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.

Toy Purchases February 2012

Transformers RID Deluxe Wave 1 * Image courtesy of Seibertron.com

Continuing my catch up with my toy diary, I examine the month of February 2012's purchase. February was actually a crazy month for my purchasing habits. With preorders being fulfilled  the new Transformer lines debuting, and my nostalgic leap into collecting MIB Machine Robos, I actually spent a grip this particular month. Unfortunately  this is a trend that will continue for the rest of 2012 apparently. Yep!

Transformers RID Voyager Wave 1* Image courtesy of Seibertron.com

The most exciting burst of news was the release of the new Transformers RID line which exemplified the mass produced Transformers Prime toys. Late in 2011, Hasbro limitedly released their Transformers Prime First Edition line. Unforgettably for reasons unknown, the distribution in North America was absolutely horrible. Only the first wave of deluxe figures hit the shelves at Toys R Us with a very limited distribution plan. North America did not received distribution for the bulk of the series including the more expensive Voyager class toys, wave 2 deluxe toys, and the entertainment 2-pack. This actually set the tone for the upcoming 2012 releases as fans and collectors trust remained shaken as Hasbro struggled to get their products on the shelves at a timely and evenly distributed manor.

BotShots Bumble Bee * Image courtesy of Seibertron.com

Back on track, the first wave of Transofremrs RID Prime figures were nice but also a bit of a disappointment as they were much more dissimilar and smaller than the previously mentioned First Edition figures which were far more complicated with a higher degree of engineering and complexity in designs. Even so, the deluxe wave of Bumble Bee, Wheeljack, Cliffjumper, and Soundwave were fairly decent releases. In my own opinion the only toy that seemed a tad bit inferior was Cliffjumper since his transformation involved painted on features on his chest instead of the actual movable parts. Additionally, the RID Cliffjumper figure lacked deploy-able hand blasters which deviated from the successful First Edition figure and the cartoon character design.The one figure that stood out the most was surprisingly Bumble Bee whose simplistic RID design was, in my own opinion, far superior to the First Edition figure. Although even this figure is marred by the artificially attached self-transformation feature that adds a ugly cog and teethed track to Bumble Bees upper chest / lower neck area, the figure still seems better proportioned and detailed than it's progenitor figure.

Encore Twincast * Image courtesy of Seibertron.com

While the Deluxe RID wave 1 was a marginal success, the Voyager class seemed to be a dismal failure in design. The First Edition Optimus Prime, in many ways, is far superior to the RID version. Aesthetics and transformation seemed lacking to the previous edition. RID Megatron seemed lackluster. The grey drap plastic gives a overall cheap feeling to the toy. Transformation seemed cumbersome and the plane mode feels fragile with parts not fitting correctly. Additionally, the continuation of "mech-tech" weapons gimmick from the movie line was a really poor choice by Hasbro. Weapons were crudely designed for light activation gimmicks. The design made the weapons awkward in their default modes and also hindered any display ability of the characters. Optimus Prime's rifle sits in his hand as a big block of plastic instead of the deployed weapon many sought for. Many collectors have opted to remove the battery and the light up mechanism altogether and also remove the "mech-tech" spring so that the weapon can remain in a deployed mode. The fact that consumers have to make such modifications illustrates Hasbro's failures in design lately.

Encore Sound Blaster * Image courtesy of Seibertron.com

Releasing at the same time were the Transformers Cyberverse and BotShots line. I picked up Cyberverse Ratchet and Cliffjumper and Botshots Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee. Both lines were ok but failed to really appeal to me. The Cyberverse were just too small and simplistic for me to get into. I liked the Botshots for their super deformed designs but there is no way I would continue to pay $7 for something this small. The attached game gimmick is basically rock, paper, scissors. Overall, both series seemed lackluster in nature. Leave it for the kids.



Impulsively I had previously preordered The Takara Encore reissues of both Sound Blaster and Twincast. I actually have a previous set of reissues of these 2 particular characters but I wanted to pick them up to check out the new recolored versions of the cassette bots that came with both products. Overall, this was a needless impulse purchase I probably should have not picked up. Both larger Transformers are pretty much the same as the previous reissues with the exception of new tampo printed decals which replace some of the foil sticker decals of the vintage line. The new recolored cassette bots are cool though. While they are recolored versions of the classic cassette bots, the nice use of sympathetic color scheme and detail makes them stand out.

