As mentioned, I still have a lot of love for everything Wreckage. Dropkick I never liked, he had lots of good ideas and was a great big kibbly mess in execution. Am getting a very cheap Salvage, though, hopefully he's an improvement. At least he doesn't use lots of Hasbro Grey.I totally agree with this. I've found that figures I really liked when I got them are merely ok now, like Longarm and Wreckage and Dropkick.
Brawl.. Transformation and articulation still bug me just a wee bit too much, I think a slightly darker deco would've helped. There's a lot of good, though, and he does remain one of the cooler display pieces. Still love the tank mode. Still hate the translucent bits.I still like Leader-class Optimus and Brawl, both of those really work well together and with other figures.
He does wow me, I do love the way the kibble arranges and the legs are extremely clever. Problem is, it's not really in a pick-up-and-fiddle sense. Although he's still on display when many others aren't, so that says a lot.For me, Leader-class Prime hasn't lost a step, he's still a figure I can look at and go "wow! that's a real transformer!" (I apparently don't speak with capital letters).
I felt Stockade balanced things nicely. He's a new character that hearkens back to old ones, he's got a nifty and solid vehicle mode, and his transformation is satisfying enough - I found it a good compromise, since he's not horrible to transform and parts don't fly off everywhere. He's been on my desk at work for a while.I still don't get your guys' appeal with this one, to me he's a lazy transformer, transformation and bot mode sacrifice too much.
I'll also note that Payload's one I liked a lot, hope he gets a redeco with better joint tolerances for the sequel.
Ack, out of time at work, will post more later.
