformers: The Score” was released in October that same year, containing just-shy of one hour of the original score. Jablonsky also personally wrote to the creators of the petition thanking them for their efforts. The CD would go on to become the 32nd best-selling soundtrack on Amazon.com at the time of its release.

However, victory was short lived. Because the CD was so popular, it disappeared from shelves rapidly, and was not restocked. By the end of 2007- a mere two-and-a-half months later- new CDs were no longer being produced, but were still being sought after. Reports of online price scalping were not uncommon when stores ran out, easily selling for double the original prices. (Don't worry- I got my own copy in October, and loved every minute of it!)

. . .

Well, the folks at The Knight Shift who brought you the first petition have come back, and they are saying "Give the people what they want". I recently learned that a new Petition 2.0 is now up, and is accepting signatures once more. This new effort is directed at Warner Brothers Records, and is asking for an extended reissue of "Transformers: The Score", with the potential for additional original tracks to be added.

(Yours truly is petition signer #563.)

If you signed the original petition, I both thank you and ask you to put forth your effort on this new petition as well. If you did not sign the original petition, but got the CD, please sign this new petition. If you are a fan of Steve Jablonsky, please sign this new petition. If you are long-time Trans-fan, or you simply enjoyed the film the movie, then please sign this new petition. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the original CD release, and I want others to share in it as well.

"You ain't heard nothin' yet!"

Optimus was a young and optimistic recruit in the Autobot Academy, wanting to face off against real Decepticons in a battle as part of the Elite Guard. Unfortunately, he missed the war by a few million years, and eventually failed to pass the Academy. His ambitions and dreams crushed, Optimus was instead assigned command of a small maintenance crew for the tedious and boring duty of repairing and cleaning-up the Space Bridge network. But when the Autobot crew accidentally comes across the very powerful, life-giving All Spark which was lost at the end of the war, they are suddenly ambushed by the greatly-feared leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, and his own broken army of experienced soldiers in their search for the legendary artifact. The Autobots get away from the Decepticon warship, and Megatron is destroyed in a fluke explosion, but damage causes their ship to crash on an unknown planet. Optimus Prime and his crew go into emergency stasis lock for 50 years, and reactivate in the future underneath Lake Erie near Detroit, Michigan. The Autobots reformat their alternative forms to match those of Earth vehicles so as to blend in. As they begin to explore Detroit, they come across a human girl named Sari Sumdac, whose father owns the largest robot manufacturer on the planet. When she sneaks aboard their ship to see more of the transforming alien robots, Sari encounters the All Spark, and it rebuilds her electronic key card to carry many of its own powers. With Sari’s help in understanding Earth’s unusual cultures and customs, Ratchet, Prowl, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Optimus Prime swear to protect the All Spark from rogue Decepticons until Elite Guard reinforcements arrive.

It’s Sari’s birthday! As her father ponders what to do with his gift from last year, the robot dog Sparkplug, his secret alien companion, the disabled “Autobot” Megatron, suggests making a robot that will impress Sari with those unusual audio frequencies which humans seem to enjoy- music. And so they collaborate to make Soundwave- a dancing music entertainment system. At the party, Soundwave is a hit, but only a few days later, as the thrill is wearing off, Sari decides to carelessly upgrade the boombox-bot with her All Spark-enhanced key card to make him more interesting. The upgrade works. However, what no one realizes is, Megatron specifically designed Soundwave so that every time Sari upgraded him with the key card from lack of interest, he would become more powerful- soon enough so to become Megatron’s new body. However, as the days go by, and he is upgraded more and more, Soundwave begins to act independently from Megatron’s commands. Now fully aware of himself and with a growing passion against humans for their mistreatment of robots, Soundwave is confronted by Megatron, and decides to join the Decepticons to rid Earth of them. Using his sound frequency control & disruption systems, Soundwave finally upgrades himself into a more powerful armored form using all of the near-by robots in Detroit now that he is a true Cybertronian. Then he directs the majority of robots to attack both humans and the Autobots. What he didn’t count on, though, was Bulkhead and his illogical loyalty to the now-kidnapped Sari and the rest of humanity, and so Soundwave was defeated in a single punch from the giant Autobot. But as Sari and Bulkhead mend their friendship from disputes over the former Soundwave, a small blue and yellow cassette tape player with a Decepticon logo on the cover sits alone in the sewers of the city, calmly and patiently waiting for the chance to free all machine-kind from the oppression of humanity, and destroy the traitorous Autobots...

The voice of Decepticon Soundwave is performed through the use of a vocorder (which renders any spoken words in a mechanical and emotionless monotone) by cartoon-veteran actor Jeff Bennett, who also covers Autobot Prowl and several other semi-regular & guest characters in “Transformers Animated”.

Soundwave’s vehicle mode (back) is something that many have likened to be a futuristic take on the 2004-2006 Scion xB minivan for its unusually-blocky appearance. And to be honest, I agree. The center of the bumper on the front has several non-functional buttons painted gold; these represent a throwback to the origins of Soundwave from the original G1 character from the 1984 TV series, whose alternate form was that of a cassette tape boombox. Here, the gold buttons are indicative of the controls on the front of the boombox. Another indication of his G1 roots is in the implied wheels from a cassette tape on the doors and back, though the latter is not painted in. Some details, such as the various headlights are not painted in even though they are molded in. While his primary coloring is dark blue, Soundwave has unusually bright highlights of neon turquoise, which are gathered on the top and sides of the vehicle mode only. While the contrast is obvious, it is actually rather striking how stand-out the lighter lines really are- almost to the point of glowing! One odd feature, though are his windows- even though they’re darkened transparent ABS, you can’t see light shining through them. (So, if you can’t easily tell that they’re transparent, and they’re too dark to let light through, then what’s the point of making them transparent at all??? Same with the headlights!) Though he doesn’t have one there in the series, Soundwave has a golden Decepticon logo printed onto his hood.

. . .

All that Soundwave does in vehicle mode is roll around. Because of his size, I suspect it would have been difficult to incorporate several small fold-out speakers like he has in the series.

Unlike all but one of the figures I’ve reviewed so far from “Transformers Animated”, Soundwave does not have an assisting Auto-conversion feature. Though it’s not surprising considering his size, other Deluxe-class figures- like Autobots Bumblebee and Prowl- had some kind of assisting feature. But everything on Soundwave is moved by you- no gears, no springs, no levers, no nothing.

If you’re gonna use Auto-conversion a lot in similar-sized Transformers, Takara, then please be consistent about it, huh?

Soundwave’s robot mode (back) is only dedicated to his G1 roots in a small way, compared to most other characters from “...Animated”. While his head has angular features as well as a narrow red sunshade/visor appearance, the only other reference besides his dark blue coloring is the intentional design of the classic cassette tape deck door & controls on his chest. While it again carries a printed gold Decepticon symbol and clear cover, it is non-functional, and does not open up to allow smaller spy robots to be placed inside or removed. The gold-painted tape deck controls, actually, show how dissimilar his transformation is from in the series- a new bank of non-functional buttons was molded onto his chest rather than using the ones on the front grille of his vehicle mode like he’s supposed to. Behind Soundwave’s head, attached to his back are another pair of round neon-blue circles which represent more of his sound-projection arsenal; not unlike the same details on the doors of his vehicle mode/lower arms of his robot mode. However, he loses his trademark shoulder-mounted missile launcher. (Bummer. In the series, before his final upgrade, Soundwave did deploy a missile launcher, but when everyone looked at him, he quickly disguised it as another speaker.) Because his upper torso is rather broad, the disproportionately-long arms are able to freely hang without touching the legs at all. He features open-palm hands which fold out from the forearms, and they droop well below his knees... which they are not shown doing in the series. However, the two back wheels swing around to become more sound speakers, just like they do in the series. His lower legs, also, are slightly shorter than their in-series equivalents, which may explain why his arms appear longer than they should be. The front windows of the vehicle mode form his feet, thus explaining why no light could shine through the transparent plastic- they’re opaque in the center!

His range of motion is pretty good, perhaps only faltering in the feet- which swing a little inwards, but do not tilt forward or backward. Ball-&-sockets are in his knees and ‘lower’ elbow joints. (I’ll say again: his elbows are double-jointed. Whoa-!) Unfortunately, the panels on his lower arms bump into his shoulders, so they’re limited as well. (What a waste.) Soundwave’s head also has this type of joint, but he has no neck to speak of, so he can only look side-to-side effectively. Because of how he transforms, his wrists can bend inwards 180°, so you have some play there as well.

. . .

This set doesn’t come with a built-in special feature. Instead, a non-functional flying-V electric guitar is included, which was not seen in his first appearance. There are pegs on either side of it on top, which can fit into holes on the inside of Soundwave’s lower arms. This way, he can hold the guitar and look like he’s playing it (but without the associated shoulder strap). However, there is a more-obvious reason that this set includes the guitar other than it goes great with a speaker-themed robot. The guitar can transform into a thin-profile flying reconnaissance drone called Laserbeak! This air spy- originally a cassette tape which could fit inside of Soundwave’s chest- was part of the G1 character’s regular arsenal, and is nearly as well known as the boombox-themed Decepticon himself. Laserbeak’s feet can fit into several slots on Soundwave in whichever mode he’s in- as a guitar, on the vehicle mode’s roof; as a bird, on either forearm panel.

What the Instructions *Don't* Tell You

[fanfare sounds]

The Deluxe-class Soundwave set, fortunately, has only two marks in this frustrating category:

• When transforming his chest, the instructions tell you to fold his chest panel forward 180°. However, what they don’t tell you is that the section it is folding up against is also double jointed, and needs to be lifted up and slid backwards to line it up into its proper position. If this doesn’t happen, his chest will hang down lower than it is supposed to!
• More of a minor thing, Laserbeak’s tiny feet also allow him to hang off of Soundwave’s back in robot mode as a guitar because it uses these slots to do the same on the roof in vehicle mode. (Or, if you wanna be cute, he can hang there partially-or-fully transformed in beast mode to give Soundwave a skinny flight pack.) And really, these three available slots on Soundwave’s chassis do not dictate which direction Laserbeak has to fit, so he can face ‘forward’ as easily as he does ‘backward’.

Many people and longtime Trans-fans were once more greatly disturbed by the newest incarnation of those famous shape-shifting alien robots in disguise; for example, turning the famous Optimus Prime into a measly wannabe with no ambitions and trust issues, or the overall design style of merging & graceful lines/curves matching that of other recent cartoons such as Disney’s hugely-popular “Kim Possible” (2002-2007). And yet after a rocky start in trying to win back the minds of the fans, the show has become a hit on its own as much as it is a tribute to the original G1 series from 1984. Plus, “Transformers Animated” is an original American series like “Beast Wars: Transformers” (1996-99) and “Beast Machines: Transformers” (1999-2001) before it, rather than being a dubbed anime production from Japan. The same can be said of the toys thus far in their initial releases. But as word has spread across the Internet, the toys have come to shine on their own- not just for their functionality, but for their absolute and striking similarities to their on-screen counterparts, which has never been as fully successful before- where proportions were usually off, colors were wrong, and functions were off or not mentioned. In other words, after 23 years, we are finally getting in our hands what we see on the screen in a way never seen before in Transformers history.

