Transformers - "WFC: Earthrise" Cliffjumper [Toy Talk] || Chugcratic Seminar Extracurricular #08
Does size really matter?
Thanks to @KitKatastrophe and DefinitelyNotChar for joining me on this one.
00:00 - Welcome
00:40 - Just A Red Bumblebee?
03:26 - Vehicle Mode
10:51 - Robot Mode
25:38 - Accessories
34:50 - Size Class Versus Size
52:04 - Mold Reuses
56:16 - Final Judgement
58:49 - Farewell
PLEASE CHECK OUT:
https://cults3d.com/en/users/NotCharDesigns/3d-models - NotChar's 3D Models Page
https://www.youtube.com/@UCC52m64u3Mfad1f2mlkgSSQ - Kit Katastrophe
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYsU-Eef1y0Fz3o2prY9EGwg0VeO93qsY - The Chugcratic Seminar
#transformers #earthrise #warforcybertron
Thanks to @KitKatastrophe and DefinitelyNotChar for joining me on this one.
00:00 - Welcome
00:40 - Just A Red Bumblebee?
03:26 - Vehicle Mode
10:51 - Robot Mode
25:38 - Accessories
34:50 - Size Class Versus Size
52:04 - Mold Reuses
56:16 - Final Judgement
58:49 - Farewell
PLEASE CHECK OUT:
https://cults3d.com/en/users/NotCharDesigns/3d-models - NotChar's 3D Models Page
https://www.youtube.com/@UCC52m64u3Mfad1f2mlkgSSQ - Kit Katastrophe
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYsU-Eef1y0Fz3o2prY9EGwg0VeO93qsY - The Chugcratic Seminar
#transformers #earthrise #warforcybertron
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00:00Howdy, people, and welcome to another extracurricular. I am the Dean of Critique, Rune Stone, and
00:00:15joining me today is the Dean of Fabrication, definitely not Char.
00:00:19Pleasure to be here.
00:00:22And Headmaster-fy Catastrophe.
00:00:23Hello, hello, hello.
00:00:27So it's another Toy Talk, and this time we're discussing War for Cybertron Earthrise Deluxe
00:00:32Class Cliffjumper. Kit did his own full review of this a while back, check it out when you
00:00:38can.
00:00:39But before we get to the figure itself, background. Cliffjumper's Generation 1 figure was part
00:00:46of the 1984 minivehicle assortment. A common misconception is that he's retooled from fellow
00:00:53minivehicle Bumblebee. This is not true. They're actually separate molds with similar engineering.
00:01:01In the modern era of Transformers with vintage characters receiving new toys, Has-Tak are
00:01:06like, yeah, close enough, and so various classics-adjacent toylines have Bumblebee and Cliffjumper be
00:01:12recolors of each other. Minor retools if they're feeling generous.
00:01:17It's also true for other continuities like Animated and the live-action films. Prime
00:01:22is actually one of the very few series where they're straight-up different designs. But
00:01:27going back to Chug, the War for Cybertron trilogy has Bee and Cliff share a mold again.
00:01:34But for once, Cliffjumper was released first. Nine times out of ten, it's usually the kid
00:01:39appeal character, Bumblebee.
00:01:44Does anyone have anything else to say regarding this slide?
00:01:48I just think that the distinction between whether or not the original G1 toys were remolds
00:01:54of each other or not is just kind of pointless.
00:01:58Does it matter?
00:02:00It's kind of weird to say that one is a remold of the other because, to my knowledge, obviously
00:02:08both the G1 Bumblebee and G1 Cliffjumper were released at the same time. But more importantly,
00:02:13I'm pretty sure their micro-change predecessors were both released at the same time.
00:02:21So you can't really, you know, who's to say which design was made first. Because at the
00:02:27end of the day, they do share parts, at least I'm pretty sure they share parts, with the
00:02:32arm pieces and the leg pieces.
00:02:39But they aren't the same mold, that's for sure. So, I don't know, it's kind of weird.
00:02:45At any rate, I don't blame them for just making them repaints of each other for as long as
00:02:52they have. I do prefer them turning into different cars now, though.
00:02:57Yeah, yeah. I mean, they've always shared engineering, so...
00:03:04Brother from another mother.
00:03:07True.
00:03:09Yeah, back in the day, I think fans were just generally okay, like perhaps not ecstatic,
00:03:17but just generally okay with them being recolors of each other. But now, we're obviously expecting
00:03:22a lot more. I guess with that, we'll crack on with the figure itself. So, Earthrise Cliffjumper
00:03:31turns into a sports coupe, and obviously these days, Hasbro tries to avoid sculpting a vehicle
00:03:37too close to a real-life model, because, you know, licensing. And it's especially noteworthy
00:03:43here, as Cliffjumper's original alternate mode was the Porsche 924 Turbo, and since
00:03:49Generation 1, Porsche haven't exactly been kind to this brand, deeming Transformers totally
00:03:54unworthy. War Machines just aren't our style. And then Rise of the Beasts happened.
00:04:00To be fair, there is a little context to this. As far as I'm aware, in the GoBots toyline,
00:04:09all of the toys based off of Volkswagen and Porsche vehicles were bad guys, and you might
00:04:17want to look up who Herman Porsche was affiliated with politically. So, I'm not begrudging
00:04:27of the fact that Porsche was very trepidatious towards toy makers wanting to turn their cars
00:04:36into robots that fight.
00:04:38I can see where you're coming from, Kit, but I think this is just more to do with Europe
00:04:43toy makers, in general, very odd relationship with any sort of war or combat-adjacent toys.
00:04:50Lego being the biggest example I can think of, where they will refuse to do basically
00:04:55any real-life military vehicle. One that comes to mind is the controversy surrounding the
00:05:00Osprey figure. But then they will do, you know, Star Wars toys. Because apparently,
00:05:08when the characters holding guns have white helmets on, it's fine.
00:05:13I mean, I'll give you all that. Your continent has been traumatised a lot more by the World
00:05:21Wars than mine was, so the difference in attitude is a lot more understandable.
00:05:27In any event, this Cliffjumper is merely influenced by the Porsche, though he's not a squashed
00:05:33Penny Racer car like he was before. Although with the recent Studio Series 80-Sticks Bumblebee,
00:05:39well, we know what retail we can expect from that figure in the near future.
00:05:44Yeah.
00:05:47In any event, this is pretty, you know, it's not a bad car mode per se.
00:05:53I took some pictures to show off some of the moulded details, including brake discs,
00:06:00which you can get a better look at if you pop the wheels off. And this car, I know someone
00:06:06has previously questioned TFWiki's reliability, but it also brings up the fact that the front
00:06:12of the car is comparable to that of a Mitsubishi Starion.
00:06:21Close enough.
