Transformers Review – Cryo Scourge (Cybertron Ultra)

Intro:

            In the Galaxy Force series, the Transformers race were said to have inhabited various worlds throughout the universe, and the Transformers of these worlds were led by a Convoy; i.e. Cybertron by Galaxy Convoy, Earth (Live Convoy), Speedia (Nitro Convoy), Gigalonia (Megalo Convoy) and Animatros (Flame Convoy). There were certain attributes of these Transformers that connect them to their home world.

            The Transformers on Speedia, for example, all have alternate modes that have elements of speed or racing; while those from Gigalonia were either extremely huge or extremely diminutive, and came with alternate modes that were associated with constructions.

            On Animatros, all Transformers there chose to have beast modes as alternate mode, and their leader, Flame Convoy is their most fearsome leader. In the Japanese fiction, he isn’t exactly evil, even though he did align himself with the Decepticons for the major part of the series. In the Japanese series, he was portrayed to be a type of leader that has his own specific code of honor – the survival of the fittest and only the strongest should rule.

            Flame Convoy, or Scourge in the American fiction, transforms into a land-based fire breathing dragon in the Takara release. In the US, Hasbro decided to release an ice-based dragon instead – Cryo Scourge – citing a mutation as a cause.

            While the name sounds okay, I would’ve preferred if the name would’ve been Blizzard Convoy, or even Cryo Convoy. It would’ve sound cooler.

            But then again, it might just be me. Anyways, rather than continue on rambling, I might as well get on with the review, and also seeing as how 2012 is the year of the Dragon (based on the Chinese Lunar Calendar), it’s only apt that we review Cryo Scourge.

Alternate Mode:

           Now, in case you haven’t noticed by now, Cryo Scourge transforms into a humongous ice-based land dragon. So instead of spewing fires, I reckoned he should be breathing out freeze wave to freeze everything in sight – neat power to have.

            Being an Ultra-class figure means he has some bulks to show. From head to the tip of his tail, he’s about 14-inches long. 

            His head sculpt is neat, and all those pent-up anger and rage clearly shows. 

            Articulation-wise: the lower jaw opens and closes; the head displays minor nodding movements; the shoulders ratchets 360°; front knees are on ratcheting joints as well; the front claws flip down and back up; the hips ratchets 360° as well; the back knees ratchets; the ankles are on ratcheting hinges and rotate as well; and finally the lower half of the tail can move up and down, albeit very tightly.

            Inserting the Cyber Planet Key would unleash 2 more smaller heads, which I assumed with spew freeze wave too, and as how they spew fire while he was Flame Convoy.

            I wouldn’t say that this mode is fantastic, but I have to say that it is quite unique.

Robot Mode:

            In robot mode, Cryo Scourge looks regal, almost perfect for a Decepticon leader. The wide shoulders and seemingly muscular upper body made him look pretty strong. I reckon you wouldn’t want to mess with this dude. 

 

            His head sculpt is very nice as well. I really like the fanged-look of him. 

            As with most beast-based Transformers, transformations are a bit lame, and are extremely straight forward. 

            Articulation-wise: the head can lift up and back down, and also turn 360°, albeit tightly; the shoulders rotate 360° and also flip backward; the elbows rotate and are also equipped with ratcheting bending joints; the hips are on ratcheting rotational joints; ratcheting knees and ankles; and also the ankles rotate as well. Articulation kinda sucks a lot, and the worse part, for me at least, is its wrists articulation, or rather lack thereof. The lack of that particular joint, along with the lack of ball-jointed hips really hurt the figure.

            Again, by inserting the Cyber Planet Key, you will have the same gimmick that you have in his beast mode. By the way, his Cyber Planet Key is your normal Jungle Planet key, nothing to shout about. 

 

            Apart from being huge (approx. 7 ¾-inches tall and wingspan of about 9 ½-inches), the only other saving grace for this figure is its regal look. Apart from that, I think that they at least could’ve done better execution with this figure.

Summary:

            I really wish that, for the sake of the year of the Dragon, I could’ve given a double thumbs-up for this figure, but unfortunately, that’s just not possible. The figure seems to lack in many departments.

            Personally, I consider Cryo Scourge aka Flame Convoy re-deco, to be the weakest among all Convoy-level figures in the series.

            Tough luck.

            Anyways, Happy Chinese New Year everyone and GONG XI FA CHAI!!!

Verdict: 4/10

Transformers Review: Dragon Year Exclusive Optimus Prime (DOTM Ultimate)

Intro:

            Oh boy, I am so excited about this review that I almost can’t contain myself. Anyways, continuing with the Movie Optimus Prime-related review series, and of course, the Chinese New Year season, New Planet Cybertron brings to you what is touted to be the biggest Optimus Prime figure ever. 

            I initially never planned to get the Ultimate Optimus Prime because it didn’t appeal to me that much. Mostly because of the lack of articulations of the combined mode, and that unlike the Super Ginrai’s trailer, this trailer doesn’t serve any other purpose other than acting as a power-up tool for Optimus, and that was why I ended up going for Striker Optimus Prime instead.

            Then come 2012, Hasbro suddenly announced that in conjunction of the Dragon year (based on the Chinese calendar), they were going to release an Asia-exclusive Dragon-year version of the figure. Needless to say, this was what appealed to me; hence here we are with this review.

Box:

            Now, I don’t normally mention about the box unless it is worth mentioning. Since this is the Dragon year exclusive, instead of an embossed Autobot symbol on top of the clear plastic, there is an embossed Dragon with a stylized Chinese word 龍 (long), meaning Dragon. 