I’m just gonna come right out the gate and say: this toy is absolutely screaming to be up-scaled into a Voyager-class figure! [He’s also almost got- in my opionion- something of a similar style to the unique electronic-circuitry design from Walt Disney Pictures’ unique live-action film “Tron” (1980) as well!] As a Deluxe-class figure, he’s by far, one of the most out-of-scale figures in the entire line- standing no taller than the [relatively] appropriately-sized Autobots Prowl and Bumblebee; when in fact he is supposed to stand as tall as Bulkhead! Now, of course, several characters in the line are of smaller scales than they’re supposed to be, but this is a very big exception. He’s near flimsy- with disproportionate joints- and has no special feature other than the provided Laserbeak. While Takara has been doing a fantastic job of recreating these toys in the same proportions and features as their on-screen counterparts, this one seems to suffer a bit because he’s so small. While it’s nice to have the air drone return and be able to transform, consider that the larger character’s most-recent predecessor from “Transformers: Cybertron” (2006)- who was also a Voyager-class toy- could carry Laserbeak in his chest container. (Indeed, it would also have been nice if they’d painted in some yellow eyes & beak and silver paneling on the beast-bot other than using just some minor red, and leaving the rest plain ABS black.) While none of the other Deluxe-class figures’ joints can snap, nor can this one’s, but neither do his transforming knee joints, and they tend to swivel about too easily. Otherwise, his poseability is great, the multiple [implied] speakers look cool, and he remains a pale tribute to his more famous G1 predecessor. While I like my Deluxe-class Decepticon Soundwave, I don’t think he’s the best effort that could have been put forward. I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna start wishing really hard that Takara makes him bigger and better for Season Three in 2009...

--Renewing the Charge--

[DISCLAIMER: This last section is not supported, advertised, or endorsed by either Hasbro, DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, or Warner Brothers Records. It is a fan-supported effort completely independent from all companies affiliates with the 2007 film "Transformers".]

Not even a week after "Transformers" entered theaters on July 3rd and became a blockbuster, scores of fans were clamoring for a copy of the original musical score by Steve Jablonsky. However, WB Records said in an official statement that the score would not be released for the foreseeable future. In protest, a fan-supported online petition was set-up to persuade the record company to reconsider. By the end of two months, over 5500 signatures had been recorded (your's truly at #1112).

Victory for the signers was claimed when “Transformers: The Score” was released in October that same year, containing just-shy of one hour of the original score. Jablonsky also personally wrote to the creators of the petition thanking them for their efforts. The CD would go on to become the 32nd best-selling soundtrack on Amazon.com at the time of its release.

However, victory was short lived. Because the CD was so popular, it disappeared from shelves rapidly, and was not restocked. By the end of 2007- a mere two-and-a-half months later- new CDs were no longer being produced, but were still being sought after. Reports of online price scalping were not uncommon when stores ran out, easily selling for double the original prices. (Don't worry- I got my own copy in October, and loved every minute of it!)

. . .

Well, the folks at The Knight Shift who brought you the first petition have come back, and they are saying "Give the people what they want". I recently learned that a new Petition 2.0 is now up, and is accepting signatures once more. This new effort is directed at Warner Brothers Records, and is asking for an extended reissue of "Transformers: The Score", with the potential for additional original tracks to be added.

(Yours truly is petition signer #563.)

If you signed the original petition, I both thank you and ask you to put forth your effort on this new petition as well. If you did not sign the original petition, but got the CD, please sign this new petition. If you are a fan of Steve Jablonsky, please sign this new petition. If you are long-time Trans-fan, or you simply enjoyed the film the movie, then please sign this new petition. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the original CD release, and I want others to share in it as well.

Oil Slick is pretty freakin' awesome by any standard. A must have, even if you don't collect Transformers.

My buddy EVA usually does the Transformers reviews, but I was so psyched about this one that I had to beat him to the punch. Oil Slick is awesome.

Although I haven't been reviewing them, I've gotten most of the Transformers Animated toys. I can't stand the show, and I don't know thing one about the characters, but each and every toy has been sheer awesome.

Oil Slick is a bad guy, a Decepticon. He's got pretty much everything I want in a toy:

Bad-ass cow skull? check.
chains? check.
Spikes? check.
Claws? check.
Transparent dome? check.

Hell, the only thing this is missing is something that glows. And i'm sure an evening with Sanjeev would change that.

Oil Slick comes packaged in vehicle mode, which looks like Lucifer's Chopper. It's a motorcycle from hell. All the wheels turn, and due to the double wide wheels it can stay upright in vehicle mode, unlike most other motorcycle toys.

At the back there are two panels, one on each side, that can open and store black barrels. More on those in a bit. Detail and paint are great in this mode, and the color scheme is one of my favorites.

Transforming to robot mode is very easy, and very obvious. I love how everything has some kind of peg of clip to hold in place. First, the seat is lifted up and then the legs pulled down. The tailpipes bend up to become the feet.

The front wheels separate and unfold down either side of the torso. Clawed fingers extend from inside the wheel well.

The head is exposed by opening a panel on the back and flipping the head up.

Robot mode is awesome. There is some fantastic articulation here, with little touches that they could have skipped but didn't. Its this extra mile that makes all the difference with these. For example, check out the hip joints on Oil Slick. There is actually two joints there on each side, which makes for some phenomenal posing.

Remember those barrels? Those attach to the hands and open. One barrel splits in half and is connected by a CHAIN. The other barrel opens up on one side, presumably to hold some kind of biological agent.

Oh, and there's a third mode too - basically just take Oil Slick in robot mode and... lay him down. Thats it. Come on guys, seriously? Geez.

Oil Slick is basically a heavy metal transformer. Skulls, Spikes, Chains, Tribal tattoos etc... It is as if Bruce Dickinson designed a transformer.

If you see Oil Slick in the store, GET HIM. Seriously. Not kidding.

"Where are Decepticons? Me Grimlock getting hungry!"

Optimus was a young and optimistic recruit in the Autobot Academy, wanting to face off against real Decepticons in a battle as part of the Elite Guard. Unfortunately, he missed the war by a few million years, and eventually failed to pass the Academy. His ambitions and dreams crushed, Optimus was instead assigned command of a small maintenance crew for the tedious and boring duty of repairing and cleaning-up the Space Bridge network. But when the Autobot crew accidentally comes across the very powerful, life-giving All Spark which was lost at the end of the war, they are suddenly ambushed by the greatly-feared leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, and his own broken army of experienced soldiers in their search for the legendary artifact. The Autobots get away from the Decepticon warship, and Megatron is destroyed in a fluke explosion, but damage causes their ship to crash on an unknown planet. Optimus Prime and his crew go into emergency stasis lock for 50 years, and reactivate in the future underneath Lake Erie near Detroit, Michigan. The Autobots reformat their alternative forms to match those of Earth vehicles so as to blend in. As they begin to explore Detroit, they come across a human girl named Sari Sumdac, whose father owns the largest robot manufacturer on the planet. When she sneaks aboard their ship to see more of the transforming alien robots, Sari encounters the All Spark, and it rebuilds her electronic key card to carry many of its own powers. With Sari’s help in understanding Earth’s unusual cultures and customs, Ratchet, Prowl, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Optimus Prime swear to protect the All Spark from rogue Decepticons until Elite Guard reinforcements arrive.

The big but lovable lummox Bulkhead accidentally smashed up some life-sized animatronic dinosaur displays at the drive-through Dino Drive amusement park. Fortunately, Professor Sumdac agreed to take in the damaged robots. As he worked on them in his private lab in Sumdac Tower, his secret alien companion, Megatron, finally made himself known to be functional after 50 Earth years of inactivity, and pledged to help Sumdac by using his superior, um- “Autobot” technology, to help him repair the mechanical animals. Together, they upgraded the animatronic dinosaurs into more independent and sturdy Dinobots. However, Megatron had instead provided the unawares Sumdac with the means to make the Dinobots into powerful drones which then only he could control. For the most part, Megatron’s secret plan worked, and the three rebuilt Dinobots rampaged across Detroit. As expected, the real Autobots intercepted the curiously-autonomous Dinobots. With the help of Sari Sumdac’s All Spark-enhanced key card, they were able to disable the Dinobots, which were then turned back over to Sari’s father. While Prof. Sumdac was out of the lab, Megatron was surprised to find that the three Dinobots were now behaving as if they had living Sparks of their own, which he had not planned for! Convincing the dim-witted Dinobots- now called Grimlock, Snarl, and Swoop- that cars and the Autobots were monsters that had destroyed dinosaurs, the three brand-new Cybertronians challenged the Autobots. Through a hard battle, the Dinobots were finally out maneuvered, and defeated. As their hulks sat waiting to be sent to the scrap yard, the sensitive Autobot ninja Prowl noticed that the Dinobots were giving off signs that they might be more than simple Earthly robots. And so, to help redeem Bulkhead, together they- without Optimus Prime being aware- secretly stole the three Cybertronian dinosaurs to an abandoned island in Lake Erie, and left them there to live in peace with nature using some of Prowl’s holographic technology to shield them. But then, after the two Autobots had departed, Grimlock- who became irritated with a cute bird- suddenly and quite unexpectedly transformed!

. . .

The voice of Dinobot Grimlock is performed by cartoon-veteran actor David Kaye, who also covers Autobot Optimus Prime and Decepticon Lugnut in “Transformers Animated”. While his career spans a wide variety of roles in other cartoon and anime series- including just a few live-action appearances- he is best known in the Transformers franchise for voicing the megalomaniacal Megatron in no less than five separate series; the best, arguably, being his debut performance for the character in the original all-CGI series “Beast Wars: Transformers” (1996-99) and its direct sequel “Beast Machines: Transformers” (1999-2001).

Grimlock’s beast mode (back) is based on a Tyrannosaurus rex, just like his G1 predecessor from 1984; though significantly larger and with more options. The original Grimlock figure (and matching anime character) was drawn at the time in an upright position with his tail dragging near/on the ground; as was thought at the time the G1 series was made as to be how the dinosaur walked about 68 million years ago. The “Transformers Animated” character [and his toy forms] now represents the more-accurate horizontal posturing. And as a Voyager-class toy, Grimlock is now easily double the size of his previous appearances (excluding non-dinosaur alternate modes, of course), with a length of 8¼” (21.1cm) and a height [to the top of his thigh armor] of approximately 4” (10.4cm); the latter being more difficult to determine because of his ball-and-socket hip joints. As was the trend in G1, “...Animated” has all of the Autobots with blue eyes [and the Decepticons’ in traditional red]. Thus, Grimlock here uses transparent-blue plastic for his eyes, which glow when you shine light on the top of his head (Now- does this feature actually work the way it’s supposed to...? Hell yeah! Best one I‘ve seen from this series yet!) Now, being stylized in the format of “...Animated”, Grimlock’s lower jaw is very distorted and far larger than the rest of his head. But, there is also something of an implied grin in there- he knows he’s powerful, and like when smaller things run away in his presence. Moving along the body, some new coloring is present in beast mode that wasn’t in his G1 form, notably the dark red/maroon and gold, and the removal of all silver, yellow, and red. His very tiny forearms return, but this time they hang under his chest rather than to the sides, and are molded in gold ABS. His legs have been completely redesigned to contort around a lot more than the G1’s did. There is also the addition of a new, um... round thingie on the outside of his large thighs. (On the left thigh armor only is a printed silver Autobot symbol.) For a T-rex, however, Grimlock’s feet are slightly smaller than thinner, though they still have four gold claws each. His tail- very broad and thick at the base- slims down very quickly, and is smaller proportionately than a T-rex’s.