00:06:24So, I would like to disclaim that my copy is still endowed with the ToyHax stickers
00:06:32I received for review way back when, and so my car mode looks a lot different from both
00:06:40of yours. Mine has tinted windows and some running stripes, and they did include some
00:06:49extra details to make it resemble a Starion even more, like actual text that says the
00:06:58name. And it also picks out those brake discs in a nice silver.
00:07:08Honestly, the detail on the car mode was the thing that pushed me over the edge to buy
00:07:13the toy, because I was one of the people who was not happy with the scale of the toy,
00:07:23which we'll get onto later, and also the parts forming. But I remember I watched a
00:07:31Lazy Eyebrows review on it, and him pointing out all the details sort of made me look at
00:07:39the figure in a new light, and I picked it up because of that.
00:07:42Yeah, that video was downright amazing. We need more car nerds in the fandom, seriously.
00:07:50We need more vehicle nerds in general in this fandom.
00:07:55One detail I do wish to bring up is the fact that this has, I believe it's an air scoop
00:08:01on the bonnet, which, from what I've seen of the Porsche 924 Turbo, it doesn't have
00:08:09it, but it does appear on what I believe is a concept version of that car called the
00:08:15Carrera GT. And funnily enough, Cliffjumper's Generation 1 figure was recoloured by Estrella,
00:08:23the Brazilian toy company, into a character named Carrera.
00:08:28That's mighty interesting. This is not the time for this digression, but I love deep
00:08:35diving into those really obscure South America-only characters. At any rate, it doesn't really
00:08:41bother me that Cliffjumper features stuff that's not found on the actual car, just because
00:08:46it looks cool. I like it. It suits him.
00:08:50Well, that wasn't necessarily a complaint. Again, it's just in more instances of them
00:08:54trying to get around the licensing, I imagine.
00:08:58Yeah, the detailing doesn't look out of place. It still looks like a car you could conceivably
00:09:04see on the street, panel lines aside.
00:09:08Badass one at that.
00:09:10Yeah, it's a neat little... it's not a car that you would think you would be suspicious
00:09:15about seeing on the street, but it's certainly the kind of car you might want to have.
00:09:22Also, if I'm not mistaken, the paintwork on this toy is pretty lavish, from what I understand.
00:09:29Yeah, dude is absolutely slathered with this matte red finish, and it is gorgeous. It not
00:09:35only looks gorgeous, but the texture of it in your hands is very... I don't really know
00:09:41what to describe it. It's smooth, but at the same time, grippy. It feels good.
00:09:48It feels like it's been coated with some sort of matte varnish. Like you might have said,
00:09:57genuinely, it feels like one of my model kits after being top-coated. I really don't know
00:10:05how they achieved that effect and why they haven't done it on other figures, but I think
00:10:09it comes out really well on this one.
00:10:13The one major problem that I have with the toy in vehicle mode is that the rear section
00:10:20doesn't stay on that flush.
00:10:22Yeah, I noticed that on my copy as well. I chalked it up to the fact that I hadn't transformed
00:10:27it in a while, but if it's also a problem on your copy, then it might just be an issue
00:10:31with the design.
00:10:33Mine sits a lot more flush than your pictures show, so I definitely think it's a your mileage
00:10:38may vary sort of thing. It's still noticeable, but he's a tiny dude. What can you do?
00:10:45In any case, if we're done saying all we can say about the vehicle mode, we shall crack
00:10:51on to the robot mode.
00:10:53Oh, yes.
00:10:57The transformation is heavily, heavily based on the original Masterpiece Bumblebee. I have
00:11:06the mold and I just transformed it before we started recording. So yeah, it's basically
00:11:14one-to-one, except the Masterpiece Bumblebee doesn't have parts for me.
00:11:19I very much like the way that the torso transforms on this toy. Of course, the parts forming
00:11:24is like, that's the issue everyone has with this toy, and I have that issue with this
00:11:28toy as well. But the way that they reshape the torso so that the front windscreen is
00:11:38on the top of the torso instead of in the bottom, like it would have been on the original
00:11:41toy, I think works very much in favor and it gives it a much nicer silhouette in robot
00:11:47mode.
00:11:49I agree.
00:11:51Of course, the problem with mine is that, again, that rear section doesn't stay plugged
00:11:56on properly.
00:11:58Even in robot mode?
00:12:00Well, mine it sure as hell doesn't. It's all kinds of wonky.
00:12:04Oh. Yeah, it doesn't, like it stays in fine on my copy. It's just the wheels sort of make
00:12:15it want to sit at an odd angle. I'm not really sure what to do about that. Because it's a
00:12:20problem on all the other, on its remold Bumblebee as well. It's not just a cliff jumper thing.
00:12:29In fact, it may even be worse on Bumblebee, if I recall correctly.
00:12:34Now, the question of the hour, I'm not sure, are we going to talk about the backpack now
00:12:39or do we have a separate segment for that?
00:12:41You can talk about the backpack now.
00:12:44All right. I think the question of the hour, one of the two big controversies with this
00:12:49toy is, do you guys think that this toy could have been done without making the backpack
00:12:55part four?
00:12:56Absolutely.
00:12:58Considering, considering the release of Studio Series 86 Bumblebee. Yeah.
00:13:05Well, on the other hand, Studio Series 86 Bumblebee looks like crap, but still there
00:13:10have been update, sorry, upgrade parts that people have made that make him be able to
00:13:17perfect transform. And if they can do it, why couldn't Hasbro?
00:13:21One of my favorite examples of those was literally just a piece of string.
00:13:29It was like a piece of string that wraps around the handle and then around like a little piece
00:13:36that goes into the backpack, I think it was or something like that. That was really funny
00:13:40to me. But no, I, yeah, I totally agree.
00:13:44I totally agree. I don't get why they thought that it was like acceptable. Saying this wasn't
00:13:54acceptable sounds like a way, sounds like a way too strong indictment because it's a
00:13:59toy. But like, I don't, I don't get who looked at this and said, yeah, yeah, the parts
00:14:07forming is worth the, you know, three extra pieces it would take to put on the, to put
00:14:14on the sprue. That, that, that saving that we make is just going to, going to really,
00:14:19really offset the fact that this toy has to parts form in a way that doesn't serve it
00:14:26really at all.
00:14:28Yeah. And honestly, like if, if they wanted to cut the budget, they could have started
00:14:34like as much as I love, love, love, love the paint job, they could have started with
00:14:38the paint because he's still molded mostly in red. As far as I'm aware.
00:14:45Yeah. Yeah. That's a, yeah. Like I don't get how they have this money for this very
00:14:51nice premium feeling finish on this toy, but then they don't have the money.
00:14:56Premium is a really good, good word choice there.
00:14:59But then they don't have the money for the two extra pieces that would go on the sprue.
00:15:04I guess, I guess mold costs are the highest costs when it comes to a mold, but generally
00:15:11considering they reused it like 18 times, it would have paid for itself, you know?
