Authentics Bravo Optimus Primal

The authentics line of Transformers gets a bad wrap, and that's 100% deserved as most of them are complete and utter garbage, and yet, I love them. I don't quite know why but I've always had a soft spot for the dollar general gang, I even have a nearly complete collection of them! However one from this bunch is a bit different, he's... actually good! And that toy is Optimus Primal.

Unlike nearly all the other authentics Primal looks very good. The sculpting on him is top notch, especially the fur.

The techno detail on him is very good as well, like the pistons on his legs and his robot feet

The whole chest

He even has little guns molded on his forearms!

And the head sculpt is beautiful

Only problem I have with it is its lack of paint, and that problem extends to the rest of the figure too. The little paint that they were allowed to use was used really well, used in just the right spots to break up the solid black.

His posability is also a few steps beyond his fellow authentics featuring both knees and elbows, a surprisingly rare sight in the authentics line. These joints allow him to get in some pretty good looking poses

The only major issue with his articulation is how limited his elbows are, they're only able to move like 30⁰.

He transforms exactly how you'd expect him to, nothing groundbreaking here.

The resulting gorilla is very well realized. One of the reasons I suspect why this figure is so much better than the rest of the authentics is how similar the robot and gorilla modes are, it's way easier to get a human shaped thing into a gorilla than it is to get it into a car.

Because of the elbow issue mentioned earlier Primal can't to the chest beating thing, which is a big detractor for a gorilla toy.

The head sculpt for the gorilla mode is also very good, and the lack of paint doesn't take anything away from it.

Same goes for the gorilla chest

Overall Bravo Optimus Primal is a great little toy, for only $5 you can certainly do worse, if you see this guy out in the wild, treat yourself and pick him up

Animated Activator Ratchet

The animated Activators are a surprisingly good assortment of toys, some people say they're similar to the modern one-step figures but I feel they are more closely related to the Basic figures of Beast Wars.

Today we're looking at Activator Ratchet. Ratchet is a very good looking toy, and like all animated toys, looks very close to the show.

The detail is simple but elegant, just like the show! The front of the van on his chest especially is very nice looking, the simple details of the headlights and winch really make it feel complete. The only thing I don't really like about it is the the panel over Ratchet's head, but I can forgive that easily.

The head sculpt Ratchet has is perfect, it replicates the show flawlessly. I love the tired expression he has, shows off his personality amazingly.

His posability is another thing that makes it separate from one-step changers, having actual articulation. For the size of the figure and the time it was released it has pretty good articulation, allowing it to do some nice looking poses.

His transformation is just one of those kind that you just love to do over and over again. With how simple it is you can do it in a matter of seconds, and it only takes one button press (plus flipping some parts out) to get him back into robot mode.

Ratchet's alt mode is a futuristic ambulance and it is presented fantastically here.

If you like animated and you've been skipping out on the Alternators go ahead and buy a few, they're usually pretty cheep as well

Legacy Core Shockwave

The core class figures we've been getting have been great for the most part, with modern engineering small scale transformers have been better than ever before, and that no different with today's review, Legacy Core Shockwave.

Core class Shockwave is an incredible representation of my favorite transformer of all time whilst also being the best figure of Shockwave at this scale.

The amount of detail that they crammed onto this guy is nothing short of amazing with these panel lines, vents, and other techno stuff he has to offer. Also those Decepticon logos on his shoulders are unbelievable with how small they are.

The head sculpt Shockwave has is just simply perfect.

The articulation Shockwave has is fantastic, allowing it to get in many dynamic poses. 

His transformation is simple but fun, resulting in an alt mode, like most other modern interpretations of Shockwave, is not a laser gun, he insisted turns into a smaller version of his leader class siege toy, except with a massive radar dish on top.

I honestly prefer the spaceship rather than the goofy laser gun he was in G1, but this figure actually has an homage to his original mode with a flip down landing gear that doubles as a handle for larger figures.

Core class Shockwave is a fantastic figure of my favorite character. Just the whole lineup of core class toys are great, if you've been on the fence about them you should totally give em a try! Double so because they're only like 10 bucks.