There is one big giveaway in beast mode as to his transformable nature, and that is in his chest. While his robot mode’s chest is located between his legs (as was his G1 counterpart’s), his robot mode’s head is clearly visible in the space between his forearms.

The only real poseability in beast mode is in his legs- specifically the ball-&-socket hips and ankles; though the knees can also pitch around a little though this would distort them beyond what would look ‘right’. However, being a Voyager-class figure, Grimlock forgoes a poseable mouth, and instead features a lever-activated jaw- when you press the button on the back of his neck, his jaw drops down! (If the lever on his neck is released, the jaw immediately springs shut. But don’t worry- it won’t hurt ya in the slightest.) Unlike his G1 counterpart, however, Grimlock’s forearms are not poseable, nor is his neck.

Unlike all of the figures I’ve reviewed so far from “Transformers Animated”, Grimlock is the only one that does not have an assisting Auto-conversion feature. Not to spoil anything here--

“Spoil what exactly...?”, you ask.

--but the only ‘special feature’ he has is in his beast mode’s head, and the robot mode’s weapon. Beyond that, you do it all yourself.

One thing about his transformation I will comment on, though, is that it is very similar- though not identical- to his G1 counterpart’s: the tail splits to become his legs, his belly is the robot mode’s chest, his legs become his robot mode’s arms, and his head & forearms end up on his back (though the robot mode arms change differently.)

Grimlock’s robot mode (back) is strongly representative of his on-screen counterpart, but still carries signatures of his G1 predecessor. While his head is all black, the mono eye visor has been switched from the original red to transparent-light blue. (So, dose lightning strike the same place twice- does his visor light up correctly...? Absolutely! Give yourselves a nice big hand over there at Takara!) His torso has been significantly simplified to fit the “...Animated” style, but there are still techy details on his chest underneath a clear-ABS cover with another printed silver Autobot logo. The sides of his beast mode’s chest and head rest on his robot mode’s upper back just like the G1 ver, though they’re oriented differently. His arms, however, are a little too long- with his hands extending to just below his knees! This is the only contrary thing I can find compared to his “...Animated” counterpart, which strikes me as very odd. His legs are always spaced apart a ways due to how he transforms. (Notice the split tip of his tail on the outside of either lower leg, just like the G1 ver.)

For poseability, it’s actually pretty poor compared to all of the other “...Animated” toys I’ve covered thus far. While he has ball-&-socket joints in his shoulders, his arms cannot be spread very outwards away from his body. (Indeed, getting his hands past his lower legs is something you need to remind yourself of since his arms are unusually long.) His elbows can pitch forward 90°, but they cannot turn side-to-side. Because of how he transforms, Grimlock’s clawed hands can open and close, and he has wrist joints which can twist all the way around- a motion which will be used later with his weapon. Because of those long shoulder armor parts, they always bump into the pointed ‘wing’ armor on his back, so I always default the wings to a full-back position rather than spread out as the instructions and animation indicate. The head can twist easily to either side, as can the new swivel waist joint, so those help a little bit later on. The hips, while able to bend side-to-side easily enough, can’t bend forward beyond 45°! But the knees have a full range of motion.

. . .

Grimlock carries a large sword of flames, though it cannot be stored on him in either beast or robot mode. While it can easily be placed in either hand, it is best when put in the right. This is because the sword contains a special pop-out flame feature which can only be activated when the right hand is holding it! This is accomplished by a very small tab in his right palm extending forward into [that large protrusion in] the hilt of the sword when the wrist is turned 90° either left or right.

Early rumors before Grimlock's release said that putting the flaming sowrd into his mouth to replicate his fire-breath was going to be another special feature, but that was abandoned in early prototype stages as too complicated. However, you can still kinda hang it in there loosely if you like...

(Online blogs & forums are offering up suggestions as to how to make the black elbows of his robot mode retract further into the shoulder armor sections so that the hands would eventually properly hang above his knees. This is accomplished by removing the screws on the shoulder armor parts, and then doing some careful sanding/carving to get rid of excess ABS material. This, I’ve read, is one of the more complicated and involved repair jobs that needs to be performed on a “Transformers Animated” figure. Kids- your parents really should do this if you want it changed that badly; don’t go and be idiots and try to do it yourself.)

Many people and longtime Trans-fans were once more greatly disturbed by the newest incarnation of those famous shape-shifting alien robots in disguise; for example, turning the famous Optimus Prime into a measly wannabe with no ambitions and trust issues, or the overall design style of merging & graceful lines/curves matching that of other recent cartoons such as Disney’s hugely-popular “Kim Possible” (2002-2007). And yet after a rocky start in trying to win back the minds of the fans, the show has become a hit on its own as much as it is a tribute to the original G1 series from 1984. Plus, “Transformers: Animated” is an original American series like “Beast Wars: Transformers” (1996-99) and “Beast Machines: Transformers” (1999-2001) before it, rather than being a dubbed anime production from Japan. The same can be said of the toys thus far in their initial releases. But as word has spread across the Internet, the toys have come to shine on their own- not just for their functionality, but for their absolute and striking similarities to their on-screen counterparts, which has never been as fully successful before- where proportions were usually off, colors were wrong, and functions were off or not mentioned. In other words, after 23 years, we are finally getting in our hands what we see on the screen in a way never seen before in Transformers history.

He looks awesome; again- just as if he jumped out of the TV. Beast mode is fantastic, even if a little limited in playability/posing, but I have no problem with what is there. Again, fantastic work on successfully making his eyes glow in both forms! My biggest complaints are both the poor range of motion and extra long arms in robot mode. (I’ve also heard of poor friction in the shoulder ball-&-socket joints, but I haven’t experienced that... yet.) This guy actually makes for a good nostalgic shelf display more that a really awesome toy. I also thought the spring-powered flame feature on his sword was really cool too. So, I still like it, but those two things above really hamper me giving this Voyager-class Autobot Grimlock figure a full five stars. Instead, I’ll give him an even four stars, and say he’s still worth getting. In the words of the famed Dinobot leader-

“Me Grimlock li-i-i-ike...”

--Renewing the Charge--

[DISCLAIMER: This last section is not supported, advertised, or endorsed by either Hasbro, DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, or Warner Brothers Records. It is a fan-supported effort completely independent from all companies affiliates with the 2007 film "Transformers".]

Not even a week after "Transformers" entered theaters on July 3rd and became a blockbuster, scores of fans were clamoring for a copy of the original musical score by Steve Jablonsky. However, WB Records said in an official statement that the score would not be released for the foreseeable future. In protest, a fan-supported online petition was set-up to persuade the record company to reconsider. By the end of two months, over 5500 signatures had been recorded (your's truly at #1112).

Victory for the signers was claimed when “Transformers: The Score” was released in October that same year, containing just-shy of one hour of the original score. Jablonsky also personally wrote to the creators of the petition thanking them for their efforts. The CD would go on to become the 32nd best-selling soundtrack on Amazon.com at the time of its release.

However, victory was short lived. Because the CD was so popular, it disappeared from shelves rapidly, and was not restocked. By the end of 2007- a mere two-and-a-half months later- new CDs were no longer being produced, but were still being sought after. Reports of online price scalping were not uncommon when stores ran out, easily selling for double the original prices. (Don't worry- I got my own copy in October, and loved every minute of it!)

. . .

Well, the folks at The Knight Shift who brought you the first petition have come back, and they are saying "Give the people what they want". I recently learned that a new Petition 2.0 is now up, and is accepting signatures once more. This new effort is directed at Warner Brothers Records, and is asking for an extended reissue of "Transformers: The Score", with the potential for additional original tracks to be added.

(Yours truly is petition signer #563.)

If you signed the original petition, I both thank you and ask you to put forth your effort on this new petition as well. If you did not sign the original petition, but got the CD, please sign this new petition. If you are a fan of Steve Jablonsky, please sign this new petition. If you are long-time Trans-fan, or you simply enjoyed the film the movie, then please sign this new petition. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the original CD release, and I want others to share in it as well.

"Crush the Autobots!"

Video review included!

Two AA batteries are required to operate electronic light-&-sound feature within the toy, and should be replaced by a responsible adult. Two batteries have already been installed in the toy by the manufacturer, and may not need to be replaced immediately.

Optimus was a young and optimistic recruit in the Autobot Academy, wanting to face off against real Decepticons in a battle as part of the Elite Guard. Unfortunately, he missed the war by a few million years, and eventually failed to pass the Academy. His ambitions and dreams crushed, Optimus was instead assigned command of a small maintenance crew for the tedious and boring duty of repairing and cleaning-up the Space Bridge network. But when the Autobot crew accidentally comes across the very powerful, life-giving All Spark which was lost at the end of the war, they are suddenly ambushed by the greatly-feared leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, and his own broken army of experienced soldiers in their search for the legendary artifact. The Autobots get away from the Decepticon warship, and Megatron is destroyed in a fluke explosion, but damage causes their ship to crash on an unknown planet. Optimus Prime and his crew go into emergency stasis lock for 50 years, and reactivate in the future underneath Lake Erie near Detroit, Michigan. The Autobots reformat their alternative forms to match those of Earth vehicles so as to blend in. As they begin to explore Detroit, they come across a human girl named Sari Sumdac, whose father owns the largest robot manufacturer on the planet. When she sneaks aboard their ship to see more of the transforming alien robots, Sari encounters the All Spark, and it rebuilds her electronic key card to carry many of its own powers. With Sari’s help in understanding Earth’s unusual cultures and customs, Ratchet, Prowl, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Optimus Prime swear to protect the All Spark from rogue Decepticons until Elite Guard reinforcements arrive.

As Megatron departed his warship to claim the long-lost All Spark for himself, that scheming, back-stabbing, arrogant, and incompetent traitor Starscream secretly planted a bomb on him, which then exploded while he was aboard the Autobots’ defenseless maintenance ship. The blast threw Megatron out of the vessel, and the powerful Decepticon was lost as he fell into the atmosphere of Earth. Starscream finally had his victory, and claimed leadership over the Decepticon army, despite the mournful protestations of Lugnut who had just lost his rightful master, and the doubts of the other loyal soldiers aboard. But what none realized was that Megatron survived his plummet through the air... sort of. His chassis crashed near Detroit, Michigan where a young man named Isaac Sumdac was working in his wooden shack on amateur-built robots. Sumdac found a few scattered parts, including a hand and the head, but none of it was functional. He then spent the next 50 years reverse-engineering the alien robot’s technology, using it to create a strong corporation called Sumdac Systems in the late 21st century. Without the human being aware, Megatron slowly regained consciousness, and learned about the highly-primitive human technology. Then he made Professor Sumdac aware of his existence, but he tricked him by saying he was a friend of the Autobots, and didn’t want his existence revealed until the two of them could make a new body for him. Over the next few months, as more Decepticons arrived on Earth looking for him, Megatron secretly experimented with Sumdac’s robots, trying to make a more powerful body on his own, but all failed. Finally, his fanatically-loyal servant Lugnut was able to steal a poorly-protected key that had been modified by the All Spark from the Autobots, and Megatron used it to rebuild his recently-recovered body into a more powerful form. With the modified key card in his possession, Megatron can finally leave the foolish Sumdac behind, and go on to take the real All Spark once and for all. Oh- and smash Starscream’s traitorous Spark into the next millennium…

. . .

