One of my fondest memories as a Transformers fan was seeing the live action 2007 movie. Having grown up with Transformers since they first came out in 1984, I was amongst the many fans who dreamt of enjoying a live action computer animated version of every one's favorite robots in disguise. I was quite pleased with the final result and couldn't wait to get my hands on the toys. As soon as I did, I couldn't wait to get rid of them! Fast forward ten years, and we finally have toys worthy of the live action movies! I speak, of course, of the studio series toys.
So far, I have Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Brawl, Lockdown and Thundercracker. They are all marvelous. They are far more movie-accurate than any of the previous toys available from the various movie lines, relatively complex in terms of transformation and very high in terms of playability. In fact, they are so great that they have led me to re-watch three out of five of the Transformers live action movies. I have found that I enjoy them more now than I did in the past, mainly because as I get older, I take the entire franchise a bit less seriously than I used to and therefore find I have cured myself of the heartache that often afflicts fans of any franchise when expectations are not fully met. The movies are just good fun, and let's leave it at that!
Back to the toys. Starting with Optimus Prime - I was very impressed by just how much faithful detail the toy packs when compared to the onscreen portrayal of the original movie Prime. It is also far more user friendly than the visually impressive but overly-complex Return of the Fallen Leader Class Prime which had been, up to that point, the most accurate portrayal of the character. I have always liked the movie Optimus Prime and still do. I find that he is a realistic portrayal of our favorite Autobot leader and therefore more endearing than the classical "generation 1" Prime we all known and love from the cartoons. If Prime really were to find himself walking about our Earth, I imagine he would indeed look like the movie Prime. Movie Prime, however, unlike all of the other characters, takes conservative liberties with the original iconic portrayal - that is to say, whereas Ratchet or Bumblebee look completely different from their generation 1 prototypes, movie Prime really does look like someone took the original design and simply "built it up" from scratch in the real world.
His truck mode is fantastic as well. Like most Transformers fans, I initially had some misgivings about accepting the peterbilt truck mode as opposed to the flat nosed generation 1 version, but as with most things life forces upon us, time has healed old wounds, and ten years later I am perfectly fine with this. In fact, if I really wanted to be picky, I could say that it is perfectly canonical, because Japanese Transformers Star Convoy was in fact a peterbilt truck (at least the cab!). I also fully accept the flames, since they are somewhat of an homage to Rodimus Prime, who we shall not likely be seeing at all in the live action movies. In any event, even though recent years have brought us a slew of fantastic Optimus Primes in the various lines, this one is just prime!
Weapon wise, it is a bit strange that he has no rifle, as Optimus Prime will always be characterized by his particularly big gun (an ion blaster, if I recall correctly, from the generation 1 tech spec!) Indeed, my memory has not failed me insofar as the name is concerned - and just about
every Optimus Prime toy to day has had some version of the ion blaster, yet here we find Optimus Prime bearing swords. The swords themselves are an homage to the battle axe he wielded in generation 1; a kind of energy weapon that would slide out of his arm should the need arise. The swords are, by all means, far more welcome than an axe. Their orange tinge suggests that they are likewise energy weapons; though it would not be fair to call them "light sabers" - more like "energy swords". I suppose they had no good ideas for storing an ion blaster on his truck mode and didn't want to go to the trouble of having one flailing about somewhere? In any event, a double-sword wielding Optimus Prime isn't bad at all!
As for Bumblebee: having been elevated from the "boy" of the cartoon version to the "cool bot" of the movieverse he is, for all intents and purposes, meant to be a generic Autobot, at least insofar as this design is concerned. The design does an excellent job of forging the generic Autobot look from generation 1 (car hood becomes robot chest, car doors become wings) with a distinct "Bumblebee" color scheme. He is an homage to Prowl and Bluestreak, who never show up in the movies, while also having a bit of Cheetor (the Beast Wars "Hotrod") in him. He is also the "Hotrod" of the movies (unlike the real Hotrod of the movies who has nothing to do with Hotrod beyond the name).
What a mess the previous few sentences must seem to anyone not meticulously familiar with all of Transformers history from 1984 onward. Anyways - the robot design, though somewhat cumbersome, is certainly an improvement on the horrible original toy from 2007. Mind you, to me, having Bumblebee transform into a 1970s camaro was pure genius and, as far as I'm concerned, he should have stayed one forever. I never wanted and never did buy any of the toys with the 2008 camaro model. Sadly, beyond the original 2007 toy and, to some vague extent, the RID toy of years later, no more Bumblebees with a 1970s camaro mode were ever made - until now. Now, finally, after so many years of waiting, I have a proper 2007 movie Bumblebee who turns into a faithful representation of the beloved old camaro and into a good representation of Bumblebee himself.
That said, this is one Transformer toy that demands experience and patience from the user. Those of us who have had our hands on just about every Transformers toy to ever come out and then some (for instance transforming Macross robots from the late Yamato) know full well that from time to time, a Transformer is produced that, for one reason or another, is a bit on the delicate side. Bumblebee is one of them. Numerous reports of parts "popping" off or breaking are inaccurate - unless you go and make them pop off and break. This, in turn, is extremely easy to do on this toy if you are used to playing with the more sturdy generic Transformers from the main lines.
Studio Series is a bit different on this front. All of them demand a bit more care and attention. It is in the nature of the movie Transformations which, on account of aiming to convert boxy vehicles into fluid robot forms demand far more panel flipping than is usual, that they are to be handled with care. Those of us who were children will remember the admonition on our old 1980s Transformers: "Excessive force is not required". Well, the Studio Series motto could be "excessive force will certainly lead to breaking your toy." So - in a word: don't force anything. Be patient, move each part deliberately as you transform them. This is especially true for Bumblebee who will simply not tolerate any excessive force to his person whatsoever.