00:15:15Also, also like, it's my understanding that the number of pieces on a sprue, on, on a
00:15:24given mold doesn't significantly increase or decrease the, it doesn't significantly
00:15:31change the cost of the tooling.
00:15:34Yeah. It's, it's more of just a physical space thing, isn't it?
00:15:38It's physical space and it's like the, the, the complexity of the mold.
00:15:44Cause obviously a more complex mold is going to take more time to machine.
00:15:48So it's going to cost more.
00:15:51But like two, two, like two or three little pieces, I don't think would add so much,
00:15:58so much more complexity to the tooling that it would cost a significant amount more.
00:16:03You know, that does, that just doesn't seem realistic to me.
00:16:10So it's here. We can see that while the, for the most part, the robot is fairly
00:16:17cartoon accurate in sculpt, except for the biceps, which are apparently bumblebees.
00:16:22It's here we see that the deco is inspired by the original Cliffjumper figure.
00:16:28More black than gray.
00:16:30Yeah. I, I prefer, I prefer the toy look, you know, six times out of 10 and Cliffjumper
00:16:37is one of those six times.
00:16:39The black, the black and red just works a lot better than gray and red would.
00:16:44Yeah. I got to agree. I think the black looks nicer. It wouldn't have been terrible,
00:16:48but it's not like the big difference to me.
00:16:52And the translucent blue makes for a nice accent color as well.
00:16:56It would for me if I didn't cover it over with stickers.
00:17:01Fair enough. So despite his more stature, again, we'll get to that in a bit.
00:17:09He is actually compatible with the figures that are designed to pull apart and
00:17:15for weaponry for other figures and their respective toy lines.
00:17:19In this case, I have a Cliffjumper with parts from SixGun, Siege SixGun.
00:17:25And despite everything, he's managed to hold himself up fairly well.
00:17:30Yeah. It really helps that he's not a very top heavy robot.
00:17:34He's got very, very big feet and a very stable standing base.
00:17:41These pictures make me realize he would probably look fricking amazing
00:17:47decked out with Power Dash or Chromar SixGun's repaint,
00:17:53who I got not too long ago.
00:17:55So I should probably experiment with these two because their color schemes
00:17:59are very similar to each other.
00:18:01One thing I like about the transformation is that with how the feet are designed,
00:18:06you would think that the wheel simply folds underneath,
00:18:10but what happens is that the wheel, it folds,
00:18:13but then the front of the car folds up so that the wheel is tucked at the back
00:18:18where his heel is, which allows for the ports at the bottom of his feet.
00:18:24Yeah, it's a pretty brilliant piece of engineering,
00:18:29albeit minor.
00:18:31It allows him to access the play pattern that everyone else can use.
00:18:36And I really like that the doors have a little hook that slots into the rim
00:18:43and keeps everything locked in place.
00:18:47Yeah, I was just about to bring that up.
00:18:49The wheels are locked in place in robot mode so they don't turn,
00:18:54which is the kind of thing where it wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't there.
00:18:58But the fact that it is there is kind of neat.
00:19:02Also, the accessory he comes with, the big bazooka.
00:19:09The big bazooka he had for one episode in one scene.
00:19:13It's neat.
00:19:15It's one of those things, it's like Optimus Prime's axe,
00:19:19where, yeah, sure, he didn't use it in any episode except one.
00:19:25But it's still the kind of thing that's associated with him.
00:19:30And character-wise, he's the kind of character you would imagine
00:19:34carrying around a really big, oversized weapon while being a small guy.
00:19:38So I really like its inclusion.
00:19:41Well, we'll talk a bit more about the bazooka in a little bit.
00:19:47So, like I said, he's compatible with the weaponizers,
00:19:51fossilizers, and other eyesers you could possibly think of.
00:19:56The ports are in his forearms,
00:19:59and the sides of his lower legs are the bottom of his feet.
00:20:02And with the backpack removed, there's obviously a slot on his back as well.
00:20:08Even with the backpack still on, there's still a port on that piece,
00:20:13so that even if you keep it in his back,
00:20:16you can still plug stuff into his backpack.
00:20:19I like it when they do stuff like that, where they have a port there,
00:20:22but obviously something's going to cover it,
00:20:24so they put another port on that thing,
00:20:27just to make sure they cover all their bases.
00:20:30It's... I don't want to say thoughtful,
00:20:34considering the context of the backpack itself,
00:20:36but you know what I mean.
00:20:39And he's also effects parts compatible.
00:20:41There are three 3mm posts on the toy in total.
00:20:44One on his right shoulder, another on his left shoulder,
00:20:48another on his left forearm,
00:20:51and the last one is on his left thigh.
00:20:54And as for posability, his head,
00:20:58it looks like it's on a ball joint,
00:21:01considering that the head is rocking side to side.
00:21:04Yes.
00:21:06Yes, you've got universal shoulders,
00:21:08swivels below the shoulders,
00:21:11and a 90 degree elbow bend, wrist swivels,
00:21:15waist swivel, universal hips.
00:21:18Knee bend, and ankle rockers.
00:21:21There's also...
00:21:23The ball jointed head is also on a hinge
00:21:26that has a very tight locking point,
00:21:30so that he can look down just a little bit.
00:21:33You have to open up his chest a little bit
00:21:35to make it usable,
00:21:39but it is there, and it's not used for anything else.
00:21:42Oh, you're right!
00:21:44Yeah, I had that pointed out to me
00:21:47when I did my original review of this guy a few years ago.
00:21:51I don't...
00:21:52I mean, not that I play with this toy a lot,
00:21:54but there's not a whole lot I'd probably use this for,
00:21:57though I guess if people might 3D print
00:22:00some Skybound Carly minifigures
00:22:03and have them hang out or something,
00:22:05it could be used for that.
00:22:08It's certainly...
00:22:10Yeah, I've never seen on a Chug toy
00:22:14an explicit downward-looking joint before.
00:22:21Maybe I'm missing something, but that's...
00:22:23I have this weird feeling that maybe
00:22:26at one point in the design history
00:22:29they might have tried putting the head into the torso
00:22:33and then just forgot to take that out,
00:22:36but I'm just talking out of my ass here.
00:22:40It might also be...
00:22:41I'd have to look at the components specifically,
00:22:45but it might also just be
00:22:47due to the limitations of injection molding,
00:22:50they just made that a separate piece
00:22:55so that it would not stick out at a weird angle.
00:22:59Playing with this toy now,
00:23:01there's also a hinge,
00:23:03a transformation hinge in the waist
00:23:05that allows him to look up.
00:23:08Yeah, he has an arcing back.
00:23:11Yeah, yeah.