The voice of Decepticon Megatron is performed by veteran voice actor Corey Burton, who also covers Autobot Ratchet, and several other semi-regular & guest characters- including a cameo by his better known G1 character Spike Witwicky- in “Transformers Animated”. But he is currently known for providing numerous official voice recreations of a wide range of Disney characters in both direct-to-DVD videos and in the theme parks, as well as other announcer-like performances.

Megatron’s vehicle mode (back) is that of a two-seat futuristic twin-rotor heavy attack helicopter. Vectored thrust nozzles at the back end of the tail boom, combined with the side-by-side paired main rotors, eliminates the need for a small counter-rotation rotor in back; but he still has two jet engines for forward movement along the top between the rotor nacelles. Though it didn’t turn out quite as smoothly as I would have liked, his robot mode’s arms are supposed to be widely-spaced engines and missile-launching pods which fit directly beneath the rotors. (Unlike in the series, they don’t actually launch anything in toy form.) The cockpit has enough room for two human occupants (were this vehicle mode not the inherent form of a Cybertronian, of course), and the forward seat can just be made out below the transparent-red canopy. (Indeed, in the season-one finale, Megatron places a kidnapped Isaac Sumdac inside of the cockpit.) And below the nose is Megatron’s trademark fusion cannon, now as a powerful chin gun turret.

For features in vehicle mode, there are plenty to go around; I’m putting off talking about the fusion cannon until later when I review the robot mode. To get it out of the way, he has three-point landing gear, though none of them are retractable in vehicle mode. However, if you remove the fusion cannon [and the attached part of the armor, which reveals Megatron’s head], there is an extra landing gear directly under the nose which can be swung down. Now, here’s the cool thing… The rotors are connected together inside those nacelle wings via an internal mechanism. So, even though there is no motorized feature in this Leader-class toy, when one of the rotors is turned by you, the other one automatically spins in the opposite direction at the same time so that you don’t have to! (Awesome!)

. . .

The other is the light-and-sound function which is limited to just Leader-class figures from the “…Animated” line. This is accessible in both modes, and functions differently for both, but is activated the same way. In vehicle mode, when you press on the transparent-red Decepticon symbol on the bottom, several red LEDS around it and one in the cockpit will flash on-and-off several time. The sound of a jet engine powering-up is heard, followed by rotors turning, and then a power-down sound. Now, here’s the kicker: if you hold down the activation button the whole time, the spinning-rotor sound and flashing LEDs will continue for nearly a full minute! (In other words, if you can position your hands just right, you can get the sound F/X and spin the rotors both at the same time. Neat, huh?)

Automorph Technology is a special feature which was introduced in the “Transformers: Armada” (2005) line, and returned in “Transformers: Cybertron” (2006); though it was not called such until the debut of the toy line based on the first live-action film “Transformers” (2007). What Automorph does is- depending on which toy is involved- use a series of internal levers & gears, triggers, and buttons to move one part of the figure without you having to move it yourself; it automatically transforms for you. Sometimes, an Automorph feature will be electronically-powered, though this is reserved for special larger sets only.

For Megatron, there is only one Automorph features, though it’s not identified specifically as such:

• To bring the shoulders up against the upper torso, after the rotors are removed, the support wings are tilted upwards- bringing them to a horizontal position as opposed to them being diagonal in vehicle mode. The joint system for this is shaped like an “X” from the front- moving the right wing shifts the left arm, and vice versa.

Unfortunately, this mechanism does not snap into position in either mode, so when holding or posing him you have to be wary that you don’t shift either one. (Whether this is a quality control issue I cannot say, but I haven’t heard of anyone else’s snapping in place.)

Megatron’s robot mode (back)- like much of “Transformers Animated” in general- takes a lot of his inspiration from the original G1 TV series “The Transformers” (1984-86). Several things come to mind. First, his coloring- dark gray, black, and red, with a pale face, red eyes, and a purple Decepticon logo on his chest. (Unfortunately here, that logo is transparent-red. Grr…) His head features the same blocky helmet-like design and mouth, but adds some new things like vents and small circular details on either side of his jaw. His upper torso is broad, and has a similar shape in the chest to that of the original G1 character; though with some additional transparent-red details for effect on the toy. The speaker for his sound effects is cleverly hidden in his mid-torso in such a way that does not add anything that isn’t on the character in the series. The arms are entirely new, and are more oriented towards the “...Animated” design-style. While traditionally Megatron’s huge fusion cannon was always on his right arm- as can be recreated here- he is shipped out from the manufacturer with it on the left, which means that it can be removed and is interchangeable between them. While no longer the separated grip & trigger of a German-built Walther P38 [U.N.C.L.E. Special], his legs, nonetheless, maintain a very similar shape. On his back hang the nose section, wings, and jet engines from the vehicle mode which do appear in the series in this fashion (hence I do not consider them kibble).

Megatron has some unusual posturing which will later affect his range of motion. The most obvious would be how he leans forward when standing straight. The problem, though, is that while his ankles tilt inwards very generously, they don’t pitch forward or backward, so you can’t do any fancy posing using his lower legs; just twisting at the knees. However, you can see that by leaning forward like this, he off-sets all that stuff on his back so that he doesn’t become back heavy. (I’m undecided if this is a good thing or not.) Though his elbows are turned inwards, from a side view the entire lower arm permanently pitches forward; turning the elbows forward 90° only increases the effect. Because of how high his upper arms raise, they come to within a hair’s width from those wings; and since there is no locking mechanism, sometimes they will bump into them when things accidentally shift around. So in some ways, his range of motion is a bit limited compared to smaller-sized figures. But, most of his joints ratchet, and there are no ball-and-socket joints to wear out quickly. His head, waist, upper elbows, wrists, and knees all free-turn, as do the little black hip guards.

. . .

For special features, this Leader-class figure has several. The easiest one to use is the light-&-sound. Simply press in on the red Decepticon logo on his chest, and Megatron-

• says, "Where is the All Spark?"
• says, "Crush the Autobots!"
• laughs manically

-in that order while the red LEDs in the cockpit, chest, and his head flash on-and-off. (I’m still trying to decide if that’s really Mr. Burton saying those lines, or a generic sound-alike.) Each time you depress the Decepticon logo/button, there is an internal mechanism which moves Megatron's face- his mouth opens and his brow drops! His face only moves when you press on the button, otherwise it remains neutral. (Unfortunately, if you try to make him 'talk' by pressing and releasing rapidly, you always get the SFX to activate. What I've found is that lifting up on the back of his head moves his face around without activating the effects.) Another feature that activates only when you press the button is that his mouth opens, and his brow drops to one side a little! The second feature is his fusion cannon. Now this one actually fires a single transparent-red projectile, but to load it, you insert it, and then pull on the back of the cannon to cock it. Then when you press the tiny black trigger, the back of the cannon springs forward, and the missile shoots out! Also, as mentioned earlier, the cannon can snap onto either arm, but the preference is for the right. And the last feature is that both main rotors can transform into two separate hollow-center swords that can be held in both hands!

Many people and longtime Trans-fans were once more greatly disturbed by the newest incarnation of those famous shape-shifting alien robots in disguise; for example, turning the famous Optimus Prime into a measly wannabe with no ambitions and trust issues, or the overall design style of merging & graceful lines/curves matching that of other recent cartoons such as Disney’s hugely-popular “Kim Possible” (2002-2007). And yet after a rocky start in trying to win back the minds of the fans, the show has become a hit on its own as much as it is a tribute to the original G1 series from 1984. Plus, “Transformers Animated” is an original American series like “Beast Wars: Transformers” (1996-99) and “Beast Machines: Transformers” (1999-2001) before it, rather than being a dubbed anime production from Japan. The same can be said of the toys thus far in their initial releases. But as word has spread across the Internet, the toys have come to shine on their own- not just for their functionality, but for their absolute and striking similarities to their on-screen counterparts, which has never been as fully successful before- where proportions were usually off, colors were wrong, and functions were off or not mentioned. In other words, after 23 years, we are finally getting in our hands what we see on the screen in a way never seen before in Transformers history.

This is unquestionably an homage to a legendary and beloved character, with so many of his physical traits carrying over from the original TV series and being used in a respectable way. That he was so popular, and has such staying power in the minds of fans says a lot as well. But then this version of the Decepticon leader has his own qualities- a twin-rotor helicopter mode, paired swords, and an “I’m not playing around anymore” aura. Perhaps my complaints might lie in his transformation and vehicle mode. I thought the tail boom was kinda weak looking, and could’ve used some beefing-up for such a powerful character. The transformation seems to be built around his torso- obviously it needed to in order to avoid messing around with the electronics therein, but it seems like a cheap attempt to get around providing us a more complex transformation. I mean, you need the fusion cannon part in order to cover the head! That’s too old school for me as a likable come-back. Same with the arms becoming weapon pods- if they could have extended further away from the body somehow, the transformation would have been more convincing; not to mention having a [better] locking mechanism for that feature as well! I will say, though, that I really like how well the rotors turn compared to each other- they don’t grind or protest like some previous figures from other lines did (*cough*movie Scorponok*cough*). The feet are a little irritating that they don’t bend back & forth, but I can live with that. What I can’t figure out is why they turn inwards so easily! As to the electronic feature, I think they could have used a plain white LED, and then been able to use a purple Decepticon logo like he has in the series. While it’s nice to have his face move around a bit, you can’t really play with it without always triggering the SFX, which is kinda annoying. Closing this out, he’s got a few quirks, but this Leader-class Megatron still rocks hard. So go get ‘im!

--Renewing the Charge--

[DISCLAIMER: This last section is not supported, advertised, or endorsed by either Hasbro, DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, or Warner Brothers Records. It is a fan-supported effort completely independent from all companies affiliates with the 2007 film "Transformers".]

Not even a week after "Transformers" entered theaters on July 3rd and became a blockbuster, scores of fans were clamoring for a copy of the original musical score by Steve Jablonsky. However, WB Records said in an official statement that the score would not be released for the foreseeable future. In protest, a fan-supported online petition was set-up to persuade the record company to reconsider. By the end of two months, over 5500 signatures had been recorded (your's truly at #1112).

Victory for the signers was claimed when “Transformers: The Score” was released in October that same year, containing just-shy of one hour of the original score. Jablonsky also personally wrote to the creators of the petition thanking them for their efforts. The CD would go on to become the 32nd best-selling soundtrack on Amazon.com at the time of its release.

