Beast Hunters!

Predacons Galore!

The funny thing about toy lines with promotional media tie ins is the ironic fact that the toys don't ever really have to match the media. Transformers Prime Beast Hunters is a perfect case study into this particular phenomenon. Disregarding all the internet hearsay which states that the entire premise of Beast Hunters was added on clumsily to the already successful Transformers Prime animated show and toy line to extend toy sales, the fact remains that almost the entirety of the Beast Hunters toy line has nothing to do with the show.

In the past, Transformers toys were released to coincide with the animated series. Literally, a character would be introduced and you could go out to the store and buy that character's action figure the same week. A perfect example would is Transformers Beast Wars. Arguably second to Transformers Prime in story telling and maturity, Beast Wars ran for 3 seasons like Prime. However, while Prime introduced re-imaginings of the core characters which did not appear in the show, Beast Wars redesigned the characters from events in the shows cannon. This logical action made it very easy for collectors to buy a second recolored version of the 
character or even buy the same character in a different rendition  
(regular, Trans-metal, Trans-metal 2).

Japan Only

Sadly, Beast Hunters introduced an entire line of figures which represent the core cast of protagonists and villains and a new host of beasts without any appearance on the show. This disconnect seems like it would be a disastrous. Some would argue for or against the results. I can only say that as a hardcore Transformers collector, I have only bought 2 figures (deluxe Smokescreen and voyager Optimus Prime) and I only intend to purchase 1 more in the future (ultimate Predaking). My own preference in collecting dictates I follow the fictional cannon of the show. I purchase the best representations of each character in the show, factoring in the scale of the toys to the show iterations. 

Non-Show Hasbro Figures
*Select Images Courtesy of Seibertron.com

That being said, the biggest question is why didn't Hasbro release figures that Takara Tomy did? Why would they create an entire line of fictional alternate modes for the core cast of characters for Prime and rename the show under the Beast Hunters banner when there was a perfectly good stable of figures that remain unreleased outside of Japan? Some suspect licensing issues or shared costs of the tooling and molds. Some say Beast Hunters was a huge marketing campaign which did not take into consideration the hardcore fans and toy collectors and instead focused on the Transformers brand and the casual consumer (parents who purchase toys for their children). 

The rational does not really make sense since Hasbro released some characters that were not found in the show including Hot Shot, Dead End, Rumble, Kup, Thundertron, or the early version of Ultra Magnus. Why wouldn't they release Breakdown, Unicron, Silas, Nemesis Prime, Jet Vehicon, and Vehicon General? All the before mentioned appeared prominently in various episodes. Then there is the horde of additional characters that were created by recoloring previously released molds. Some of these figures featured entirely new head sculpts, including Swerve, Lio Prime, and Wild Rider.

Wonderful World of Import Characters
*Select Images Courtesy of Seibertron.com

Regardless, there can be no argument that there are still a ton of figures that remain unreleased to the western market. Who knows if they will ever be made available. In the end, it may be too late as many like me turned to the grey market to purchase import products from Japan. 

Review Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Season 3 Finale Episode 13 Deadlock

Wow, so Transformers Prime animated television series has finally ended and what a ending! 

SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

The climatic series finale, Episode 13, Deadlock, has it all. We see the death two of major character, resurrection of one of those major characters, the return of some powerful and often forgotten weapons, and even tongue in cheek nods to some past episodes from the previous seasons. It's 20 minutes packed full of explosions, action, drama, and suspense which leads up to a somewhat satisfying ending. Definitely a bitter sweet pill to take as Transformers Prime is, in my opinion, the best Transformers series that has ever been produced in any format.


The main thing I loved is the all out assault nature of this episode which adds a "all or nothing" feeling to the final conflict between the Decepticons and Autobots. It just feels definitive. We haven't seen anything like this yet. Set dramatically over the Earth's orbit, the full Autobot force (both Scout Team and Wreakers) launch an all out assault on the Decepticon Nemesis warship to stop Megatron from cyberizing the Earth. Characters carry both their default weapons, as well as some of their assault weapons load outs, including Bumble Bee's force shield and the Wreckers heavy weapons. It's also a great nod to see both the Star Saber and the Dark Star Saber make their return.

Heroic Bumble Bee about to get shot in the chest.

Another great nod is when Soundwave uses the Space Bridge as a weapon to displace the Wreckers assault on the Nemesis bridge and also how Jack, Miko, and Raph use the same trick to trap Soundwave in the Shadow Zone. Also a nice nod is when Miko shows up in the Apex Armor and takes out several Vehicons.

Bumble Bee falls to his apparent death.

While this is a epic conclusion, there are some things that linger on and bother me about the ending of this series. The main thing that bothers me is how Bumble Bee's seemingly death and resurrection was handled and the death of Megatron. Ultimately I thought the episode was flawless up until Megatron death. Bumble Bee's apparent death was both heroic and poetically tragic at the same time. I felt  he was yet another soldier who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the war against Megatron's tyranny. Resurrecting him in some "magical" artificial Energon pool and having him stab Megatron from behind kind of sucked. It negates both Optimus Prime as a leader and warrior. It negates Megatron as this bad ass cunning gladiator from the pits of Kaon. It give no purpose to Bumble Bee's apparent sacrifice. I understand that Bumble Bee is probably the only character with a vendetta against Megatron. Megatron tortured Bee, maimed him by ripping out his voice box, and also took over his body during season 1. I'm sure there would be physiological damage to Bee after all that but still it just seems like a cop out because Transformers Prime, despite it's dramatic story, is still a children's show geared toward selling toys. I'd rather have had Smokescreen kill Megatron since they heavily eluded to him being Optimus Prime's successor. Why build up Smokescreen as "the next Prime" and then have him get shot in the shoulder and taken out of the battle? Hmm.