00:23:13But I was just saying,
00:23:14the thing you've got to remember about ball joints
00:23:16is when you make them,
00:23:17you always have to have them off to the side,
00:23:19because the way the ball is shaped,
00:23:21if it was going up,
00:23:23like if it was facing against the back of the mold,
00:23:28then it would have a lip around the bottom
00:23:31which would prevent it from being demolded.
00:23:34And the only way you could get around that
00:23:36is if you had a three-part mold,
00:23:38and those get really expensive.
00:23:40It might just be the way the torso is molded,
00:23:46they just had to make it that way.
00:23:49That makes sense.
00:23:51Firstly, I'll just say that his head sculpt is nice and crisp.
00:23:55The horns are more triangular instead of curved,
00:23:58like they are in the cartoon,
00:24:00but it gets the point across, in my opinion.
00:24:04It is a good chug face.
00:24:06It's a good chug face.
00:24:07He's also got the iconic Cliffjumper
00:24:10wide-cheeked helmet design.
00:24:14Honestly, even if Bumblebee and Cliffjumper
00:24:19were forever meant to share a mold,
00:24:22I would hope that they just make their heads different.
00:24:26Head sculpts in general is one of the things
00:24:29where I do like it when they go slavish cartoon accuracy
00:24:33or toy accuracy, depending on the purpose of the toy.
00:24:39Just because it makes them more unique and identifiable.
00:24:47Is Cliffjumper your exception to that rule, then?
00:24:52I mean, I know Fans Project made a custom head,
00:24:56but if there were an alternate timeline
00:25:00where the only thing that changed
00:25:02is that Hasbro made Classic's Cliffjumper's head sculpt
00:25:05a little wider than Bumblebee's, I would be okay with that.
00:25:09It's just because I remember you discussing in Episode 6 with ID
00:25:13how, in a way, that head sculpt that is really meant to be Bumblebee's
00:25:18suits Cliffjumper's better because of that cocky grin they gave him.
00:25:23Yeah.
00:25:24And I also have a lot of nostalgia for that toy
00:25:27because of his prominence in Night Slash 2020's stop motions.
00:25:33So if that's all we have to say about his actual robot mode,
00:25:37we shall talk about the accessories, and there are plenty of those.
00:25:42We have the parts that make up the bazooka,
00:25:46including twin cannons, which he can wield separately.
00:25:50There's also a couple of small black pieces,
00:25:53which we'll touch on in a bit.
00:25:55And then, of course, the ever-controversial...
00:25:58Well, I say controversial like it actually means anything in this fandom.
00:26:02But basically, it's the rear of the vehicle
00:26:05that comes off and forms a shield,
00:26:09and this is why I sometimes refer to Earthrise
00:26:12as Reveal the Shield Part 2.
00:26:15Yeah, Earthrise really, really loved its shields.
00:26:18It gave Cliffjumper a shield, it gave Optimus a shield,
00:26:22debatably it gave Arcee a shield, but there's no 5mm ports.
00:26:26Is there anyone I'm missing?
00:26:29Did you say Ratchet?
00:26:31Yes, Ratchet and Ironhide.
00:26:33I forgot about them because I sold off my Ratchet.
00:26:38Yeah, the most egregious one.
00:26:43Yeah, I don't get it.
00:26:46More often than not, shields don't work for these robots,
00:26:49especially when they're just made of car parts.
00:26:53Yeah, they fight with guns, shields aren't going to do anything to guns.
00:26:58Well, I mean, that's debatable,
00:27:00but the problem I have with a lot of shields,
00:27:03quote-unquote shields,
00:27:05is when they are just made of car parts,
00:27:08it's like they don't read as a shield,
00:27:10they just read as some car parts,
00:27:12whereas something like a gun or a sword or whatever,
00:27:18you can have a blade that flips out,
00:27:20and all of a sudden it reads as a sword,
00:27:23or it reads as a gun, or whatever.
00:27:27Both of Classic's Optimus Prime's guns,
00:27:29they are made of bits of his vehicle mode,
00:27:32but they read still as guns,
00:27:36because they have things about them
00:27:39that our brains know means that it's a gun,
00:27:44or means that it's a...
00:27:46Well, yeah, it means that it's a gun.
00:27:49A shield in its platonic ideal form
00:27:52is just a flat, vaguely round piece of metal,
00:27:56and it's really hard to make a car part look like that
00:28:02without making it just look like a car part that's been taken off.
00:28:06Yeah, exactly.
00:28:08I mean, if you want to talk about robots with shields,
00:28:10just look at the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise.
00:28:12They have mastered the art of making every robot have a shield.
00:28:20Yeah.
00:28:22The only time that I do think just taking a bit off of vehicle mode
00:28:26and turning it into a shield has worked
00:28:28is on the greatest toy ever made, Dark of the Moon Air Raid,
00:28:33where you just snap off the rotodome,
00:28:36and look, it's round, it's metal, it's big enough, it's a shield.
00:28:41And it also helps that he has a built-in melee weapon,
00:28:45so the sort of idea that they're trying to convey
00:28:49is a lot easier to communicate.
00:28:51Yeah, the thing about the rotodome is it's such an easy thing
00:28:55to make into something that does look like a shield
00:28:58and reads as a shield or a buckler,
00:29:00because it's already round, and it's already got a handle on it,
00:29:05so all you need to do is transform it slightly
00:29:08and plug it into the hand,
00:29:10and all of a sudden it's a very classical shield.
00:29:12And on the flip side, it makes a very, very poor gun.
00:29:17Yeah.
00:29:20Going back to what you were saying earlier, Kit,
00:29:23there is a port on the rear of the vehicle
00:29:25that allows you to plug...
00:29:28Well, it's easiest just to plug in one of the twin cannons,
00:29:32which, as we can see, are effects parts compatible.
00:29:36Yes.
00:29:38On the next slide, we can see that those black pieces
00:29:42are actually hydrofoils,
00:29:44which ties into his appearance in the G1 cartoon episode
00:29:48Dinobot Island Part 2.
00:29:51Although, as we can see, they also included peg holes in the cannons
00:29:55so that they could basically plug by the side of the vehicle
00:29:59so that he's suitably equipped.
00:30:02Yes.
00:30:04I freaking love Cliffjumper's accessories.
00:30:07It's such a clever use of parts,
00:30:10because they decided they wanted to reference
00:30:13two very specific things that he does
00:30:16in two very specific episodes,
00:30:18that being More Than Meets the Eye Part 1?
00:30:23I think it was More Than Meets the Eye Part 1, yeah.
00:30:26Yes, it was.
00:30:27And Dinobot Island Part 2.
00:30:29And they were like,
00:30:30OK, we can't afford to do both of these at once, separately.
00:30:37Why don't we just try to reuse what we have?
00:30:41It's sort of like Lego, just a little bit.
00:30:48May I offer an alternative interpretation
00:30:50of what I think happened?