However, victory was short lived. Because the CD was so popular, it disappeared from shelves rapidly, and was not restocked. By the end of 2007- a mere two-and-a-half months later- new CDs were no longer being produced, but were still being sought after. Reports of online price scalping were not uncommon when stores ran out, easily selling for double the original prices. (Don't worry- I got my own copy in October, and loved every minute of it!)

. . .

Well, the folks at The Knight Shift who brought you the first petition have come back, and they are saying "Give the people what they want". I recently learned that a new Petition 2.0 is now up, and is accepting signatures once more. This new effort is directed at Warner Brothers Records, and is asking for an extended reissue of "Transformers: The Score", with the potential for additional original tracks to be added.

(Yours truly is petition signer #563.)

If you signed the original petition, I both thank you and ask you to put forth your effort on this new petition as well. If you did not sign the original petition, but got the CD, please sign this new petition. If you are a fan of Steve Jablonsky, please sign this new petition. If you are long-time Trans-fan, or you simply enjoyed the film the movie, then please sign this new petition. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the original CD release, and I want others to share in it as well.

"Power is its own justification."

Optimus was a young and optimistic recruit in the Autobot Academy, wanting to face off against real Decepticons in a battle as part of the Elite Guard. Unfortunately, he missed the war by a few million years, and eventually failed to pass the Academy. His ambitions and dreams crushed, Optimus was instead assigned command of a small maintenance crew for the tedious and boring duty of repairing and cleaning-up the Space Bridge network. But when the Autobot crew accidentally comes across the very powerful, life-giving All Spark which was lost at the end of the war, they are suddenly ambushed by the greatly-feared leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, and his own broken army of experienced soldiers in their search for the legendary artifact. The Autobots get away from the Decepticon warship, and Megatron is destroyed in a fluke explosion, but damage causes their ship to crash on an unknown planet. Optimus Prime and his crew go into emergency stasis lock for 50 years, and reactivate in the future underneath Lake Erie near Detroit, Michigan. The Autobots reformat their alternative forms to match those of Earth vehicles so as to blend in. As they begin to explore Detroit, they come across a human girl named Sari Sumdac, whose father owns the largest robot manufacturer on the planet. When she sneaks aboard their ship to see more of the transforming alien robots, Sari encounters the All Spark, and it rebuilds her electronic key card to carry many of its own powers. With Sari’s help in understanding Earth’s unusual cultures and customs, Ratchet, Prowl, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Optimus Prime swear to protect the All Spark from rogue Decepticons until Elite Guard reinforcements arrive.

Here is a bot who is destined to lead the Decepticons. In fact, he will be the greatest leader of the Decepticons in history! It’s just that no one- least of all their current leader, Megatron- knows this yet. He is cunning, ruthless, sneaky, always looking for the advantage, and above all the model idea of back-stabbing. But for one obvious fault- Starscream is rather incompetent, and tends to jump the gun. But, so long as he functions, his quest for absolute power will be second only to Megatron’s… which absolutely annoys and enrages Starscream all the more. He didn’t believe in the fabled All Spark that his soon-to-be-destroyed leader did, but after thousands of stellar cycles of searching, Megatron finally found it aboard a simple Autobot maintenance ship. As the Decepticon leader stepped off his warship, Starscream patted him on the back and wished him good hunting… at the same time planting a small-but-powerful explosive on him. After the explosion destroyed Megatron and sent the helpless Autobot ship careening out of control, Starscream celebrated and finally claimed the title of ruler of the Decepticons! But the shockwave from the explosion damaged the Decepticon ship, and the others scattered. 50 years later, after pushing the warship to its limits looking for the All Spark again, Starscream crashed it onto the Moon, and then headed for Earth. While the primitive species on the planet was no match for him, he decided to play along and scan one of their air interceptor jets for his alternate mode so that he could sneak up on the unsuspecting Autobots. His plan worked, and he became the first Decepticon to hold the All Spark in his hands! But in his arrogance, Starscream victory was short-lived, and he was fooled by a game of Keep-Away, and once more lost the All Spark to the untrained Autobots when the ancient artifact decided to defend itself. But no matter- he may not have contact with the Decepticon army now, but Megatron is still gone, and he is now their undisputed leader. And Starscream is no coward or prone to giving up easily once he’s set his fowl mind to achieving something. Now, if bots like Lugnut would just stop questioning everything he does…

. . .

The voice of Decepticon Starscream is performed by cartoon-veteran actor Tom Kenny, who also covers Dr. Isaac Sumdac and several other guest characters in “Transformers Animated”. (Perhaps he is best known for providing the voice for the title role in “SpongeBob SquarePants”.)

Starscream’s vehicle mode (back) is based on one of the future Air Force’s high maneuvering jet interceptor fighters. These were part of an acrobatic display one day meant to honor Detroit’s newest heroes, the ignorant and puny Autobots. Starscream wanted to crash the party, so he initiated scanning and replication and snuck into the flying formation. Remember the praise I had for the design of the Voyager-class Decepticon Lugnut, in that there was little-to-no kibble on his undercarriage compared to almost all past flying Transformers toys? Well, the undercarriage kibble returns with a vengeance- not even attempting to hide the robot parts, just like all of Starscream’s predecessors. Guess I was wrong about that new level of evolution for the toys… And up front, the other obvious giveaway is the layered appearance of the nose which is lacking from his “…Animated” counterpart (Having the nose cone being positioned inside an engine intake is a familiar trait of some real jet fighters, such as the former Soviet Union’s Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21.) The transparent-orange cockpit canopy is divided into two halves by black paint only, and there is a molded airbrake directly behind it painted slightly paler than the grayish purple ABS. While inside the cockpit has a small seat with control panel in front of it, larger details just outside of it are six air intakes, each with its own set of air flow fins. While the bottom intakes are not painted, the top-front ones have a slightly darker-painted paneling, and the ones directly behind are all-black painted. As to the forward-swept wing design, which science-fiction has often uses to make air- and spacecraft look cool (as is certainly the case here), perhaps Starscream here derives his dorsal profile from the real Russian-built semi-stealthy Sukhoi Su-47 prototype- with the exceptions of the loss of the forward canard wings, and the twin vertical stabilizers [the tails] being pointed forward instead. (Intentional or not, it’s actually kinda creepy how similar Starscream’s vehicle mode is to the non-production Su-47 technology demonstrator.) Though his jet exhaust nozzles are not right next to each other like the Su-47’s, they still incorporate ball-and-socket joints for thrust vectoring - a real technology which tilts the nozzles up and down for increased agility!

Starscream actually has quite a few movable features in vehicle mode compared to Lugnut. There is the aforementioned thrust vectoring nozzles. He also has three-point landing gear which can be raised & lowered; the back two flipping about nearly 135°! Though the landing gear are unusually close to each other, he’s not back heavy or prone to tipping over because of this. Between the engines underneath are two spring-powered missile launchers, each of which holds a single transparent-orange projectile. Now, Starscream uses his trademarked null ray cannons which hang under each wing in the series, much like his G1 counterpart from 1984, but these were changed to missile launchers on the toy; probably to give him a notable Voyager-class action feature. But here’s the cool part- though normally stored pointed diagonally backwards, each launcher has a friction joint which then allows you to flip them around to point forward under the nose! And since the triggers are on the sides of the launchers, they can be fired in either position. When pointed forward, the launchers will touch the ground, but won’t lift the wheels up; they will not touch when facing backwards.

Automorph Technology is a special feature which was introduced in the “Transformers: Armada” (2005) line, and returned in “Transformers: Cybertron” (2006); though it was not called such until the debut of the toy line based on the first live-action film “Transformers” (2007). What Automorph does is- depending on which toy is involved- use a series of internal levers & gears, triggers, and buttons to move one part of the figure without you having to move it yourself; it automatically transforms for you. Sometimes, an Automorph feature will be electronically-powered, though this is reserved for special larger sets only.

For Starscream, there are three Automorph features, though they are all interconnected in some way:

• As the waist section & legs are flipped under/ forward, the smaller section of the nose will retract backwards into the fuselage to make room for the rotating lower torso. Starscream’s head is hidden under the cockpit (though you can’t see it), and will shift upwards at the same time. This will-
• -cause the arms to extend out on their own via a gear system inside the retracting nose.
• When the nose is fully retracted and the waist has been snapped into position by you, and the arms have extended far enough, the wings and back dorsal paneling will spring downwards where the arms used to be stored; this also reveals Starscream’s head. While they flip down automatically, you have to finish the process by snapping the wing assembly over the retracted nose landing gear, which locks it in place.

While it’s really cool to see everything move on its own, you have a hard time finding places to hold on as all this happens. To transform him back to vehicle mode, you have to change him in the reverse order described here. The arms and nose will always move by themselves, but you have to start the process by holding the wings upright as you move the arms into place. It’s hard to describe, but there are actually two shafts inside of the torso/nose- one for the nose itself which is connected to that hip joint, and the other- connected to the shoulders- which Starscream’s head is attached to. So, if you move the shoulder Automorph joint too early, the nose section will pop his head off of his ball-and-socket neck! You need to keep track of what is going on inside for it to all work properly; if unchecked, his head will just hang around inside the cockpit while disconnected, and you won’t notice until you change him back to robot mode!

Starscream’s robot mode (back) is definitely an homage to his G1 self, but with the modern interpretation of the “...Animated” design-style. As this style is more reminiscent of a caricature, Starscream’s head- or rather, his chin- is stretched out quite a bit. His eyes- and, surprisingly- mouth are transparent-orange, so when light shines through the back of his head, they light up. Does it work…? Yes! Though with his pale face, he’s kinda Halloween ghost-like with the orange instead of the red eyes from the series. There is also a rather unusual high collar around his head, which doesn’t appear in the series, and doesn’t seem to have any useful function other than aesthetics. Strange… The upper torso remains the same as many of his predecessors- with the red engine intakes on either side of his chest, cockpit in the center, and up-turned wings on his back. In this case, the top-most engine intakes from the jet mode are now used as back-up thrusters. One modification, though is the addition of those stabilizer fins on his back, which are not present in his TV form. (Though shown extended in the instructions, I don’t see any need why they have to be extended in robot mode, which would closer match the TV version of Starscream. They’re also a real pain to transform in either mode.) His arms are actually kinda buff-looking. Each hand features the four poseable fingers which move as one part, and thumbs which move independently. One modification from most of Starscream’s predecessors is the placement of his missile launchers on his forearms as opposed to them being traditionally located on his upper arms. (Again, he uses the traditional null ray energy cannons which are mounted to his upper arms in the series, not on his lower arms as here.) His legs- particularly in the thighs and knee armor- have that same distorted style; with the rear landing gear merging in perfectly with the front of the lower legs instead of sticking out like a sore thumb. My only problem with the legs might be that those two tails in back just fold over sideways but still stick out; if they had wrapped around or folded into the legs somehow, I might have liked this arrangement a little more. The feet are both inverted “V” shapes- with ball-and-socket joints in the center of them (also transparent-orange ABS) to subtly imply jet engine thrust.