 

The box itself is quite humongous, stretching to almost 22-inches long, 6 ¾-inches across and about 11-inches tall. Obviously it is smaller than its original packaging due him being packed in vehicle mode instead. In areas normally would be white in color, they are painted in a shade of yellow, due to the Asian’s obsession (mainly Chinese) of the color Gold or Red. 

It’s quite a unique packaging, I must say.

Alternate Mode:

            The combination of the truck and trailer is deliciously massive. The cab itself is almost 9-inches long and the trailer is about 12 ½-inches long, 4 ¼-inches across and almost 5-inches tall. The combined mode is about 19 ½-inches long.

            The cab itself is about the size of a Voyager-class figure (probably slightly bigger), and the kibbles are quite obvious from below. 

            Since this is an Ultimate-class figure, I was hoping that the figure would’ve come with real rubber tyres instead of PVC ones. Still, they roll quite fine. The truck grill here is red in color instead of the normal silver/ grey.

 

 

            The trailers itself is red in color instead of grey, and remember the Dragon embossing on the box? Well, the same Dragon designs are on both sides of the trailer. The maroon-colored Autobot insignia are embossed instead of either painted or sticker, which is a very nice touch.

            Since this is a DOTM figure, Optimus Prime comes with Mech Tech ports, and loads of them. There are six Mech Tech ports on the cab alone, and on the trailer, there are eight on top, and two on each sides. There is also another engraved Autobot insignia at the front of the trailer, painted in silver. 

 

            Overall, an impressively detailed alternate mode worthy of the name Optimus Prime.

Robot Mode:

            The robot mode is quite impressive in size. It’s really a Leader-class, but something that is near to an Ultra-class. It is not as detailed as the Striker Optimus Prime or even the ROTF Voyager Optimus figures, but he is still recognizably Optimus Prime. 

From left: ROTF Voyager Optimus, Dragon-year Optimus, 2007 Leader-class Optimus

            The arms are a bit too big, in my opinion, but overall I think the robot mode is a bit more streamlined compared to various versions of Movie Optimus Prime, due to lack of dangling parts. 

            Articulation-wise: the head rotates 360°; the shoulders are on universal joints; the elbows rotate and bend; no wrist and waist movements; hips are on universal joints; the legs rotate slightly below the hips and bend the knees; and finally the ankles can tilt forward. 

            But this is not why you buy this figure for, it’s all about the gimmicks.

Ultimate Optimus Prime:

Trailer Ready for Interface

            This is literally why you buy this figure for. You want to have the cab combine with its trailer.

 

Blaster Deployed

 

 

            The resulting figure is just massive – gargantuan even. At a wingspan of almost 22-inches, 1-foot tall to the tip of the head (19-inches if you count to the tip of the wings), he makes the ROTF Optimus-Jetfire combo (who by itself is a massive 16-inches in width, 13-inches in height) looks like Spiderman compared to the Hulk. 

From Left: 2007 Leader-class Optimus, Dragon-year Optimus, ROTF Optimus-Jetfire Combo

            The finished figure is predominantly vibrant red in color, with the inner wings having slight shades of bluish-grey. 

 

 

            There is also a gun/blaster attachment, which by itself is massive, can be kept behind the robot mode. When deployed, Optimus will end up with a targeting helmet with an enormous blaster to be held up with both hands. 

Lights & Sounds Activation Buttons and Dial

            The blaster comes with some sounds and lighting effects that can be activated by the two red buttons and the red dial depicted in the photo. Watch the video below for the effects.

            Articulation-wise: the arms are designed well enough to accommodate the inner arms movements, which are very good; and Prime also has a pair of ratcheting ankle joints that allow inward movements.

Summary:

            This figure is simply amazing. I’m surprised that I actually let him fly by for the numerous times that I’ve seen him on the shelves. Then again, it was probably a massive price tag. The first time I’ve seen him, the figure cost about RM320. I was somehow waiting for the price to drop a bit before making the purchase, but the price ended up getting as high as RM380 at one point.

            Then my wait was eventually proven to be a blessing in disguise and was rewarded with the Dragon-year exclusive instead.

            This is truly a massive and great looking figure, worthy of any collections, especially to those specialized Optimus Prime collectors.

            Absolutely recommended.     

            Final verdict: 9.5/10.

The Family (Updated Jan 2012) - The Pics and Video

Greetings fellow Cybertronians,

It's Chinese New Year again, and continuing the New Planet Cybertron tradition, this our annual Family photo. Some of you have been asking for it, and so here it is. There has been a lot of additional members to the Family since the last photo shoot, namely Striker Optimus Prime and the legions of DOTM figures, the Kabayas, G1 Perceptor and many more.

Common among collectors throughout is the issue of space, or lack thereof. So as you can see from the photos, the racks are especially crammed to the max. Believe it or not, there are at least 300 different figures scattered all across my room right now, coming from a variety of series. If you look closely, within those racks there are two or three Gundams, several LEGO sets from my early childhood (oh man, that was really long ago), and of course, a Voltron.

At the time of the recording, my Dragon-year Exclusive Ultimate Optimus Prime was still in its packaging, thus not ready for display yet, so watch out for the review on this guy in the near future.

So yeah, what can I say, I love Transformers, and in a certain, Transformers was also one of those things that shaped the person that I am today. My childhood desires for them made me wanting to work my derriere off to achieve.

And so, here is my extended Family for public consumption. I hope you guys will enjoy it.

And of course if you prefer, you can also catch the video recording, here.

Lastly, Happy Chinese New Year 2012, and GONG XI FA CAI!!!

恭喜发财!!!