00:30:53I don't think they went into it wanting to do
00:30:57the Dinobot Island episode reference.
00:31:00I think, in all likelihood,
00:31:02what they did is they were like,
00:31:04OK, we need to give Cliffjumper a weapon.
00:31:06We can either give him the gun that he had in the cartoon,
00:31:08or we could give him the big bazooka
00:31:11that he had in More Than Meets the Eye Part 1.
00:31:16And they went with the one that was probably more interesting,
00:31:21which is the bazooka.
00:31:23I think that the fact that they figured out
00:31:26the bipod can be made to become hydrofoils,
00:31:32in all likelihood, was more of a happy coincidence
00:31:36that one of the designers figured out
00:31:38that they could implement without affecting the part's budget,
00:31:43rather than something they set out to do originally with the design.
00:31:47I guess you have a point there,
00:31:49especially when you consider that no one else
00:31:51has done anything to reference that scene, either.
00:31:55So I'll give you that.
00:31:59It doesn't make it any worse, by the way.
00:32:01It's still a really neat thing.
00:32:05And the back of the bazooka stores underneath the car,
00:32:09which I'm getting is supposed to be
00:32:11a third giant hydrofoil or something?
00:32:14Yeah, I have no idea.
00:32:16I just see it as weapon storage, really.
00:32:19Or accessory storage, in this case.
00:32:22I'll take it.
00:32:25And, of course, we've got to talk about the big bazooka itself.
00:32:30As Charles said earlier,
00:32:32the hydrofoils cleverly form a bipod for this set.
00:32:37Well, THE bipod for the bazooka.
00:32:44I'm surprised that Cliff can actually hold it up,
00:32:49considering its weight.
00:32:51Yeah, his joints are all pretty sturdy.
00:32:54And, once again, he has a very stable standing base.
00:32:58I love the bazooka.
00:33:00I love the bazooka.
00:33:02It just fits Cliffjumper like a glove.
00:33:05And it is by far my preferred weapon for him
00:33:08in any G1-based continuity, that is.
00:33:13So I'm very happy with its inclusion.
00:33:18Of course, we'll go into the trade-off
00:33:22that that gives us soon enough.
00:33:25But, in a vacuum, I love the bazooka,
00:33:28and I hope more Cliffjumpers in the future come with their own
00:33:33unique bazookas.
00:33:35Correct me if I'm wrong,
00:33:37but isn't the upcoming Missing Link a Cliffjumper?
00:33:40Yes! Yes, he comes with a bazooka!
00:33:43Does he?
00:33:44Yes!
00:33:46He comes with a bazooka and a pistol.
00:33:51He is loaded.
00:33:53Locked and loaded.
00:33:56Speaking of Missing Link Cliffjumper,
00:33:58will you all be partaking, or is it just me?
00:34:01I have the both of them on pre-order.
00:34:04Hell yes.
00:34:06We shall see. We shall see.
00:34:09You know, they are...
00:34:12For 40 quid a pop for figures that are very, very small,
00:34:19maybe. Maybe.
00:34:22They do look nice.
00:34:24I don't think I'm going to miss a single Missing Link release
00:34:28unless it's just some repaint I'm not interested in.
00:34:33So, up to this point,
00:34:35Earthrise Cliffjumper doesn't really stand out per se.
00:34:39You've got an alternate mode, a robot mode,
00:34:42accessories, no fancy gimmicks,
00:34:44fairly standard stuff, right?
00:34:46So why are we talking about him here?
00:34:49Because Cliff is an example of a practice in Transformers
00:34:54that is still ongoing to this day.
00:34:57If you've heard of terms like Deluxe Plus, Voyager Plus,
00:35:01or I guess in Cliff's case, Deluxe Minus,
00:35:04these are fan terms used for when a figure's actual size
00:35:08doesn't fit its intended size class slash price point.
00:35:13I mean, I wouldn't say Cliff was the first case of this,
00:35:18like a lot of others have,
00:35:19because even if we're talking in the modern era,
00:35:22Studio Series had the likes of Number 10, Jazz,
00:35:26and Number 18, Bumblebee, the Volkswagen.
00:35:30Because one thing Hasbro has been striving for
00:35:33these past few years, for better and worse,
00:35:36is a sense of at least robot mode scale,
00:35:39not just between price points,
00:35:41but within each size class itself.
00:35:45As a mini bot, a G1 Cliffjumper is usually depicted
00:35:49as smaller than the likes of Jazz, Wheeljack,
00:35:52Prowl, Sunstreaker, and many others.
00:35:55However, Earthrise had no suitable price point
00:35:58below Deluxe for Cliff.
00:36:00So they still made him smaller,
00:36:02but straight up sold him as a Deluxe,
00:36:04and tried to make up for it in other ways,
00:36:06like the paintwork and accessories.
00:36:09Character-wise, the biggest examples of this trend
00:36:12are the mini bots and the original six G1 triple changers,
00:36:17the latter group being Voyager-sized figures
00:36:20sold at leader class.
00:36:22And judging from this debate's mere existence,
00:36:25you can probably guess how all this has gone down.
00:36:29Yeah, I...
00:36:32I don't remember per se,
00:36:35but I think I was pretty okay with it at the time,
00:36:40because I was like,
00:36:41okay, he does come with a lot of accessories,
00:36:44and his transformation is still pretty involved.
00:36:50So it was at least digestible in ways that,
00:36:55you know, Studio Series Jazz wasn't,
00:36:58because he was pretty basic,
00:36:59only came with one accessory.
00:37:01I'm sure he had a ton of paint,
00:37:03but so did everyone else in the line.
00:37:05And I just didn't really foresee it
00:37:09to be this big of a phenomenon,
00:37:12especially when some figures get this treatment,
00:37:18and it works to their detriment.
00:37:20Well, specifically talking about, like,
00:37:24like I see Blitzwing,
00:37:25who comes with these two Hulk hands
00:37:28he can't even use properly,
00:37:30that just eat up budget, eat up paint,
00:37:33and, you know, the toy could have
00:37:36at least been made marginally better
00:37:38by not including them.
00:37:39He already comes with a gun and his sword,
00:37:43so why does he need these two other things
00:37:45that don't really, you know,
00:37:48have anything to do with the rest of them?
00:37:50They do still make some good,
00:37:55you know, scare quotes,
00:37:56good choices like Legacy Sandstorm,
00:38:00who at least has a somewhat thought-out
00:38:03play pattern with his accessories.
00:38:06And, you know, Astrotrain,
00:38:08who comes with a coltender
00:38:10to fit all of his guns
00:38:11that you can give to anyone you want.
00:38:14And that turns into a launch pad
00:38:17for the space shuttle,
00:38:18so at least it has something to do in every mode.
