Powerglide! Bombshell!

The modern comics universe has had such a different take on G1, one that's significantly represented by the Generations toys, so they share a forum. A modern take on a Real Cybertronian Hero. Currently starring Generations toys, IDW "The Transformers" comics, MTMTE, TF vs GI Joe, and Windblade. Oh wait, and now Skybound, wheee!
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138 Scourge
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Powerglide! Bombshell!

Post by 138 Scourge »

For those of you whose numbers I don't have....

Right now you can get Powerglide and Bombshell on amazon for 10.99. No idea how long that'll last, so get on that.
Dominic wrote: too many people likely would have enjoyed it as....well a house-elf gang-bang.
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Re: Powerglide! Bombshell!

Post by BWprowl »

Yeah, thanks for the tip-off.

I wasn't super-invested in Powerglide (kinda wanted him just to be a gun for Superion), but threw him in there anyway for dat free shipping.

Even I'm rather surprised at the fervor this line has sparked, moreso than usual. I know the CW toys were in my local Targets for a little bit, but they've since been totally wiped out. Even repaint carryovers like Thundercracker and Windcharger only hung around a few days. You got people swappin' sightings and trades and pre-orders selling out over on BBTS, it's nuts. Hasbro finally figured out, Hey, people really like Combiners!
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Re: Powerglide! Bombshell!

Post by Shockwave »

Done! Thanks for the info, Scourge! Got Bombshell, Powerglide and because I needed another figure for the free shipping and on based on Prowl's review, RID15 Grimlock.
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Re: Powerglide! Bombshell!

Post by andersonh1 »

Nice, thanks for the tip. Definitely want both of these.
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Re: Powerglide! Bombshell!

Post by BWprowl »

Shockwave wrote:Done! Thanks for the info, Scourge! Got Bombshell, Powerglide and because I needed another figure for the free shipping and on based on Prowl's review, RID15 Grimlock.
I went with the Windblade trade in lieu of shipping, myself.

Grimlock's a cute lil' toy though, you can definitely do worse. Have him wield 'Shell and 'Glide in gun modes, since lord knows he needs weapons of some sort.
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Re: Powerglide! Bombshell!

Post by Shockwave »

BWprowl wrote:
Shockwave wrote:Done! Thanks for the info, Scourge! Got Bombshell, Powerglide and because I needed another figure for the free shipping and on based on Prowl's review, RID15 Grimlock.
I went with the Windblade trade in lieu of shipping, myself.

Grimlock's a cute lil' toy though, you can definitely do worse. Have him wield 'Shell and 'Glide in gun modes, since lord knows he needs weapons of some sort.
Will do. I picked up Strongarm based on your review and am pretty happy with that so I figure I can't go wrong here.
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Re: Powerglide! Bombshell!

Post by JediTricks »

Thanks for the heads-up (Dom saw your post and texted me, so thanks to Dom too), I got them both because I haven't seen anything in a while and figured YOLO. :p They'll be here tomorrow, which means via Amazon delivery, those guys are nuts. Honestly, these aren't worth $11 or $10 without partner figures, but since I'm nearly done with the brand and I already have 1 Insecticon, I figured what the hell. Plus, Powerglidegun seems like a fun idea.
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Re: Powerglide! Bombshell!

Post by Dominic »

Saw Powerglide and Bombshell over Lewis Brooks' house yesterday.

Both are solid figures.

My only real complaint is that Bombshell does not look right next to Shrapnel. Bombshell looks good (better than Shrapnel/Skrapnel). But, the two figures do not look like they came from the same place. (It is the sort of difference one would see between"Prime" and "Generations" figures, or even figures from the same line over the course of more than a few years.)

Given how much the new figure looks like IDW Bombshell, I am definitely looking for one.
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Re: Powerglide! Bombshell!