ROTF Deluxe Smokescreen

Repaints or redecos will always be apart of Transformers, redecos are a great way to squeeze every bit of money out of a mold. The most notorious offenders of this are the seekers, who usually have around 6ish toys per mold, if not more! But one of the more surprising toys who has a lot of redecos is the 2007 Deluxe Jazz mold, which was used for over 10 years. The latest one being released in the 2018 line, movie the best.

Now today we're looking at a Jazz redeco from the ROTF toyline, Deluxe Smokescreen.

Smokescreen has all of the silver from Jazz replaced with this beautiful dark blue color with red accents making him way more interesting to look at than Jazz is.

The details on this guy are amazing, I love all the random techno stuff he has, from his inner legs to his chest.

One thing I don't really like is how jank his arms are, because of his forearms being just two panels folded on top of each other it just results in them being very hollow and ugly, those weird hands don't help either.

Smokescreen's head sculpt is absolutely amazing, with a great helping of light piping.

Smokescreen's posability is very limited, the way the arms are formed make it impossible to get him into a lot of poses.

His transformation is fairly simple, it does have this one interesting part where his arms folds out to become the hood, which I already complained about earlier.

He turns into this great looking Pontiac Solstice. The red and white stripes on it really make it look way more interesting than the plain silver of Jazz.

ROTF Smokescreen is a pretty good redeco of a pretty good figure, is it better than the original deco? That's for you to decide.

Cyberverse Warrior Dead End

I see Cyberverse get a lot of hate, but I actually quite liked the show! And the toys were pretty good too. In that toyline they had the Warrior class, a cheaper lineup featuring most of the characters you would want, but they were, for the most, very good! Just simple transformers fun, just like the guy we're looking at today, Warrior Dead End.

This figure actually closely represents the on screen model pretty accurately, baring the head being the wrong color. Despite that he looks great, the red is vibrant and grabs your attention and the white breaks it up giving it detail.

The head sculpt looks fine, as mentioned before the outer part of the head should be black, but honestly it doesn't bother me really, other than that I really like the expression he has, I don't know why. It's just a neutral face, but I like it.

Like all other Warrior figures he does have a little gimmick on the go, if you push down his left arm his right will spring up, making it look like a quick draw, thankfully it doesn't interfere with his articulation.

Speaking of which, his articulation is pretty good, it's not missing anything important like knees or elbows like some of other Warrior figures are.

Dead End's transformation is simple, no real surprise there, another non-surprise is that the windshield is a faux part, no real big deal, just kinda annoying.

His car mode is just an average nondescript sports car.

Could use more paint. Not much else to say about it.

Overall Dead End is just a fun little guy. I totally recommend this dude. If you want him I'm pretty sure he's still being sold on Amazon, same with a few other of the Warrior toys if you want them too.

ROTB Voyager Optimus Prime

The ROTB mainline has been pretty good so far, and most of the gimmick toys are fairly good. But if you just wanted a good old fashioned transformer without any gimmicks the "core" line up is here for you. Which just doesn't really fit in, because if you just wanted good toys of these characters you'd just get studio series which are not only higher quality, but the same price as these.

Nonetheless mainline Voyager Optimus Prime is a fantastic figure.

This figure was actually based off of a earlier design of the ROTB Prime, but I can't really tell the difference between that and the final one anyway.

The detailing on this guy is amazing, especially in that lower body area, just some great techno stuff

The paint is a bit sparse on him but it still looks great, just wish most of it wasn't this model kit gray

His head sculpt is certainly Optimus Prime 

Which is to say it looks fantastic.

His head actually has some light piping, but for some Primus forsaken reason they painted over it, some light can still get through but it's not the same.

Prime's posability is insane, it has everything you'd want, and more. It has all the stuff you'd expect from a really good figure, like waist swivel, ankle pivot, but also has stuff that's usually only on things like masterpiece like an upper torso swivel and a goddamn ab crunch, all of this combines to make a figure that is an absolute dream to pose, I only have one real issue with its articulation, his head is only on a swivel, so he can't look up and down, not that big of a deal but still annoying.

Transformation is pretty standard Optimus Prime stuff, no real surprises here.

The truck mode looks fantastic. Most Optimus toy's truck modes look the worst at the back, and that's no different here, but it is handled better than most. And it has a trailer hitch!

Overall this figure is amazing, but you probably shouldn't get it, the studio series version of this guy looks way better and is the same price, but I suppose that's subjective, so who am I to stop you?