00:38:21But sometimes I wonder
00:38:25if things would just be better
00:38:27if, you know, deluxes were deluxes,
00:38:29leaders were leaders,
00:38:30and so on and so forth.
00:38:35Yeah, the whole size class is a budget,
00:38:37not a scale thing.
00:38:39I kind of got it at first,
00:38:40but it seems to have become a massive cope.
00:38:44Yeah, at this point more often than not
00:38:47they're taking the piss.
00:38:48Yeah, like, you know,
00:38:53basically every mini-bot
00:38:58since Cliffjumper has not come
00:39:00with some sort of significant accessory
00:39:03to justify the increased price point
00:39:06for a smaller toy.
00:39:08Do brought-in gears even come with guns?
00:39:11I can't remember.
00:39:13I think they come with guns,
00:39:14but it's like a very normal kind of gun
00:39:16that you'd get with a Transformers toy,
00:39:17single piece, you know.
00:39:21They're just small, you know?
00:39:24To be fair, both of them are bigger
00:39:26than Cliffjumper at least,
00:39:27so there is that.
00:39:28Yeah, but then you get figures like Cosmos.
00:39:32Cosmos doesn't even come with a gun.
00:39:34He never had a gun in the show,
00:39:35which is fair enough, you know.
00:39:37He does come with a gun.
00:39:39The flag doubles as a gun.
00:39:41Oh, right, right.
00:39:42I was going to say he comes with a flag.
00:39:46But still, you know, Cosmos,
00:39:51these figures are all serviceable toys.
00:39:53There's nothing wrong with them inherently,
00:39:55but, you know, if it was going to be okay
00:39:58these figures are smaller,
00:40:00but they have more premium features
00:40:02like Cliffjumper's special finish
00:40:06or the extra accessories,
00:40:08if that was the deal,
00:40:09if that was the trade-off,
00:40:10then it seems like they have just given up
00:40:14on their end of the bargain.
00:40:15Yeah, the social contract has been broken.
00:40:21I'm personally kind of fatigued
00:40:23to this whole debate
00:40:26because it just seems like
00:40:27you're not going to get an answer
00:40:28that satisfies every single person out there.
00:40:33Yeah, personally, I miss the days
00:40:36when they would just base the Minibot scale
00:40:38off of the size of the vehicle they turn into,
00:40:41and we ended up with a giant Powerglide
00:40:44and a Voyager Z-Spray.
00:40:48I mean, those toys were really good,
00:40:50so, you know, I'd be absolutely happy
00:40:52to go back to those days.
00:40:54Honestly, I didn't get Powerglide
00:40:56until a couple of years ago,
00:40:59so I have no nostalgia for him.
00:41:01He's a bit iffy.
00:41:03He could definitely use another go
00:41:06at a giant Powerglide.
00:41:09But, I mean, I agree.
00:41:11Well, to an extent, I agree.
00:41:13Powerglide, I like Powerglide.
00:41:15He's a cool toy.
00:41:17I like the chest transformation.
00:41:20It's not a traditional Powerglide transformation.
00:41:23It's actually kind of reminiscent of...
00:41:26Oh, Diatlus. Yeah.
00:41:29It's kind of reminiscent of Diatlus, almost.
00:41:32But it's a really cool transformation scheme.
00:41:38The only problem I have with that
00:41:40is the arms are a little small.
00:41:42But the point is, I don't think
00:41:44we're going to get, like,
00:41:46leader-slash-Voyager reimaginings
00:41:48of mini-bots and micro-masters
00:41:50any time soon, unfortunately.
00:41:52Yeah. Sub-Zero or nothing.
00:41:55Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:41:57I mean, here we can see
00:42:01the size discrepancy in vehicle mode,
00:42:03and, yeah, also in robot mode.
00:42:07Yeah. Oof.
00:42:10I mean, when it comes to those
00:42:13against the practice,
00:42:15I suspect that there's at least one subset
00:42:18of, you know, the detractors
00:42:21of this practice, we'll say,
00:42:23who just wants the toys to be bigger,
00:42:26or at least the size that they,
00:42:28quote-unquote, are supposed to be
00:42:31at their respective size class.
00:42:33I guess. I'm guessing the argument
00:42:37is that the amount of physical plastic
00:42:39in the toy makes it feel like
00:42:42they're worth their value,
00:42:44if that makes any sense.
00:42:46Yeah.
00:42:48I mean, it's an understandable
00:42:50criticism to me.
00:42:52It's understandable,
00:42:55but at the same time, it does bother me
00:42:58a little bit when people act like
00:43:00bigger automatically equals better.
00:43:04And I know that there are people like that,
00:43:07because I recall someone,
00:43:09I won't say who they are,
00:43:11but I recall someone saying something like that
00:43:13about Astrotrain.
00:43:15Like, they just wanted the toy
00:43:17to be bigger, and...
00:43:20Understandable.
00:43:22Me want big spaceship.
00:43:27Obviously, it would be nice
00:43:29if a Transformers toy could have it all,
00:43:31but if I had to pick between
00:43:33an undersized toy that is still good,
00:43:38and a toy that is the size it should be,
00:43:41but it's still shit,
00:43:44well, I think I know what I'm going to go for.
00:43:48What we should be really doing
00:43:51is bringing out the kitchen scales
00:43:54and weighing our figures
00:43:56to see if the smaller figures
00:44:03are a similar weight to the larger ones.
00:44:07I feel like that would be a more fair assessment
00:44:10of how much is going into a figure,
00:44:12rather than actual size.
00:44:15I think the better...
00:44:18Or maybe a density quotient.
00:44:23The better metric, really,
00:44:25would be taking the figure apart piece by piece,
00:44:30and just looking at the parts count.
00:44:33That would be the real metric
00:44:35for the quote-unquote quality.
00:44:39I mean, this whole debate, in my opinion,
00:44:42just tells me we need to bring back Scout Class.
00:44:45Yeah, and not that half-ass Core shit.
00:44:49Core is great, but it's not Scouts.
00:44:52Yeah, we need to return to early 2000 Scout Class.
00:44:58Return with a V.
00:45:00Yeah, return with a V.
00:45:03A Cliffjumper-like toy
00:45:07with stripped-down accessories and stripped-down paint
00:45:11would probably suffice for a Scout revival.
00:45:17Maybe take out the wrist swivels, too,
00:45:20while you're at it.
00:45:22I mean, I have an early 2000 Scout Class
00:45:25in my hands right now.
00:45:29It's the universe repaint of the RID 2001 repaint
00:45:34of one of the Beast Wars Scout Class figures,
00:45:37Scout Class Vehicons.
00:45:39And in my hands,
00:45:41I kind of feel like this figure,
00:45:47it's got a bit more of a simple transformation,
00:45:49but it's got like spring-loaded gimmicks and things.
00:45:51I don't think it's that less complex
00:45:55than a modern-day Mini Deluxe.
