Transformers EarthSpark The Official Guidebook by Ryder Windham

So I tried to get the four Takara deluxes on Amazon Japan but ended up getting them on Amiami instead and picked up some Christmas presents for my sister and niece. Out of nowhere in her late 40s my sister finally decided to get into anime lol. She LOVES One Piece for some reason but I digress. My dumb ass forgot about the actual Takara deluxe Thrash (warrior Thrash was also sold as deluxe). I rushed the shipment too as it's the beginning of the month instead of "holding" it to the end of the month so I can't add to the order. Now I gotta find another way to pick up my fourth Thrash. Single figure deliveries suck due to not being able to split the shipping price. I would've remembered if they didn't cancel Prowl. Such a stupid move as that would've sold really well. So many people were looking forward to that one. I mean, it's not like they cancelled the line entirely or weren't willing to keep doing their own thing either as seen with Elita and Hashtag.

But yeah, thanks to our old pal Chuck for reminding me about those figures with his videos the past few weeks. Completely forgot about them or rather, I thought they were coming out later. Would've been mad if I couldn't get them especially since the Hasbro versions will look different for Jawbreaker, Aftermath and especially Hashtag. I just wish their Eltia looked even more different as really only the arms and a little bit of paintwork are different from the Hasbro version which I already have. It would've been nice to have seen ALL the windows painted or something. Different color plastics or paints. Just anything more than headlights and insignias. 

Just to let you know, the review of Aftermath that I made and was shared is of the Takara Tomy version and NOT the Hasbro release. Also, the Hasbro promotional pics have Aftermath transformed incorrectly. 

I WAS KIDDING WHEN I SAID TO COMBINE THEM IN VEHICLE MODE!!!!!!

Well, I guess it's only HALF an upside car on top of Twitch. 

It's like one of those awful scout class figures with the half transformations from Cyberverse. But you have to buy two figures to pull it off. At least you can technically ignore it. 

While you might be able to deploy Twitch's legs in that garbage combined mode, would you actually want to? The whole "robot mode" will look absolutely awful with the tiny legs and arms and half an upside car sticking out the back of the torso. Even having Twitch's arms out to give the "robot mode" four arms won't make up for it. Maybe deploy Bumblebee's legs as a third set of "arms" lol. Like an Ashura mode or something.

Nevermind that won't work, Twitch's rotors will be in the way. The only way to move them out of the way would be to move them to the front of the "robot mode". Well, it looks dumb already so why not at that point right?

What a shame about this "combined" mode though. With how good the Cyber Combiner 2-packs are, I was expecting these to at least be halfway decent. 

So uh...what's those clips on the tops of the vehicles of Warrior Bumblebee and Twitch? They certainly look like they can combine with each other.

I mean, they can combine together with those two packs with the Malto kid drones but these are different molds from those. They should go on the backs of the robot modes but that doesn't lead to anything really. You could combine them in vehicle mode but one would always be upside down. It could work puttin Twitch on top of Bumblebee though but not the other way around.

I take it though that season 2 will have a combining gimmick if these toys are any indication. It just sucks that the first year's warrior class figures won't be able to participate.  

Redecoing Cyberverse Hot Rod into Prowl is such an odd choice, especially because there was a Cyberverse Prowl. I see why with the chest deco and slight similarity to the head sculpt. My brain initially says no, but it is kind of an interesting curiosity.

Damn, those look really good.

This is my second attempt at a comment about this. The first draft went on about how there wasn't any forward shoulder movement and how that could've been changed had the base robots had thigh swivels which turned into bicep swivels for robot mode. Think Animated Safeguard made from Jetfire and Jetstorm who totally should've been named Firestorm (but we know they couldn't as G1 Firestorm had her name changed to Novastorm) or at least Stormfire but I digress. It would've made for a roundabout way to have the combined mode arms to move forward and sideways but it worked.

But then I keep looking and spotted a picture with the arms moved forward. It looks as though each half of the pelvis is on its own little swivel. Those allow for the forward movement.

Well played designers, well played. Still it would be nice if they had thigh swivels but it's fine. It's only slightly limiting and these are cheaper figures that needed to have four modes so something had to be cut. And if it had to be anything to get those much better shoulder joints then thigh swivels was a good thing to cut.