Megatron impaled by the resurrected Bumble Bee.

A few other additional loose ends are left hanging too. Predaking is shown escaping to Cybertron. I'm assuming the TV movie Predacon's Rising will spotlight the climatic fate of the last Predacon versus the Autobots. 

Additionally, What happened to the remaining Vehicons? Did they all fall at the hands of the Autobots assault? We see 3 Vehicon Generals escape after Megatron's demise but they are nowhere to be found when Starscream and Shockwave escape the Nemesis. What happened to Knockout? He attempted to defect to the Autobots side when they resurrected Cybertron and he was punched out by Miko in her Apex Armor. Did she kill him? Is he imprisoned?

Lastly, the hugest unanswered question has to do with Season 3 Episode 8, Thirst. What happened to the infected Airachnid and her Insecticons? We last saw her steadily feeding on her Insecticon minions. Did she drain them all of their Energon or did she merely infect her army and is bidding her time on the moons surface to escape?

Who knows. Hopefully we will get conclusions to these answers in the final installment, Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Predacon's Rising TV Movie. The wait till October is going to be a long one. 

Airachnid - Last seen on the Moon gorging herself on Insecticons.

The Loyal Subjects Transformers and G.I.Joe Vinyl Figures

The Loyal Subjects Transformers Wave 1

Launched around late June 2013, The Loyal Subjects vinyl Transformers figure line burst on to the collectible  vinyl scene like a super nova but somehow didn't really make a huge mark in the Transformers toy collector world. Initially I wasn't a fan. I admit I was pretty biased toward Transformer merchandise that didn't transform. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a toy line titled "Transformers." Reading the online comments was a litany of negative opinions ranging from too cartoony, too expensive, and the randomness of the blind box release left the main focus group of the figure series in the lurch. Transformers collectors just weren't excited.

The Loyal Subjects 8-inch Dead Prime

Despite this, I thought the designs were rather clean. It so happened that my buddy Shanti picked up 3 figures on his break during Botcon and he brought them back to our booth. We opened 2 of them and saved the third for his girlfriend to open. It turns out I got Optimus Prime and he got Soundwave. Knowing that he collects Optimus Prime figures we traded and that's how I got my first The Loyal Subjects figure.

Coming back from Botcon 2013, I didn't think much about Soundwave. He was on my table. Then I moved him to my desk. I picked him up and played with him a bit. Having very limited articulation and being 3-inches tall, there isn't much you can do with these figures. But still, he was cool. The super deformed art style was cute and the fact that he came with a weapons was a plus.

BAIT exclusive 8-inch Bullet Prime

It wasn't until several weeks later at San Diego Comic-con that Shanti asked me to visit The Loyal Subjects booth and pick up their exclusive 8-inch Dead Prime figure. I put it on the list of things to get in line to pick up. After researching the release time at the Loyal Subjects booth, I came to discover they had a horde of SDCC exclusive figures at multiple retailers. In addition to the 8-inch Dead Prime, there was the BAIT 8-inch Bullet Prime, Toy Tokyo 3-inch Sunstorm, and The Loyal Subjects had 3-inch Cybertron Megatron, 3-inch 2 pack Radioactive Snake Eyes and Camouflage Storm Shadow, and 2 pack Iron Grenadier Destro and Gold Cobra Commander. Additionally, they would have the new G.I.Joe wave 1 line for sale. Holy crap.

Exclusive Iron Grenadier Destro and
Gold Cobra Commander

I was already tasked to pick up Dead Prime for Shanti and I also planned on picking up the Bullet Pirme from BAIT's booth since one of my coworkers knew them and was going to head over there to pick up some stuff for himself. After the first day, I walked the floor with our management team and we ended up passing by The Loyal Subjects booth. I headed over to talk to them to ask when the Dead Prime would be released and when should I come over to stand in line. Since I was there I picked up 6 blind box figures (3 Transformer, 3 G.I.Joe) and their exclusive 3-inch Cybertron Megatron to show a little support.

I was pleasantly surprised by the selection of figures I got from the blind box. In my opinion they are all winners. I got Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Grimlock for the Transformers blind box lot. I got Snake Eyes, Duke, and Destro for the G.I.Joe blind box lot. 

The Loyal Subjects G.I.JOE Wave 1 (minus Storm Shadow)

The following day I headed over to pick up the Dead Prime figure in between business appointments and I picked up another 2 blind box figure. If you can't tell I'm hooked by now. I got a duplicate Optimus Prime and Snake Eyes.

After coming back from SDCC, I did a little research on the rare figures, and also was lucky enough to stumble upon both rare figures from the Transformers Wave 1 series for cheap. I picked both of them up for $5 over their retail price. Score!  Welcome Illest Jazz and Cybertron Bumble Bee.

The compulsion continues. Since my first Soundwave, I have picked up both 8-inch Primes (Bullet Prime and Dead Prime) and I own 15 of the 3-inch figures now. After my initial skepticism, I've become a big fan of this series. Yes, they are expensive for what they are but the artistic aesthetic they exude and the limited nature of their production runs really resonate with me as a collector. I'm hoping to see wave 2 soon. Gah, plastic crack. Crack, crack, crack.