00:46:01Perhaps.
00:46:03The only thing it's missing, of course,
00:46:05is the extra accessories that we don't even get these days.
00:46:12It doesn't particularly help.
00:46:14I don't know if they're the exact same people, to be fair,
00:46:17but it doesn't particularly help that there's an audience out there
00:46:20that is willing to pay ludicrous prices
00:46:23for third-party figures that are Legends scale.
00:46:30Yeah, I get the argument that they make
00:46:33a whole lot less of them than Hasbro does,
00:46:35so economies of scale and all that.
00:46:38But, man, once I was interested in...
00:46:41Oh, God, who was it? Who was it?
00:46:46I don't think it was Iron Factory,
00:46:48but it was one of them.
00:46:50They made a shattered glass beachcomber
00:46:52that was colored to be movie hardtop.
00:46:55Oh, that was New Age.
00:46:57New Age, okay, yeah.
00:46:59And they wanted like 50 bucks for it,
00:47:01and it's hardly bigger than my thumb
00:47:05down to the first knuckle.
00:47:08No, I'm not paying that.
00:47:11Yeah, New Age is quite pricey.
00:47:14In fairness, I don't think New Age is really comparable
00:47:17to this kind of stuff
00:47:20because New Age does a lot of things like die-cast parts.
00:47:27They have a lot of paint apps, things like that.
00:47:34I don't know.
00:47:35People talk about mini masterpieces
00:47:37in the chug terms, in the chug scale.
00:47:40I would honestly say that New Age
00:47:43is like the actual mini masterpiece thing,
00:47:47as in they are toys that are in the vein
00:47:50of a masterpiece figure,
00:47:52but at a Revenge of the Fallen scout class scale.
00:47:59At least in my opinion.
00:48:01I wouldn't argue with that.
00:48:05It's just not worth it to me personally.
00:48:08No, that's fair, that's fair.
00:48:11For this particular extracurricular,
00:48:13I did ask other people in Kit's Discord server.
00:48:18Yes, yes, yes.
00:48:19The crew of Kit, join now
00:48:22and insult me to my face all you want.
00:48:26So this one is from...
00:48:29It's Garrett, isn't it?
00:48:31Yes.
00:48:32The Needlenose Enthusiast.
00:48:33He basically says,
00:48:34Cliffjumper, while definitely the first example of this,
00:48:37well, not really.
00:48:38I did point out otherwise, but whatever.
00:48:41I think it's perfectly fine.
00:48:43I like the small yet sturdy figures,
00:48:45like Animated Bee.
00:48:47Presumably he's referring to Legacy United.
00:48:51Yeah, that's what I'm assuming too.
00:48:53Cliffjumper and Studio Series Brawn.
00:48:55But I do understand the feeling of others.
00:48:57Just shoving in extra accessories
00:48:59doesn't always feel worth the price tag.
00:49:02Him citing 86 Springer and Earthrise Double Dealer as examples.
00:49:07Oh, yes.
00:49:0886 Springer is probably the most single egregious example of this.
00:49:13Like, who does Hasbro think they are
00:49:16trying to hawk that off?
00:49:19Yeah.
00:49:20It's especially egregious when it is literally
00:49:23a very slight retool of a toy
00:49:26that they sold at a lower price point
00:49:28only a couple years ago.
00:49:31And, okay, correct me if I'm wrong,
00:49:33but doesn't it come with numerically fewer accessories
00:49:37than the Siege version?
00:49:39So the Siege version comes with two swords,
00:49:42a bracket that attaches the swords in helicopter mode
00:49:45to make the rotor blades.
00:49:46Yeah, and two guns.
00:49:48And two guns.
00:49:49The new one comes with one sword.
00:49:54I will give you that it probably splits apart
00:49:56to form the blades, so more than one part.
00:50:00The one sword, I think it comes with two guns.
00:50:05And a hammer, okay.
00:50:06A hammer and a bomb.
00:50:08Oh, yeah, that makes it 20 bucks more expensive by itself.
00:50:13Yeah.
00:50:14It better be made out of fucking platinum.
00:50:17You must understand that one bomb from the 1986 movie
00:50:22was very important to Springer as a character.
00:50:25Is it even painted?
00:50:26No.
00:50:27No.
00:50:31Of course it isn't.
00:50:33Another person that responded was DMPrime17.
00:50:38I personally don't really mind as long as the figure
00:50:40can show where the budget went.
00:50:42Earthrise Cliffjumper and 86HotRod are good examples.
00:50:4686HotRod is a pretty good example, yeah.
00:50:48I'll give him that.
00:50:50Both have much more evolved transformations
00:50:53than you really need for the design.
00:50:55But that's not bad, in my opinion,
00:50:57since 86HotRod bases his on the movie model's
00:51:01on-screen conversion.
00:51:02Which one?
00:51:03There are, like, five of them.
00:51:05I think he means the one at, like...
00:51:09Oh, God.
00:51:11It's during the dare sequence.
00:51:12He flips his arms around or something.
00:51:15Yeah, yeah.
00:51:17Cliffjumper does change a lot between modes,
00:51:20and his included items are fun-looking,
00:51:22but that one bit of parts forming does confuse me.
00:51:25It's not that it's a blatant piece of the alternate mode,
00:51:28but that they couldn't find a way to make a mechanism
00:51:31for it while still including the shield as an option.
00:51:35Maybe removing one part of the bazooka could have helped?
00:51:39Maybe, but it's just, once again,
00:51:41it doesn't seem like the parts that would be needed
00:51:44to make the shield not parts form.
00:51:47I don't think they would have really significantly
00:51:49increased the budget either way.
00:51:52Yeah, especially as, once again,
00:51:55they pumped this out, like, 18 times,
00:51:57so it would have paid for itself.
00:52:00On the topic of mold reuses, here they are.
00:52:04Look at me.
00:52:05Firstly, Cliffjumper saw a second release
00:52:09in a Buzzworthy Bumblebee as a Studio Series entry,
00:52:14a deco closer to his appearance in the cartoon
00:52:17and ditching the translucent plastic.
00:52:19You also have Select's Hubcap
00:52:21and the boring-as-hell Bug Bite,
00:52:24Shatterglass Goldbug, and a version of Bumblebee
00:52:27from the Buzzworthy Worlds Collide 4-pack.
00:52:30There were two more uses that saw the vehicle
00:52:33retooled into a Volkswagen,
00:52:35providing us with the Netflix Bumblebee
00:52:38and a regular Goldbug from Buzzworthy's
00:52:40Creatures Collide 4-pack.
00:52:42I don't own a single one of these.
00:52:46Yes, I have had both Bumblebees and Goldbug.
00:52:52I just sold off the straight repaint of Cliffjumper.
00:52:57I like the Volkswagen remold.