Post by JediTricks »

Powerglide and Bombshell share a few things in common:
- they're both $10 for basics
- they have no accessories
- bot modes are focused on looking nice
- the card art is remarkably low-resolution
- they both kind of give up halfway through transformation
- they both were engineered with middling weapon modes

Powerglide is frustrating. He looks pretty nice in bot mode, a very "Classics" style basic-sized design with thicker limbs and a chunkier appearance. I do think of Powerglide as a more lithe figure while this figure is wider and bulkier, even the movie line figure isn't as thick as this. Powerglide here also is a "don't look at me from the back" type of transformer, where it's just a jet plane from behind, there are little gaps abound, and the shoulders are floating in the ether. Articulation is ok, the only real points missing are swivels at the bicep and wrist, this figure REALLY seems like wrist swivels were intended since the fists show in bot mode so blatantly; but the lack of bicep swivels means he can't emulate his G1 figure's pose, which is sad.

Transformation starts with something interesting, then slowly devolves into an exercise in hateful laziness by the time the legs don't transform at all except to fold the feet up, leaving alt mode feeling half-finished and frustrating. There are several tabs that require a lot more effort than they seem, and pegs that don't want to seat, but most of that ends up coming together ok. It's the back half of the plane transformation where the knee joints allow far too much movement so you have to massage the fuselage into place and hope it stays, which it won't.

Vehicle mode kinda sorta looks ok from the top as long as you don't look at the robot fists or the odd gaps in the fuselage or the robot eyes peeking out the nose of the plane or the bot knees rotating the plane out of position -- all of those are little things but there's so many that they add up quickly to annoyance. From the side it tapers from plane into stretched out robot legs; from underneath it looks like a robot with a landing gear for a face. That landing gear is a beast to fold down, clearance is off so you have to de-transform the nose to free that landing leg, and then you have the worst-looking landing gear on a robot plane ever because the front is ok and the back is a tail-dragger so it's tipped up quite a bit.

Powerglide transforms into a gun, and it's not the laziest thing ever, surprisingly. What it does not do is convey an intentional gun design, it looks like a lot of work hiding the fact that this is a robot-plane halfway transformed. There's a flip-up sight, there's a pair of cluster rocket launchers, there's slide-forward gun barrels, there's a sculpted gun barrel, and there's a grip in the form of the front landing gear; but none of it is remotely cohesive. Unfortunately, while it's still kinda fun in theory, in practice the hips have become unlocked so they twist and bend easily, which is hardly the best.

Powerglide gets a C- from me, the pricepoint hurts considerably but there are a few flaws that would have held it back either way, and the compromises for a third mode weren't worth the price of admission.


Bombshell in bot mode looks pretty decent for the most part, considerably chunkier and "whole" than the recently-released Shrapnel. The figure has a lot of nice paint and the well-sculpted head has a very solid deco; I dunno how accurate this all is, I think there's some purple where it should be gray at the chest, but it looks very nice overall. I don't dig the fists being eaten by gun barrels, and his head is not articulated, and especially his hollow-from-the-back waist, but overall there's a sense of adequacy to bot mode. One does have to forgive hollow boots with a lot of insect leg kibble from an aesthetic perspective, but the boots stand fine and the kibble is positionable so you can choose your poison. I would have liked at least his G1 gun included though, he feels lost without something in his hands. Aside from the lack of neck movement, articulation is pretty good and all the insect legs are designed to move around just enough not to be in the way.

Transformation ruins this figure for me. This is the laziest, most disappointing transformation I've seen in quite some time. The waist turns around, the legs flip around, the arms hug down under, a panel closes over the head, and then you position the legs. There's about half as many pegs locking things in as should be, and the tabs holding the arms together will for sure pop apart, not that it matters. This isn't a transformer when you can move a GI Joe figure the same way, it's bland. The transformation holds together even though the torso rotates easily, the face mask panel gets dislodged often, and the arms don't stay together, but only because nothing terribly matters: it gets you where you need to be without care, and that bothers me to no end.

Insect mode is ok, it's pretty small and the oversized boots are now an oddly oversized back half, probably in a vain attempt to justify the bloated pricepoint, but it just a little seems out of proportion. Overall, the sculpting is fine and the paint is still decent. I don't really like the insectoid legs here, they aren't as techno-oriented as Shrapnel's, so they aren't as Insecticon as they are insect. Articulation is poor, the rhinoceros beetle horn is hinged up and down, the front legs revolve diagonally up on their hip hinge, and the back 2 sets of legs are hinged at the hip to lift up - this time individually, where Shrapnel was pointlessly locked down. The tiny insect mode at least looks more whole than Shrapnel, but I would have preferred their colors not be so different, even if Bombshell's colors here are nicer than his buddy's.

