JP version of Titans Return/Combiner Wars?
Shockwave looks great.
One TF that will never get replicated well is Jetfire…we’ll never get our Valkyrie back.
Correct.
Agreed, but all that additional kibble isn’t worth
It’s all Harmony Gold’s fault. Personally, I am more partial to “Skyfire” anyway. Glad they’ve slowly been tweaking back to that design.
Larry DiTillio - The co-writer of Beast Wars has passed away 
Damn that sucks!
One of the driving forces of TF’s rebirth in Beast Wars!
RIP Mr. DiTillio!
Til all are one!
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The documentary about Beast Wars that came with the DVD release was very cool. The way things were written were so in tuned with the artists, everything was written to accomedate the situation and I think that’s what made it shine. Everyone worked and adapted to the “shortcomings” or mishaps. The first TF show that didn’t feel like a toy commercial, time was well spent on character personalities, even a little homage to G1 personas with Quickstrike yeeha Texan rattlesnake attitude.
Voice work was excellent all around. Primal took a bit to loosen up, first 4 episodes sounded real stiff but even then it worked well with Primal as he is a stiffie, more so than Prime in some instances. Great leader, same for Megs, he was excellent, his voice, holy shit did it sell the show hard. Could be the best Megs, could be.
I love Beast Wars, I started with G1 like most of us, but Beast Wars came at a special time in my life, late 90s, living on my own for the 1st time, it was my breakfast show before heading to work. Here I thought TF was done and over but so glad to be wrong. Recorded every episode and edited the commercials out of it. This is before DVD era mind you…or at least for me, I was very young and very broke, lol.
Even so, those times were magicval for Beast Wars, Toys R’ Us and Super Wal-Marts were a free for all, Mondays 2 AM runs, seeing people down the hallways with “that look”…as soon as you pass their sight you start running for the TF shelf, lol. Seriously, I loved BW and that line of figures, excellent work all around. Specially when Transmetals came into play, amazing detail and precise to a T with the show, how can’t you not love BW?!
Someone said BW is responsible or fundamental for the TF revival, couldn’t agree more. Quite unfortunate that nothing that came after came up to par, not even close. Beast Machines doesn’t count as it is mostly the same team with a different art style, not super fond of it but the writing was killer. Beast Wars 2…zany fanny action…BB Rogah! Crazyness, funny, but…kinda for kids. Beat Wars Neo, super slick figures, loved it, series was awesome too, but never got to see it translated, dunno how the writing is.
The series that came after felt a bit off for me, not figures wise but the writing wasn’t quite as good. Armada, Cybertron, RID, all those just felt too anime too about the kids…a bit of a comeback on Prime but prime was also meh on the kids, get them kids out of the equation already, spike was never so needy.
On topic, a real TF loss, just hope all his loved and close ones know how much his work means to a lot of us BW fans. I appreciate all the hard work and the depth of the characters and their relationships. BW will always be held dear to my heart.
Thank you for everything and may you find your way to be one with the matrix.
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I was a huge fan of transformers as a kid but as I mentioned in an early post when we were talking about our first TF toy (mine was dinobot Slug btw) I mentioned that my parents would next to never buy me transformers toys because during those times they were pretty “high end” toys.
However, when beast wars came out it was like a whole new ball game. My at the time best friend who happened to be my next door neighbor and myself were obsessed with beast wars. And for whatever reason this time around my parents fully embraced it. I think they were happy to finally stop buying TMNT playsets and Power rangers megazords. 
between me and my best friend we pretty much had every beast wars toy ever made. He had a lot more of the expensive ones like Magnaboss, Optimal Optimus, Rampage, Depthcharge, Tigerhawk etc but I had pretty much all the Transmetal and Transmetal 2 toys. Everything else was pretty much evenly divided among us. The Fuzors were probably my favorite line of beast wars toys though. They were so creative and cool looking. Out of the Transmetals though I think my favorite was rat trap since he was my favorite maximal overall.
It just turned out that the show was amazing well written, didn’t alienate G1 fans and was ahead of its time in a lot ways. I remember bawling my eyes out when Dinobot died.
Man. Fucking memories.