00:53:02I kept both versions of it,
00:53:04but I have not gone for any other
00:53:06single version of this mold.
00:53:09It's just not good enough to get
00:53:13more than three times, I guess.
00:53:17I don't have any of these repaints,
00:53:19but I will say I would not mind
00:53:21getting that Goldbug.
00:53:24Which one?
00:53:25The Creatures Collide one.
00:53:27The only reason I didn't get it
00:53:29was because it was part of a 4-pack,
00:53:31and I don't remember particularly wanting
00:53:33any of the other figures in that 4-pack.
00:53:35Yeah, Goldbug in that 4-pack
00:53:38has a brilliant gold paint job as well.
00:53:41He feels very premium compared to Bumblebee.
00:53:44It's very glossy, too,
00:53:46so it's also different from Cliffjumper himself,
00:53:49who's matte.
00:53:51But yeah, I would have gotten Bugbite
00:53:54if he had a more BotCon-centric paint job.
00:53:57And speaking of BotCon,
00:53:59it really is a wasted opportunity
00:54:02that they did Shattered Glass Goldbug
00:54:04when his proper mold is just coming out now.
00:54:09Yeah, yeah.
00:54:10I'm honestly really hoping they do
00:54:12another Shattered Glass Goldbug from that toy
00:54:14because that design is one of my favorite versions
00:54:17of the original Acceleron mold,
00:54:23and it's really expensive
00:54:25because it's an early 2000s BotCon exclusive, obviously,
00:54:29so an opportunity to get a toy in that same vein
00:54:32would be really cool.
00:54:34I think I said previously that of a 2-pack
00:54:37with Hotshot into Goldbug
00:54:39and Starscream into, well, Starscream
00:54:43wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
00:54:46I mean, I wouldn't buy Starscream by himself,
00:54:50but I'd buy the 2-pack.
00:54:53Honestly, the 2-pack, yeah,
00:54:55that wouldn't be objectionable.
00:54:58If I were to pick up any other version of the mold,
00:55:01it probably would be the regular Goldbug
00:55:04from the Creatures Collide 4-pack.
00:55:07And I just like that as a result of reusing the mold,
00:55:12every version of it comes with a bazooka.
00:55:17Yeah.
00:55:18Yeah, that's kind of funny.
00:55:22Part of me wishes they could have done something else with it,
00:55:26make something more character-appropriate,
00:55:29especially for the Bumblebees,
00:55:32because who gives a shit if Bugbite and Hubcap come with it?
00:55:36I mean, they're nobody.
00:55:38But Bumblebee, he's a different kind of guy.
00:55:41Make him come with something else.
00:55:43I don't know.
00:55:44I'm not an ideas guy.
00:55:46Just something.
00:55:48I mean, it is kind of amusing,
00:55:51because briefly touching on another mold,
00:55:55they did retool it quite a bit for Ruckus,
00:55:59the upcoming Ruckus,
00:56:01but it kind of amuses me
00:56:03that if they were to recolor Beachcomber multiple times,
00:56:07it could come with the entire parrot family or something.
00:56:10But anyway, let's move on to the final judgment.
00:56:18I guess I'll go first.
00:56:21And I'd hazard a Silver.
00:56:25He has a lot of problems that we've covered.
00:56:28He has the parts forming.
00:56:30He's small.
00:56:31But he's solid.
00:56:33And his car mode looks amazing,
00:56:35especially with the stickers.
00:56:37Check my community tab.
00:56:41But, you know, he's fine.
00:56:45He's fine.
00:56:46It's really just his personal legacy that's the problem.
00:56:53Yeah, yeah.
00:56:56Honestly, I'd probably give him a Bronze,
00:56:59but that's mainly because I just haven't been inspired
00:57:02to take this toy down from the shelf for a very long time
00:57:07and mess with it.
00:57:11It's just kind of sat there collecting dust.
00:57:15So, you know, I think Bronze is our mid-tier.
00:57:22So I'd say maybe Silver.
00:57:24I'll give it Silver, yeah.
00:57:27Just for because it's not a toy I really dislike,
00:57:33but it's not a toy I particularly love either.
00:57:38It's just all right.
00:57:39I should double-check what I rated him on my review.
00:57:42Tragic.
00:57:43Oh, was it?
00:57:44Oh, no.
00:57:45You literally rated him tragic.
00:57:50I guess I've just warmed up to him in the meantime.
00:57:54Hey, opinions change.
00:57:55That's the way it is sometimes.
00:57:57As for me, I've been fluctuating between Bronze and Silver.
00:58:02For now, I'll go with Silver because, like you said,
00:58:05he comes with some fun accessories which provide a lot of play options
00:58:10with him.
00:58:11But I'd be lying if I said that the parts forming didn't bother me
00:58:14just a little bit.
00:58:16Yeah.
00:58:18I mean, it just seems like such a weird, specific thing to cheap out on.
00:58:22That's all, you know.
00:58:24It's something that could have been addressed pretty easily,
00:58:30and it wouldn't have really affected the way the toy works.
00:58:33I don't think anyone would have really missed having the
00:58:36quote-unquote shield.
00:58:38Moral of the story, buy Masterpiece Bumblebee instead.
00:58:41The original, presumably.
00:58:43Yes.
00:58:44It's the same toy but better.
00:58:47So that pretty much wraps it up for this extracurricular.
00:58:53If any of you guys have some suggestions as to which toys we could talk
00:58:58about in the future, by all means post them in the comment section.
00:59:03Yes, yes, yes.
00:59:04Drive that engagement.
00:59:06Yes.
00:59:08I'm not sure anyone watches these all the way through.
00:59:12I have been trying to think of a good figure that we could talk about
00:59:15on these extracurricular segments.
00:59:21I'm kind of drawing a blank on specific figures that I think would be,
00:59:25that would have enough meat in terms of stuff to talk about.
00:59:31I can think of one.
00:59:33Oh?
00:59:34Velocitron Scourge.
00:59:36Oh.
00:59:38Ooh.
00:59:39Yeah, I'd be down for that.
00:59:41I shelved my Laser Optimist review,
00:59:44the full story of which will be found in my Kingdom Tracks review,
00:59:49which should be up at the time that this goes live.
00:59:52So, yeah.
00:59:56Don't like it.
00:59:59No.
01:00:00Bad toy.
01:00:02Bad toy, bad reuse of parts.
01:00:05Bad toy, bad toy.
01:00:06Confounding design decisions.
01:00:07What you going to do?
01:00:08What you going to do when they chug for you?
01:00:11Oh, God.
01:00:15In the meantime, thanks to you both for joining me on this one.
01:00:19This has been RuneStone.
01:00:21This has been Kit Katastrophe.
01:00:23And your humble Dean of Fabrication, DefinitelyNotChar.
01:00:27Take care, till all are one.
01:00:30Class dismissed.