Special features are limited to just the missile launchers on his forearms. One thing about the transparent-orange projectiles themselves which I have not read anywhere else is that they have subtly-molded jagged teeth and eyes like a shark on the warhead(s)! Starscream’s range of motion is just awesome! Notable highlights include poseable fingers (the ones on mine are quite loose), and the only ball-and-socket joints in his neck and ankles. Let me say that again- poseable ball-and-socket ankle joints! There are ratcheting joints in his shoulders (one axis), hips (two), and knees (one), with all the others swiveling about freely. Perhaps the only thing missing are wrist joints, but I’m certainly not complaining about what’s already available here! Some people will mistakenly position the knees tilted forward against the knee guards as when they unfold out from vehicle mode, but they are supposed to be tilted backwards one notch like this. While pushing them forward may be more show-accurate, they toy cannot balance properly and will tilt over frequently. (Adjusting the ankles can compensate a little for the former if you must insist.) The high collar around Starscream’s head does not prevent it from turning side-to-side 180°, but it does impair looking up a lot.

I didn't think I'd have to whip this out with a "Transformers Animated" figure, but it is time for the return of...

What the Instructions *Don’t* Tell You

[fanfare warbles from old age, being overplayed]

(EVA_Unit_4A, looking irritated at the original full-sized jukebox, kicks it)

[fanfare plays properly]

Better. (*looks warily at jukebox*)

There's a rather important feature here that I completely overlooked. And it didn't appear in the series, so I knew-not to look for it.

• When in robot mode, if you push the missile launchers [individually] down along the lower arm toward the hands, two panels along both sides of his forearms will flip open. Reversing the process is easy enough, but whatever you do, do not press on the panels; they will pop-off and they are not designed to take that kind of force! I suspect that these are hidden cannons of some kind, but there's no way to tell since there's no real detail under them to determine this.

I suggest that you remove the missile projectiles before you slide the launchers forward, so that you don't break them or accidentally set them off in your eye.

Special thanks to CDX-user Mike for pointing this unmentioned special feature out to me!

Many people and longtime Trans-fans were once more greatly disturbed by the newest incarnation of those famous shape-shifting alien robots in disguise; for example, turning the famous Optimus Prime into a measly wannabe with no ambitions and trust issues, or the overall design style of merging & graceful lines/curves matching that of other recent cartoons such as Disney’s hugely-popular “Kim Possible” (2002-2007). And yet after a rocky start in trying to win back the minds of the fans, the show has become a hit on its own as much as it is a tribute to the original G1 series from 1984. Plus, “Transformers: Animated” is an original American series like “Beast Wars: Transformers” (1996-99) and “Beast Machines: Transformers” (1999-2001) before it, rather than being a dubbed anime production from Japan. The same can be said of the toys thus far in their initial releases. But as word has spread across the Internet, the toys have come to shine on their own- not just for their functionality, but for their absolute and striking similarities to their on-screen counterparts, which has never been as fully successful before- where proportions were usually off, colors were wrong, and functions were off or not mentioned. In other words, after 23 years, we are finally getting in our hands what we see on the screen in a way never seen before in Transformers history.

This is a bot we all know and love. He’s easily recognizable as the back-stabbing second-in-command from the G1 series; perhaps the only thing missing from that interpretation is his cowardliness in facing off against Megatron. But he remains incompetent in being able to truly achieve his goals; often relying on the most fragile of alliances which- not unexpectedly among Decepticons- often backfire and frequently break at the drop of a hat. But, this toy also looks like the air-commander, even if he does not hold this rank in “Transformers Animated”. There is no doubt that it is him- the cockpit in the chest, thrusters in his feet (awesome idea with the ball-and-socket ankles!), and up-turned wings on his back. Oh, and that arrogant, devious grin. (It’s not quite as bright as I would like when light shines through, but it’s certainly better than a complete failure. Also, why couldn’t his eyes have been red like they are in the series? I miss that.) Yes, as some have pointed out, there are a few quality-control issues- on mine, his fingers are very loose to the point of almost falling off, the panels on his back which fold out into fins are hard to change (and frequently pop-apart as a result), and the back landing gear are incredibly difficult to pull out from the engines. (I accidentally pulled both of the back gear out the first time I tried to flip them down; both of them, the first time! I really have to force them, but my fingernails are unequal to the task. Some sand paper may be in order here soon...) Oh, yeah, and the return of the undercarriage kibble was really disappointing in spite of the awesome work done with Lugnut; I know we get it all the time, but I was hopping that the design(s) of the series had changed sufficiently to finally eliminate that frequent flaw. On the other hand, as with most of the toys from the series [I’ve seen so far], this one is very close in appearance to his TV counterpart, right down to the expression on his face! While he doesn’t have boring laser cannons- instead using missile launchers- I was surprised and quite impressed to find those shark-like faces on the heads of the projectiles. An easy-to-miss detail, but that was awesome! Same with the pop-out arm panels; they don't really have any significant detail, but that they're in there was pretty awesome too! The Automorph is rather cool, but it gets tricky when you have no where to hang onto that’s stable as he is transforming. And while they aren’t on the wings like in the series, I like that the launchers can be folded around to fire in either direction. This incarnation of Decepticon Starscream was one of the first toys from the new series that I saw, and I immediately fell in love with it. I strongly recommend getting him!

Oh... and please forgive me my little GERWALK moment here; I couldn't resist.

--Renewing the Charge--

[DISCLAIMER: This last section is not supported, advertised, or endorsed by either Hasbro, DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, or Warner Brothers Records. It is a fan-supported effort completely independent from all companies affiliates with the 2007 film "Transformers".]

Not even a week after "Transformers" entered theaters on July 3rd and became a blockbuster, scores of fans were clamoring for a copy of the original musical score by Steve Jablonsky. However, WB Records said in an official statement that the score would not be released for the foreseeable future. In protest, a fan-supported online petition was set-up to persuade the record company to reconsider. By the end of two months, over 5500 signatures had been recorded (your's truly at #1112).

Victory for the signers was claimed when “Transformers: The Score” was released in October that same year, containing just-shy of one hour of the original score. Jablonsky also personally wrote to the creators of the petition thanking them for their efforts. The CD would go on to become the 32nd best-selling soundtrack on Amazon.com at the time of its release.

However, victory was short lived. Because the CD was so popular, it disappeared from shelves rapidly, and was not restocked. By the end of 2007- a mere two-and-a-half months later- new CDs were no longer being produced, but were still being sought after. Reports of online price scalping were not uncommon when stores ran out, easily selling for double the original prices. (Don't worry- I got my own copy in October, and loved every minute of it!)

. . .

Well, the folks at The Knight Shift who brought you the first petition have come back, and they are saying "Give the people what they want". I recently learned that a new Petition 2.0 is now up, and is accepting signatures once more. This new effort is directed at Warner Brothers Records, and is asking for an extended reissue of "Transformers: The Score", with the potential for additional original tracks to be added.

(Yours truly is petition signer #563.)

If you signed the original petition, I both thank you and ask you to put forth your effort on this new petition as well. If you did not sign the original petition, but got the CD, please sign this new petition. If you are a fan of Steve Jablonsky, please sign this new petition. If you are long-time Trans-fan, or you simply enjoyed the film the movie, then please sign this new petition. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the original CD release, and I want others to share in it as well.

"Through stillness you will find the truth."

Optimus was a young and optimistic recruit in the Autobot Academy, wanting to face off against real Decepticons in a battle as part of the Elite Guard. Unfortunately, he missed the war by a few million years, and eventually failed to pass the Academy. His ambitions and dreams crushed, Optimus was instead assigned command of a small maintenance crew for the tedious and boring duty of repairing and cleaning-up the Space Bridge network. But when the Autobot crew accidentally comes across the very powerful, life-giving All Spark which was lost at the end of the war, they are suddenly ambushed by the greatly-feared leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, and his own broken army of experienced soldiers in their search for the legendary artifact. The Autobots get away from the Decepticon warship, and Megatron is destroyed in a fluke explosion, but damage causes their ship to crash on an unknown planet. Optimus Prime and his crew go into emergency stasis lock for 50 years, and reactivate in the future underneath Lake Erie near Detroit, Michigan. The Autobots reformat their alternative forms to match those of Earth vehicles so as to blend in. As they begin to explore Detroit, they come across a human girl named Sari Sumdac, whose father owns the largest robot manufacturer on the planet. When she sneaks aboard their ship to see more of the transforming alien robots, Sari encounters the All Spark, and it rebuilds her electronic key card to carry many of its own powers. With Sari’s help in understanding Earth’s unusual cultures and customs, Ratchet, Prowl, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Optimus Prime swear to protect the All Spark from rogue Decepticons until Elite Guard reinforcements arrive.

Of the five members of Optimus Prime’s crew, perhaps only Prowl is as misplaced for his talents and potential by being assigned to the small Space Bridge maintenance crew. He is also the shortest of the five Autobots. Trained in the special Cybertronian martial arts of Circuit-Su, Prowl has an inner calm and focus that may make him seem uptight or unconnected, but this is merely the strength of his mental discipline to weed out chaos from the outside world to see the truth. A bot of few words and quiet action, he nonetheless prefers to act alone, thinking others as too amateurish or slow, even though he still cares inwardly for all life. His unexpected arrival on Earth opened Prowl’s highly-tuned sensors and mind to an entirely different realm of existence from that on Cybertron, and has led him to a new appreciation for things not artificial- when not on patrol in his disguised form as a police motorcycle, preventing the gentle giant Bulkhead from accidentally destroying something, or chasing after Bumblebee and Sari during one of their hair-raising schemes, he can be found meditating in tall trees in isolation away from the bustle and noise of Detroit. His ability to create holograms also allows increased isolation when he turns himself invisible for short periods of time. But when roused to action, Prowl is able to quickly analyze any situation before rapidly executing a calculated & efficient series of punches, cuts, and kicks; aided only by a set of triple-edged shurikens, and paired backpack thrusters which allow him to jump very high.

. . .

The voice of Autobot Prowl is performed by cartoon-veteran actor Jeff Bennett, who also covers several other semi-regular & guest characters in “Transformers Animated”, including the Autobots' leader Ultra Magnus, and Soundwave.

Prowl’s vehicle mode (back) is that of a police motorcycle, which Teletraan-1 scanned with a sensor probe when the Autobots awoke 50 years after crashing into Lake Erie. Unlike most of the Cybertronian characters’ vehicle modes in “…Animated”, Prowl’s is not nearly as distorted compared to real street-legal motorcycles; perhaps a human might not be able to touch the ground casually without tipping [him] over first since he may be a bit too tall, but it really isn’t that noticeable. This is a fine testament to the crews over at Hasbro, who were able to keep his motorcycle form so close to the one seen on-screen and yet be able to transform into the equally recognizable robot mode. There are some smaller details that I can’t shoot & highlight clearly with my camera (damned auto-focus...) that deserve recognition- the gray-painted fuel tank cap on top, small independently-twisting handles (not as a merged handlebar), and beneath the windshield are three molded gauges with their indication pins pointing in different directions! Beneath the large gold-painted fuel tank, where the motor would be, there is a tiny ribbed section that could resemble external cooling fins for said motor. As with the flattened windscreen, the headlights- though appearing dark- are transparent. Because this is a police motorcycle, there are transparent-red and -blue plastic parts behind the seat which represent strobe lights. (In the series the colored lights are one in front of the other, not side-by-side as they are here.) And finally, there is a silver Autobot symbol printed on the nose just below the windscreen.