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RIP
Beast Wars was a huge part of my childhood from the great work to the awesome toys. One good thing about the show was the care to the characters as compared to the other series shoehorning them in to sell toys I did like that the comics expanded on those left out. It’s been so long that I can’t remember who was my first beast war but man I loved each and every one that would come out Spittor being one of my personal favorites, shout out to Snapper and Iguanus.
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Oh another thing I appreciated was just because the world you know is at war doesn’t mean you have to participate it in. I really appreciated Tigertron and Airazors character arcs. They both ultimately got thrown into the beast wars due elements outside of their control which ultimately led them to sacrifice themselves to save the maximals but it was a powerful message nonetheless
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Masterpiece Movie Megatron.
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The MPMs are modern marvels in terms of Transformers. I really didn’t care for the design but I can appreciate all the attention to detail here. That thing is also huge. Not gonna lie, I am at least a bit tempted to grab this one.
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He looks cool. Probably my least favorite version of Megatron, but it’s definataly the best toy version of Movie 1 Megs by far. The original was covered in ice and had those awful spring loaded feet.
Figures bigger than Leader class become an issue of space for me. I have to really love a figure if it’s going to take up a lot of space. I’m going to pass on him. Might pick up MPM Jazz though.
I was in Target and saw that the Siege Voyagers were in stock. Starscream honestly does not interest me. I like the OG WFC Tetrajet better so I will stick with those for display. I did wind up purchasing Soundwave.
The spaceship mode is “cool” and the transformation is interesting enough to say that they did in fact give a damn.
The robot mode is actually pretty solid and is really good for a CHUG display. The biggest flaw with it though is the abhorrent attempt at weathering. It is by far the worst on this figure. Less is truly more with the battle damage. I’m afraid that the alcohol removal method will get rid of the painted details since the weathering is applied to details in a few spots. I do have a fair bit of model paint so I may just add those details back in later.
Overall, a solid recommend. Now, I just gotta find Laserbeak and Ravage.
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Anytime Thew does a review it’s worth a watch. His final points about the Prime POTP version we’re exactly my thoughts. The only Prime figure from Prime Wars I own is the JP Powermaster version with God Bomber.
Grabbed Siege Ironhide. Yeah, outside of the panels for robot mode flopping off, it’s pretty great.
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I don’t care what anyone says, POTP Optimus is badass! Still the best G1 Prime we’ve ever received outside of the Masterpeice line.
Siege Prime honestly takes the Cake as a modernized G1 Prime. The worst offense is the battle damage. Luckily, there will be a cel-shaded version coming down the pipe through Hasbro Pulse.
POTP is a cool toy, but it’s not the same as a standalone robot to truck. Siege does that exceptionally well.
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He’s not leader class though. If only him and megs were Leader class figures.
“Size matters not”
I don’t think that Prime or Megatron need to be a leader class to be a solid representation of either character. I honestly think HasTakTomy would rename the size classes if they could simply because of association. I am moreso concerned about how well it scales with the rest of the line/shelf. Sure, by themselves they look solid, but add in a few other from the line, those figures look out of place.
Size DOES matter, when they don’t scale well with Leader class guys from the recent lines. That Megatron would be woefully out of place standing next to guys like POTP Optimus, Rodimus, CW Magnus, TR Overlord, etc.
I like seige megatron, chunkiness aside. His size just isn’t compatible with my other guys though. Thats what made me rediscover CW Megatron (and the DX-9 Upgrade parts).
Edit: And i think Hasbro is trying to be cheap with this new line, and it’s Voyager sized “leader class” figures.
Remember that this is effectively a reset. They have acknowledged the mistake and are moving away from the notion that Leader Class means “Leader”. Jetfire is a “Commander” class figure, a new scale solely for this character (at the moment). The reason for the change is because scale matters to most collectors. This is probably the best attempt to make the line a consistent size since MPs got the refresh. Hasbro isn’t really concerned about the line before this point.
POTP Rodimus and Optimus are the ones effectively out of scale with most character interpretations. Overlord is right about where it needs to be honestly. Personally, I am fine with CW Magnus in the mix, which is why I have not swapped him out for the WFC version. Then again, I do have him on a different shelf on my detolf, so that may be a factor.
I also agree that the armor up leader class figures aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Magnus is a decent figure, while Shockwave is not worth the price of admission and they should be ashamed of that attempt of an “upgrade”.