I very much look forward to getting these now. And I think that these are the prototypes for the Energon Autobots. A while back in one of the livestreams I remember the Transformers team mention that they are looking into doing Energon/Superlink figures but wanted to keep them as combiners and that, along with people generally not liking that series, was what was holding them up for the most part. With these, it looks like they're putting their research into prototype form and testing the waters for Energon/Superlink toys with these as well as the beautiful Energon Megatron core class figure.

So as long as these are well received, and I don't see why they wouldn't as they do really look good, we might finally get some Energon/Superlink characters after Legacy United. 

I didn't love Energon. In fact, I didn't even watch it. I did have the toy though since Toy R Us put them on a two for one clearance. So of course I went in an cleaned them out. I may have grew up with G1 but want all characters to get updated because I just want some cool toys. Combiners are cool toys. So long as they don't suck. Even then, combiners can still suck and be cool toys. There's just something about combiners. 

I just wonder if those drone things have alt modes. That one has wings and these two drones really should be swapped with the bigger one going with Bumblebee and the smaller one going with Twitch. But it looks like that can be fixed after the fact. It should also mean that the drones can combine with each other and that Bumblebee and Twitch can combine. I might have to pick up multiple sets as I like those drones and their ability to combine. They'd make for some great troop builders. But that means getting a bunch of Bumblebees and Twitches that I wouldn't want. Well I'd probably keep two of each to combine with themselves but that's it.

Seriously though, bring on the Energon boys. I want a double Jetfire combiner. Or rather a Jetfire and Overcast combiner. And please for the love of Primus make Ironhide not suck again. Or Optimus if they do a version of him in that style again. It could also explain why they haven't done the obvious Tow-Line retool from Earthrise Ironhide yet. Other than the name being used for that shitty RID 2001 Junkion Tow-Line currently. I just got one the other day and I fucking hate it. He is never going on my Junkasaurus. Green asshole looks nothing like the character he's meant to be. The Junkions suck too as they can barely even utilize their own gimmick. 

That 1-step Breakdown barely looks any different than Wheeljack. 

Let's take the white car with red stripes and redco him into the other white car with red stripes. Who's next from this mold, Drift? You know, the other, other white car with red stripes. What about Jazz? Or maybe Runamuck? Downshift? Clamp Down, Prowl, Red Alert, Tailgate, Quickshadow, Searchlight, Streetwise, Cordon, Getaway, Deadlock, Hans-Cuff, Crasher, Jig Saw and whoever else. Just get all them white cars from the same mold.

Wow... that's some lazy stuff right there. Wheeljack was not a good choice to match Breakdown's look.

Not feeling these straight Cyberverse redecos but I don't think it matters to kids as the ones buying these now probably don't have the older one. Although if they want to make Thunderhowl in some new colors I'll be okay with that. Either mold. Maybe Meteorfire and Wildwheel.

This Nightshade figure only makes me want a new Transmetal 2 Prowl 2 more. I just want all the TM2s to get new toys. Jawbreaker, Scourge, Prowl, Ramulus, Sonar, Spittor, Cybershark, Iguanus, Stinkbomb, Nightglider, Optimus Minor, Scarem and Tigerhawk. We have four/seven options for Megatron depending on how you count them, three/four for Cryotek, one for Blackarachnia, Arcee, Cheetor and Dinobot 2 with Tripredacus Agent most likely being announced soon.

Damn it just hit me that Hasbro said that Antagony is the last Generations Selects this year yet Cryotek has yet to be announced. We're getting both Skyquake and Dreadwing as well as Armada Megatron and Galvatron before Cryotek is announced or even leaked. What the hell? I just keep coming up with more and more figures that can be released in Generations Selects still but the last one was already announced for the year. 

Grimlock looks good. 

Retool is retool though. Same heels, ankles, fists, forearms, inner leg flaps, hips, thighs, T-Rex neck, the inner shoulder joints and back hinge plate as Cyberverse deluxe Grimlock at the very least. 

Guess we know where Shockwave's budget went that he's just a redeco lol.

Scraplets?

And female Skywarp?

And Optimus wielding a wrench (that transforms into his battle axe)?

This one is different from the one on Facebook. It's missing Skullcruncher.