Both of Prowl’s wheels can spin freely, though he certainly can’t stay upright if you roll him and then let go! To compensate for this a little, rather than give him flattened tires (which most motorcycle Transformers™ usually do), there’s a tiny kickstand which can be raised & lowered on the left side, which will just keep him upright on a hard flat surface. (Don’t even bother with carpet.) While Prowl’s front wheel can wiggle side-to-side a tiny bit, this is unintentional and unavoidable because of the ball-and-socket joint(s) inside there.

Automorph Technology is a special feature which was introduced in the “Transformers: Armada” (2005) line, and returned in “Transformers: Cybertron” (2006); though it was not called such until the debut of the toy line based on the first live-action film “Transformers” (2007). What Automorph does is- depending on which toy is involved- use a series of internal levers & gears, triggers, and buttons to move one part of the figure without you having to move it yourself; it automatically transforms for you. Sometimes, an Automorph feature will be electronically-powered, though this is reserved for special larger sets only.

For Prowl, there are two Automorph features, though only one of them is directly involved in his transformation:

• Not really much of an Automorph feature, as the windscreen is rotated down onto his lower body and the sides of engine coves slide upwards, Prowl’s head emerges from beneath the gas tank at the same time. The panel that usually coves his head has a slight spring to it, and will gently close back up; however, it’s not very strong, so you still end up pushing it back in place yourself anyways. You will have to open and hold the panel again as you reposition Prowl’s head in changing things back.

The other is for use in his robot mode only:

• Each of his wheels/legs has a single ‘fat’ shuriken (aka a ninja throwing star) snapped on to it. While these are accessible in both modes, they are used only in robot mode. You have to snap the shurikens off yourself, and then, holding them by the top and bottom only, you can push on one of the three points in the center. As one point is pulled out, the other two will fold out at the same time via that internal gear. (Yeah- I know that the blades can keep folding back in the opposite direction, but they’re only supposed to extend outwards to their widest point, not shrink back down.)

The only other things worth mentioning in his transformation is that the instructions say to rotate around the strobe lights, but you don’t need to since they don’t do this in either the series or any promotional photos of the toy itself. Also, when flipping his lower legs forward, they will not stop where they’re supposed to be! Though there is resistance in the joint(s), you have to decide what position is best around that 180° point. (Why they did that I don’t know, but I find it very odd and careless of Hasbro to do that.) And you need to remember to twist those small black handles inwards towards each other as the last step in transforming him. You’ll have to tilt Prowl’s (generous) chin back to do this. (If, like mine, there’s a very minor manufacturing flaw, you might not be able to retract/extend them all the way, so you’ll have to improvise their final positions a little. Don’t force them!) Finally, always remember that Prowl’s right leg becomes his front wheel, and vise versa.

Prowl’s robot mode (back) is compact, efficient, curvy, and thin; characteristics very befitting a ninja robot. It also has the distinct shapes and proportions of his “…Animated” counterpart; looking like he literally jumped off of the screen. Like the original G1 Autobot character called Prowl (who was a black and white police cruiser), his head has a pair of curved gold-painted antennae, but his eyes are a metallic-blue sunshade visor. And below his visor is his very long dark gray chin, complete with an indented mouth in a slight frown! His chest is the nose and windscreen of the motorcycle mode, but the booster wings on his back are from the side engine covers. The gas tank and rider’s seat come to rest on his back and butt, respectively. Each arm has two reasonably tight ball-and-socket joints for the shoulders and elbows, with each colored-half of the strobe light assembly resting on the back of the forearms. The tan-painted hands cannot be posed. His tiny waist and hips have three ball-&-socket joints, with his non-existent lower torso and upper legs being molded in tan ABS. The wheels from the vehicle mode come to rest inside of his lower legs, with the unused shurikens snapped in place on the outside of both wheels. And finally, his feet feature the last two ball-&-socket joints in the toy. The two shurikens can be removed and placed in his hands by wedging the points in there ‘til they stick.

Oddly, because of how his lower legs curve towards each other, his legs cannot be posed together pointing straight down. Because of this, his feet do not rest flat on the ground, which leaves him open to easily tilt over. He’s not really top-heavy, just hard to balance on those unstable feet. And due to how things are shaped, it’s a little tricky to reposition his toe joints because they rub up against the inside of his lower legs, so posing him there is also tricky. But there is no kibble to speak of on this toy- everything fits exactly where it should and the boosters are right where they’re supposed to be, so they don’t count. His range of motion, otherwise, is outstanding, including full head & waist rotation… with one exception. There are two gold-colored ABS panels on his thighs which prevent his knees from turning beyond 45°! But, if you prefer to keep him intact, you can ‘fake it’ by bending the wheel transformation joints. It may not look right, but it helps more than taking an X-acto knife to poor Prowl.

(Online blogs & forums are offering up suggestions as to how to compensate for those badly-designed knee joints. The common option is to very carefully cut away a sliver of those gold panels. Kids- your parents really should do this if you want it changed that badly; don’t go and be idiots and try to do it yourself.)

This set also comes with a rather unusual accessory- a traffic light on a string. What this has to do with the character that warrants its inclusion is beyond me. Prowl does indeed rip out a traffic light for use once in the first season, but it was a one-time thing. He can hold the string easily enough, or by carefully wedging the plastic end-piece between his thumb(s) and forefingers. (Doing the latter may eventually break off a thumb, so I’d advise against this.) Otherwise- like me- you’ll just keep this in the box or on the shelf, unused.

Many people and longtime Trans-fans were once more greatly disturbed by the newest incarnation of those famous shape-shifting alien robots in disguise; for example, turning the famous Optimus Prime into a measly wannabe with no ambitions and trust issues, or the overall design style of merging & graceful lines/curves matching that of other recent cartoons such as Disney’s hugely-popular “Kim Possible” (2002-2007). And yet after a rocky start in trying to win back the minds of the fans, the show has become a hit on its own as much as it is a tribute to the original G1 series from 1984. Plus, “Transformers: Animated” is an original American series like “Beast Wars: Transformers” (1996-99) and “Beast Machines: Transformers” (1999-2001) before it, rather than being a dubbed anime production from Japan. The same can be said of the toys thus far in their initial releases. But as word has spread across the Internet, the toys have come to shine on their own- not just for their functionality, but for their absolute and striking similarities to their on-screen counterparts, which has never been as fully successful before- where proportions were usually off, colors were wrong, and functions were off or not mentioned. In other words, after 23 years, we are finally getting in our hands what we see on the screen in a way never seen before in Transformers history.

Several times on CDX, I have made comments to the effect that some of the smaller pieces in my collection are often my favorites. This is another example of this. Yeah- with all these ball-&-socket joints, you’re prone to have a few irregularities when you transform him, but the range of motion can’t be argued against. Nor can his thin body shape; this guy really is a Cybertronian ninja. Only flaws I can find is those lower leg joints that bend too far than they should, the knees don’t bend far enough back due to those gold panels, it’s a little tricky to pose his feet, and rearranging the legs when transforming him back can be a real pain in the butt especially when you try to put the right knee into that hole under the nose. (Hips are a little loose; nothing a little at-home remedy can’t fix, like clear nail polish or carefully-applied superglue for additional friction.) But, otherwise, I really like this guy. And to be honest, I don’t want to see a larger version of him, even if it meant more accessories and details. (Seriously, why was that non-functional traffic light included? It’s really puzzling and useless.) This really is one of those times where a character toy is suited right at the size it is. For just the first wave from “Transformers Animated” toys, this will probably be one of my top favorites of the whole line. And so if I really like it, then I will highly recommend that you get Autobot Prowl. You will not regret it!

--Renewing the Charge--

[DISCLAIMER: This last section is not supported, advertised, or endorsed by either Hasbro, DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, or Warner Brothers Records. It is a fan-supported effort completely independent from all companies affiliates with the 2007 film "Transformers".]

Not even a week after "Transformers" entered theaters on July 3rd and became a blockbuster, scores of fans were clamoring for a copy of the original musical score by Steve Jablonsky. However, WB Records said in an official statement that the score would not be released for the foreseeable future. In protest, a fan-supported online petition was set-up to persuade the record company to reconsider. By the end of two months, over 5500 signatures had been recorded (your's truly at #1112).

Victory for the signers was claimed when “Transformers: The Score” was released in October that same year, containing just-shy of one hour of the original score. Jablonsky also personally wrote to the creators of the petition thanking them for their efforts. The CD would go on to become the 32nd best-selling soundtrack on Amazon.com at the time of its release.

However, victory was short lived. Because the CD was so popular, it disappeared from shelves rapidly, and was not restocked. By the end of 2007- a mere two-and-a-half months later- new CDs were no longer being produced, but were still being sought after. Reports of online price scalping were not uncommon when stores ran out, easily selling for double the original prices. (Don't worry- I got my own copy in October, and loved every minute of it!)

. . .

Well, the folks at The Knight Shift who brought you the first petition have come back, and they are saying "Give the people what they want". I recently learned that a new Petition 2.0 is now up, and is accepting signatures once more. This new effort is directed at Warner Brothers Records, and is asking for an extended reissue of "Transformers: The Score", with the potential for additional original tracks to be added.

(Yours truly is petition signer #563.)

If you signed the original petition, I both thank you and ask you to put forth your effort on this new petition as well. If you did not sign the original petition, but got the CD, please sign this new petition. If you are a fan of Steve Jablonsky, please sign this new petition. If you are long-time Trans-fan, or you simply enjoyed the film the movie, then please sign this new petition. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the original CD release, and I want others to share in it as well.

"Enough talk. It's time for action!"

Optimus was a young and optimistic recruit in the Autobot Academy, wanting to face off against real Decepticons in a battle as part of the Elite Guard. Unfortunately, he missed the war by a few million years, and eventually failed to pass the Academy. His ambitions and dreams crushed, Optimus was instead assigned command of a small maintenance crew for the tedious and boring duty of repairing and cleaning-up the Space Bridge network. But when the Autobot crew accidentally comes across the very powerful, life-giving All Spark which was lost at the end of the war, they are suddenly ambushed by the greatly-feared leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, and his own broken army of experienced soldiers in their search for the legendary artifact. The Autobots get away from the Decepticon warship, and Megatron is destroyed in a fluke explosion, but damage causes their ship to crash on an unknown planet. Optimus Prime and his crew go into emergency stasis lock for 50 years, and reactivate in the future underneath Lake Erie near Detroit, Michigan. The Autobots reformat their alternative forms to match those of Earth vehicles so as to blend in. As they begin to explore Detroit, they come across a human girl named Sari Sumdac, whose father owns the largest robot manufacturer on the planet. When she sneaks aboard their ship to see more of the transforming alien robots, Sari encounters the All Spark, and it rebuilds her electronic key card to carry many of its own powers. With Sari’s help in understanding Earth’s unusual cultures and customs, Ratchet, Prowl, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Optimus Prime swear to protect the All Spark from rogue Decepticons until Elite Guard reinforcements arrive.