Fansproject Warbot * Image courtesy of TFW2005.com

The next purchase came late in the month and is not a official Transformer product. I repurchased Fansproject Warbot (AKA Not Springer). I originally purchased this guy back in 2011 but was not happy with him. I think I didn't like the heft of the diecast and the limited articulation of the figure. Months after trading him to a friend, I started to regret it. It was not due to the toy being suprior to anything released. I just had a hole in my Classic-verse original 1985 cast lineup of figures. I had the Trans Repro Valkyrie (Arcee), Fansproject City Commander (Ultra Magnus), Fans Project Protector (Rodimus prime), and the official Transformers Wrek-gar, Perceptor, Kupp and Blurr. Springer was missing and I was compelled to pick him up again. Looking back, my opinion of him has not changed  He's a lump of diecast steel and plastic with limited articulation, and really bad balance in bot mode.

I almost completely forgot about the Transformers Official Collector Club Exclusives that released in February 2012. SG Drift and Over-Run (AKA Runabout) both released with high expectations. SG Drift is a recoloring of the Generation Drift figure with the inclusion of Generations Blurr's pistols. Unfortunately  this excellent figure with a overall impressive design and paint job was marred by manufacturing defects. This blogger received a figure with 2 right sided pistols. Other less lucky individuals reported getting figures with 2 left hands or 2 right hands or even figures missing hands altogether. Very sloppy and bad QC process guys. Over-Run suffered none of these reported problems. Based on the Wheeljack / Tracks mold, Over-Run is pretty solid black Deception figure based off the original Battle Charger toy. The best thing about Over-Run is that his box comes with a pre-cut foam insert that has a space for his partner in crime Runamuck!

TFCC SG Drift and Over-Run *Image courtesy of Seibertron.com

Last on the February spending spree is a trio of MIB Machine Robo's purchased on ebay. I had been wanting to start collecting the first 10 Machine Robos in their Popy packaging for a long time. A seller had a huge collection that he was auctioning off piece meal and I decided to jump in and start bidding. I purchased MR-02 Battle Robo, MR-03 Jet Robo, and MR-04 Gyro Robo. Overall I'm really happy I have these 3 guys. They are so awesome with their retro styling and diecast construction. While they are the same exact toys that were released under the Gobots line, the packaging gets points for being beautifully nostalgic.

Machine Robos!

Huzzah for Beast Hunters!

Predaking *image courtesy of Tformers.com

Huzzah for Beast Hunters! I'm actually cheering for the newly announced Transformers toy line because I have no interest in it at all. Finally, some relief to the multiple Transformers lines that have been raiding my bank account this year. Between Transformers Prime, Transformers Generations, Transformers Masterpiece, Takara Tomy Exclusives, and third-party figures, I've been on a crazy purchasing spree with no end in sight.

Lazor Back  *image courtesy of Tformers.com

 Last week at New York comic-con, Hasbro announced the new Transformers Prime Beast Hunters toy line. Supposedly this new line will take up where Season 2 of Transformers Prime leaves off. The thing that bothers me is that Transformers Prime has been a run away hit, bridging the diehard Transformers fans with the Movie-verse fans. It's a great show with competent writing and pacing. How are they going to introduce tranforming animals and beasts into this world based on realism?

Soundwave  *image courtesy of Tformers.com

Judging from the few new product images the new beast characters look very serpentine-centric. Both Lazor Back and Predaking look rather Yu-Gi-Oh-ish with their chimera mix of beast traits. They remind me of Scourge (Cybertron) AKA Flame Convoy (Galaxy Force). I'm just not interested in returning to the organic transformers of the Beast Wars era.


The other new products shown were updated designs for returning characters Bumble Bee, Soundwave, and Wheeljack. All three Transformers look medieval in nature with added weapons and needless kibble. Compared to the sleeker designs of the progenitor releases, these just look cluttered and messy.

BumbleBee  *image courtesy of Tformers.com

In the end, every single design just doesn't peak any interest in me at all and I seriously have let out a sigh of relief. I will be spending a lot less next year. Now I just got to get through the next few months with the new Masterpiece, Prime, Generations, and Fortress Maximus coming out. [whimper]