The Cybertronian Pony

Time for me to over analyze toys for 5-year-olds! Oh Boy!

There are some of the new molds for the new Pony 3 packs, and I am quite impressed with them. Each one of them has a defining feature that shows off the amount of effort and cost that was put into these vs the old molds.

I’ll start with Gilda. Her biggest feature is her size, as she is a good bit larger than the standard blind bag toys. Also of note is the use of two different colors of plastic. Previous toys has the entire toy molded from one color, and all detail painted on.

Now on to Granny Smith. She too is composed of more than one color plastic, and she has a quite a bit more paint apps than a typical blind bag. Of note are the small details such as the apples on her neck sash thing and the wheels and tennis balls on the walker.

Surprise may be the most impressive. Her mane and tail are both molded separately from the body. Her paint apps aren’t as small and detailed as Granny Smith, but she does have a ton of them. I think the most important thing though, is the much more show accurate proportions they use. When you compare it to the old Twilight mold, you can see that the legs are much less chunky looking and better defined, the head is more round and doesn’t have those weird droopy cheeks, and the nose is the right shape.

So while these new molds are a bit more expensive than the old ones ($10 for a 3 pack), I think they are worth it, as they are a higher quality toy than the standard bind bags. Hasbro has now shown that they are able to produce show accurate toys, and are willing to put more money into making more complex molds. I hope they keep up this quality, and I’ll be happy to pick up more of these.

Time for some old school Beast Wars toys.

Optimus Primal here was the one of my favorite toys as a kid, and even though it’s fairly simple by today’s standards it still holds up pretty well. If I had to change anything I would remove the action gimmick from his arms, as it makes him a bit difficult to pose.

MP-11 Starscream

This is the new mold for masterpiece Starscream. For comparison I have Skywarp in the old mold in one of the pics.

I really like this new version of the Seeker mold. The transformation feels a lot smoother, the parts all line up better, and it forms a much better robot mode. If you already have the Walmart Starscream it’s probably not worth getting this one, but if you don’t have that one than this one is great.

Dark of the Moon leader class Ironhide.

First pic is with the weapon upgrades, second is stock.

I’m not really a big fan of the movie Transformers, but there are a few that I like. This is the best movie Ironhide I’ve found. Most of the others get the proportions wrong, or just give him really weird arms. This one gets those things right, but sadly his weapons are rather sad. Luckily there was a kit available to give him more movie accurate guns.

I just got this in today. It’s both of the Iron Army sets from TFC. They are meant as an upgrade to the Transformers Power Core Combiners. They have a WWII theme, and when combined with Bombshock they make him appear quite like Bruticus. The last picture shows the upgraded version on the left, and the stock Hasbro version on the right.

Overall I like this set. It’s quite an improvement over the drones that the PCC come with. I wish Hasbro would have made them proper combiners from the begining. My only real complaint is that he doesn’t come with a weapon for the combined mode. A nice rifle would have made this guy look much better.

Legends Class Reveal the Shield Megatron.

This is the first time since the 80s that Megatron has been released in the US with a realistic gun mode. It’s surprisingly possible for a toy it’s size. Sadly the paint has a tendency to scratch really easy.

It would seem that Megatron hates blind bag Fluttershy being a crappy repaint too.

As an example of the kind of older stuff I might be showing, here is Serpentera from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I got this way back when it was new, and it’s still one of my favorite of the old Power Rangers toys. Unfortunately it’s become a bit brittle with age, and the spring that holds the tail came loose. It’s definitely one of the larger toys that I own, and proved a bit difficult to photograph. I need to get a bigger tripod so I can get better pics of large toys like this.

This is a custom Vinyl Scratch that I got off of Shapeways. While there are not many MLP toys that are worth showing off, this is one of the exceptions. I’m quite happy with how it looks, and it’s surprisingly sturdy. The only minor complaints I have are that it has a bit of a gritty texture, and the neck is at a slightly weird angle when viewed from the front. Even with those issues though, it’s still miles ahead of the official Hasbro toys (though I will still be buying the official Vinyl Scratch when it comes out).

I’ll start out with a toy that I just picked up recently. Transformers Prime: Robots in Disguise (or PRiD) Vehicon. This guy is fantastic. He has a great robot mode, and his transformation is fairly innovative, with the bulk of his car mode folding into his legs. Unfortunately he is packed only 1 per case, so he can be a bit hard to find. If you come across one I highly suggest picking it up, you won’t be disappointed.