Bumblebee has quite the ego, and the speed to back it up, but he makes for an excellent counterbalance to Bulkhead’s clumsiness and uncertainness, which makes them a great team and best friends. Driven by a need for speed and the urge to prove himself despite his small stature, Bumblebee is frequently bored when it comes to others’ need for thinking out a situation; he is a bot of action and will charge forward regardless of the danger. But despite being the self-proclaimed “fasting thing on wheels”, he still cares if his friends are in trouble or hurt, even if he may not know why. And now, this human girl, Sari, has become a rather poor influence for Bumblebee. Both love action, are fearless, and enjoy testing each other to achieve the next level of… whatever they can come up with. Rarely nowadays will you not find one without the other close behind. In fact, it was Sari who found a pair of used rocket thrusters and encouraged Bumblebee to upgrade himself with them, much to the concern & irritation of medic Ratchet.

. . .

The voice of Autobot Bumblebee is performed by voice and TV actor Bumper Robinson, who also covers several other characters in “Transformers Animated”, including the triple-changing Decepticon Blitzwing and the aggressive human businessman Porter C. Powell.

Bumblebee’s vehicle mode (back) is that of a small yellow 2-door coupe with an off-center black racing stripe. This is something that irked Detroit police Captain Fanzone- who rather detests technology at his old age- quite a bit because Teletraan-1 chose his small yellow 2-door coupe for Bumblebee’s alternate form! Though his vehicle mode is designed in the style from “…Animated”, the distortion isn’t all that noticeable- perhaps in the slightly forward-slanted roof & hood, making him a little pointed from a side view, and the trunk raised up quite a bit, but not as much as in the series. But honestly, I could easily see this car becoming the shape of a real mini-van in the not-too-distant future (such as a smaller 2-door version of the Ford C-Max)! But, Bumblebee is not a minivan in the series, he is a compact car. Though they’re hard to see on the nose (even for me!), his narrow pentagon headlights are painted gold. All of his windows are a dark transparent ABS, but they’re blocked in front and back by internal yellow plastic. The side windows, however, offer glimpses at the compacted robot parts inside- clearly showing that there are no seats or steering wheel inside. Because the parts for his windows are rather large, there’s a good share of yellow paint added to cover up the excess areas of the roof and door frames. Running from the front bumper to the small spoiler on the back is an off-center black racing stripe. The stripe is broken, however, by the little red strobe light atop the roof; this too is painted, and is not transparent. (The plastic beneath the red paint is transparent, but it would be the wrong color.) And printed onto the left side of Bumblebee’s back bumper is a small silver Autobot symbol.

For features, Bumblebee can, well, roll about. No more, no less. However, the set comes with the same paired booster rockets which Sari gave to Bumblebee early on. So that they look cool in toy form, they are molded in transparent-blue ABS, and then partially painted silver. The boosters can be slipped into holes in the back windows, recreating where they areare in the series. When not in use, the boosters just need to be set aside separately.

Unlike most of the toys from “Transformers Animated”, Bumblebee does not have an Automorph feature of any kind; you have to move everything yourself. The only thing that might classify would be the black spring attachment levers on the back of his lower legs, which keep the roof panels tight against them.

Also notable- and something that I’ve heard several people complain about- is that Bumblebee’s transformation is not completely authentic to his on-screen counterpart. Just like his G1 predecessor from the original 1986 cartoon, and his 2007 Classics remake, Bumblebee’s roof in “…Animated” becomes his chest. However for this toy, the roof becomes the back of his lower legs. So in order to give him a more proportionate chest, a false chest was designed to compensate, also eliminating the strobe light which would stick out otherwise. The false chest can been seen when you turn him over, and it is under the back bumper where a spare tire might be kept.

Bumblebee’s robot mode (back), for a smallish bot, isn’t quite as compact or efficiently solid as fellow Autobot Prowl. Attacking this kinda backwards, his legs & feet- though shaped like they are in the show from a side view (small at the knees & upper legs, and growing wider at the feet & ankles)- have the roof of the car mode sticking out at weird angles on the back side of them. Same with the toe parts, which hang off of small black shafts for the ankle joints. (The placement of two of the screws on his lower legs do match some techy-looking circles appearing there on the series.) Also, the car’s doors, minus the windows, look like small shields on his arms, which they don’t in the series. His hands are open-palm. The upper legs, upper arms, torso and head, however, are in correct proportion. He even has a confident lopsided little smirk on his face; though there is no movable face shield like in the series. Because his chest is a false part (as explained above), both the front and back windows from the car mode are smaller; while the back one beneath his chin is painted, the front one on his belly is a transparent-blue band that wraps around the yellow plastic beneath. (For the latter, it can pop-off, so you can easily re-attach it with no problems. Discreetly adding modeler’s glue would make it stay on permanently.) The back upper windows are repositioned on his back. Though red in the series, a new printed gold Autobot symbol sits on his chest; the silver one from his back bumper can still be easily seen on the back of his left shoulder.

For features, Bumblebee still has the boosters, which can remain attached throughout transformation, and they now appear on his back. (Like Prowl now, he can use these for rocket-powered high jumping, though neither can still achieve true sustained flight.) While Bumblebee’s paired Energy Stinger weapons are featured here, they don’t change or look the same way as they do in the series; the hands flip down here into the upper arms to make room for them. However, the transparent-blue points can still touch each other. When not in use, they are retracted along the insides of his lower arms. His eyes are transparent-blue, and use light-piping so that when light shines on the back of his head, his eyes glow. Does it work this time? ...Yes! And very well too! Aside from the stingers not remaining flush, his range of motion is still good, with ball-&-socket joints in his neck, shoulders, hips, and ankles, and free-turning joints in his neck, both arm joints, waist, and both knees joints. Because of the dual joints in his shoulder, his arms can be brought closer together to make the combined Energy Stinger. He can even look straight up, though this is mostly because of how he transforms. However, the elbows cannot twist side-to-side. And oddly, though his knees can swivel side-to-side, the joints are hampered by the tabs on the back of his knees, so posing them is limited to simple pitching up-and-down motion.

(Online blogs & forums are offering up suggestions as to how to make the stingers more flush with the forearms when retracted so that they don’t bump into anything. There are a pair of very tiny yellow tabs inside each arm at the stinger’s joint that can be cut away. You couldn’t unscrew the arms to do this because the stinger’s joint covers one of the screws, so a small X-acto/modeler's knife would be needed. They are really tiny, but they’re also really hard to get to. Kids- your parents really should do this if you want it changed that badly; don’t go and be idiots and try to do it yourself.)

Many people and longtime Trans-fans were once more greatly disturbed by the newest incarnation of those famous shape-shifting alien robots in disguise; for example, turning the famous Optimus Prime into a measly wannabe with no ambitions and trust issues, or the overall design style of merging & graceful lines/curves matching that of other recent cartoons such as Disney’s hugely-popular “Kim Possible” (2002-2007). And yet after a rocky start in trying to win back the minds of the fans, the show has become a hit on its own as much as it is a tribute to the original G1 series from 1984. Plus, “Transformers: Animated” is an original American series like “Beast Wars: Transformers” (1996-99) and “Beast Machines: Transformers” (1999-2001) before it, rather than being a dubbed anime production from Japan. The same can be said of the toys thus far in their initial releases. But as word has spread across the Internet, the toys have come to shine on their own- not just for their functionality, but for their absolute and striking similarities to their on-screen counterparts, which has never been as fully successful before- where proportions were usually off, colors were wrong, and functions were off or not mentioned. In other words, after 23 years, we are finally getting in our hands what we see on the screen in a way never seen before in Transformers history.

Though he’s shaped the same way, how he transforms is slightly different, and there’s some noticeable kibble on the lower arms and back of the lower legs. It’s done well here, but it’s an obvious change from the series’ version. Plus, the Energy Stingers don’t look or transform quite the same way. I was a little let down by the lack of side-to-side motion in his elbows, but it’s okay, and I can see how that may have been hard to pull off here. There are a few tributes in the design. Becoming a small car is the same as the G1 Bumblebee’s vehicle mode being a Volkswagen Beetle (which cannot be done anymore due to recent trademark laws), but there are too many differences between the two cars to make any comparisons beyond just their size. And the character’s trademark tiny antennae on his head return as well, though only very small cones. (With that grin, those little horns make him positively devilish, huh?) The other tribute is from the life-action film “Transformers” (2007) which came out the preceding year- in that incarnation of Bumblebee, his vehicle mode (a fifth-generation 2008 Chevrolet Camaro) had two black racing stripes, but here he just has the one set off-center. Actually, if you compare with the series’ version, the stripe is actually along the left side of his chest & leg, not the right as on the toy; and there is no stripe on his toe, but rather on his lower leg. Also, to add to the detail, painted panel lines were added on how lower torso and upper legs to match that in the series. (A nice idea, but I thought molded lines would’ve been equally sufficient.) I have no complaints about the vehicle mode; it looks just fine. Including the boosters (which he secretly kept, against Optimus’ orders, BTW) was a great touch, and I really appreciated it. They may seem like just another accessory, but since they appear in the series it makes them more connected to the character than just another random special feature. Transforming him is one of those things where everything has to be in perfect alignment or things hang up on edges and other parts, so take it slow the first few times and really learn how to do it right. Aside from those few small objections, this is still a great toy. So I highly recommend getting Autobot Bumblebee! He is the smallest, roundest... and yellowest thing around on wheels.

--Renewing the Charge--

[DISCLAIMER: This last section is not supported, advertised, or endorsed by either Hasbro, DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, or Warner Brothers Records. It is a fan-supported effort completely independent from all companies affiliates with the 2007 film "Transformers".]

Not even a week after "Transformers" entered theaters on July 3rd and became a blockbuster, scores of fans were clamoring for a copy of the original musical score by Steve Jablonsky. However, WB Records said in an official statement that the score would not be released for the foreseeable future. In protest, a fan-supported online petition was set-up to persuade the record company to reconsider. By the end of two months, over 5500 signatures had been recorded (your's truly at #1112).

Victory for the signers was claimed when “Transformers: The Score” was released in October that same year, containing just-shy of one hour of the original score. Jablonsky also personally wrote to the creators of the petition thanking them for their efforts. The CD would go on to become the 32nd best-selling soundtrack on Amazon.com at the time of its release.

However, victory was short lived. Because the CD was so popular, it disappeared from shelves rapidly, and was not restocked. By the end of 2007- a mere two-and-a-half months later- new CDs were no longer being produced, but were still being sought after. Reports of online price scalping were not uncommon when stores ran out, easily selling for double the original prices. (Don't worry- I got my own copy in October, and loved every minute of it!)

. . .

Well, the folks at The Knight Shift who brought you the first petition have come back, and they are saying "Give the people what they want". I recently learned that a new Petition 2.0 is now up, and is accepting signatures once more. This new effort is directed at Warner Brothers Records, and is asking for an extended reissue of "Transformers: The Score", with the potential for additional original tracks to be added.

(Yours truly is petition signer #563.)

If you signed the original petition, I both thank you and ask you to put forth your effort on this new petition as well. If you did not sign the original petition, but got the CD, please sign this new petition. If you are a fan of Steve Jablonsky, please sign this new petition. If you are long-time Trans-fan, or you simply enjoyed the film the movie, then please sign this new petition. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the original CD release, and I want others to share in it as well.