But wait, there's unofficially more! Why would Hasbro design in pointless gunbarrels in the fists AND exactly 5mm guns in the knees for no reason? It's an extra expense for no reason... but of course, there had to have been a reason, and that's...

Weapon mode, yeah, Bombshell clearly was designed to be a weapon just like wave-mate Powerglide. Near as I can tell, the arms fold around to face forward (probably utilizing the tabs to hold forward), the knee guns flip down to become grips, and the torso rotates around to give you a fairly decent-looking Insectigun©. And since there are 2 5mm grips close together, Shrapnel can hold the Insectigun© upright (although Shrapnel himself cannot actually stand while doing so because he's a little lightweight guy, his arms can hold the Insectigun© up when using both grips). Now, is the Insectigun© good? Not really, but it's a little more satisfying than the Powerglide gun somehow just by keeping things tight and easygoing.

Bombshell is another weak entry, grade C at best. There's no way this figure is worth $10 with such a bland, simplistic transformation and not even an accessory. But I guess by aiming lower than Powerglide they had less far to fall, and they made up for some of the weaknesses with nice paint.
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Re: Powerglide! Bombshell!

Post by Shockwave »

I can't help wondering if we have the same toys. I liked both of them. Especially Bombshell.

Powerglide: He's pretty much a more articulated and complex version of his G1 counterpart. Still turns into the A-10 Warthog, probably better known to some of us as the plane that is also the Cobra Rattler. He's got pretty decent articulation for a figure this size, the arms could use a bicep swivel, but since most other figures this size don't have that, it's pretty standard fare. Head turns side to side, shoulders are ball jointed as are the thighs and knees. Elbows and feet are hinge jointed.

Transformation is pretty complex, everything on mine seems to lock in place where it should and is a lot more inspired than the G1 figurel, which was just a couple steps off of SUYAR. The middle top of the jet folds forward to become the front, the head turns around into the nose (yes, there are a couple of gaps on the sides, but I do not see "blue robot eyes staring back at me from under the nose of the plane"). Plane mode seem perfectly ok to me, again everything locks down where it's supposed to. I do see the robot fists JT was talking about, but given that the G1 figure suffered from that as well, I can't really falt them on it, especially since I can't really see where they would have hidden them. Gun mode transformation is guesswork, I did get it right, but I wasn't sure I had when I had done it. The thrusters at the back pull back to become the barrels and the arms have missile launchers on the side for extra boom.

Overall, I'd recommend Powerglide, especially if you don't already have one. And if you're looking for the best G1ish representation, I think this one does the best at it.

Bombshell: Again, pretty much a reimagining of the G1 figure. Paint is good, sculpt is good, articulation is better than most figures this size. I do wish the head moved, but I understand why it doesn't.

Transformation: Very similar to the original, fold the legs to make the back of the bug and use the beetle horn to cover the head, move the arms, done. The arms peg together underneat the alt mode and, like Powerglide, everything does lock together.

Bug mode: Yup, that's a rhinocerous beetle. Not much to say about this mode so I'll move on.

Weapon mode(s): I put an "s" in apostrophes because I've found that Bombshell can take a couple of different versions of the gun mode. One version as the beetle horn flip up between the arms which are swung forward to make the gun barrels. The horn acts as a sort of gun sight. The other way is to leave the horn forward, lock the arms together so that they are facing forward instead of back like they do for beetle mode and then swivel the waist around so that the arms make a double barrelled weapons with the barrels on top. I think this is the gun mode that looks best.

Overall, I'm also pretty happy with Bombshell, especially since my Decepticons are horribly outnumbered. I would also recommend Bombshell as well, especially if you already have Skrap/Shrapnel or just want a cool version of Bombshell or a fun fiddly TF in general.
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