Which brings us to Lockdown. Lockdown is the easiest to transform of the three I own, and in many ways the most rewarding due to his fantastic robot design combined with his very generic, sleek sport car design. The one downside of Lockdown is his claw arm which the designers seemed unable to faithfully replicate based on the movie version and instead made what appears to be an attempt at creating a more mechanized version of the Animated Lockdown hook arm.
Which reminds me: this is one thing I really do love about the Transformers live action movies - who would have imagined that of all the possible characters out there, they would suddenly take the likes of Lockdown from Transformers Animated (a fantastic character and series) and make him into the main antagonist of Age of Extinction? I certainly didn't. In any case, while this toy is not perfect, it is finally a Lockdown toy which does justice to the movie design in both forms. In fact, each one of the Studio Series instalments just wets the appetite for more.
Speaking of which - I suppose one of my Studio Series toys isn't really a Studio Series toy in the strict sense. I speak here of Studio Series Thundercracker. This is really a The Last Knights toy repainted as Thundercracker and given a new head. That said, it was packaged in the Studio Series line, so it is a Studio Series toy - even though it isn't. That doesn't sound too good, so let's call it an exclusive. I never had the original toy from the Last Knights line, and this one seemed very appealing to me, both in jet and robot mode. However, the principle motivation behind my desire to acquire one of these was the fact that this toy is capable of interacting with the Titanmasters or, to put in old-school terms: he's a headmaster. Now I just so happen to be the proud owner of Takara Legends Octane which comes with a spare Titanmaster figure who transformers into Ghost-Starscream's head! I hate having a Titanmaster just lying around with no particular body to attach to (I so prefer the term "Transtector" but this is esoteric enough as it is already!) and so, upon seeing Studio Series Thundercracker, decided the opportunity was too good to pass up. Of course, I could have just bought the grey Last Knight figure, but he was not easily acquired, and so I opted for this one. While I hardly think of this toy as the "Thundercracker" in my collection (I have an old Henkei Thundercracker for that purpose), he is a welcome addition which has allowed me to give my Ghost-Starscream his own body.
The toy itself suffers from one minor flaw [UPDATE: 26/07/2019 This toy does NOT surfer fro m an alignment flaw, it is possible to align everything just right, the reviews were wrong but it's not self-evident how the alignment should go], noted by many reviewers, namely that it is impossible to align the panels on one side of the jet mode's undercarriage properly. This is a very minor flaw, largely unnoticeable to any but the most pedantic collector, and it concerns the undercarriage which no one ever look at anyways, except as a curiosity. How or why this happened I do not know, but let us just say that it all adds uniqueness to this figure. The jet mode is visually stunning and highly enjoyable to play with, particularly as the cockpit opens for the Titanmasters figure to sit in! The robot mode is bulky, imposing and can display its wings as turbine thrusters of some sort or in the more traditional manner of the generation 1 seekers - it's all up to you! Well armed, poseable and fun, it is a fine toy to have - though admittedly, even though I think someone somewhere wrote that Thundercracker did appear in one of the films in the background as a Decepticon flier in some battle, this particularl character has pretty much nothing to do with the Transformers movie franchise. He doesn't feature in the films prominently, and if he did it wouldn't be with Ghost-Starscream for a head. This is my own special little innovation!
And that brings us to the final toy in my Studio Series collection, namely Brawl - or is it Devastator? When I watched Transformers in 2007 it had subtitles (because I was watching it in Croatia) and I distinctly remember the subtitles labeling this character as Devastator. I actually found the name "Devastator" fits far better, though with the arrival of the real Devastator in Revenge of the Fallen I understand why they defaulted to Brawl. Brawl was, after all, a green tank with a double barrel cannon mounted on his turret. But if we're going to call Brawl Brawl, why isn't Blackout called Vortex?
There was a micromaster named Blackout in Generation 1, but the grey helicopter which movie Blackout was modelled on is clearly Vortex. I am sure someone has already gone to the trouble of investigating and writing about this, but I still like to wonder aloud rather than actually look for the answer. In any event, the reason why I was not bothered by Brawl being called Devastator was because he was green and the original leader class toy was rather big at the time and so could, technically, pass for a kind of non-combiner Devastator who turned into a big tank rather than six construction vehicles.
The toy itself is marvelous. The robot mode is compact, alien and full of guns and very sharp melee weapons. The tank mode is a fine representation. All in all, he seems to be the perfect candidate for something more than just brute muscle. He didn't really get his due in the movie, but was disposed of rather quickly and far less ceremoniously than Bonecrusher (another favorite who I hope will get the Studio Series treatment).
In any case, if you are a Transformers fan with fond memories of the original live action movie, the Studio Series is the toy line you've been missing for ten years.
As exciting and happy as I am to have Combiner Wars, Titans Return and Power of the Primes doing justice to the 1985-1988 Hasbro toy lines (finally!), the Studio Series do the same justice to the live action movie! I will definitely look forward to more of these! They are so good that they actually make the movie designs grow on you! And that is saying a lot!
A final note: I had a choice to make with regard to the photography for this, my first toy review on Pete's Super Robots blog and I decided
not to iluminate the figures too much because I felt that, as tempting as it is to reveal all the detail that went into these figures, it would be more faithful to their movie representation if they appeared as if under a penumbra. You never know exactly what bit of detail will be iluminated and what bit obscured. This is the sense that I got from watching them on the big screen - and what I was trying to capture in still photography! Hopefully it worked!
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