Love it or hate it - G1!

[andersonh1]

Let's take Onslaught Six's premise and apply it to G1. I realize that G1 has long since been surpassed in engineering and durability, so the standard is bound to be different than it would be for modern lines, but it should be interesting to hear who likes what and why.

It's really easy. There's a given line and we all post one figure we liked, and one we hated, and some brief reasons why--not a whole review, just a blurb. Then we can all react on those that other people posted, and keep posting new ones as we go along.

Love - so many to choose from, so let's go with Omega Supreme. This may be a unique figure in terms of the number of parts that form the actual robot. I love the imposing size, even though it's been surpassed since quite a few times. I love the walking gimmick. And the base mode with the tank that rolls around the track with a rotating turret had all sorts of play value back in the day. This is one of my all-time favorite Transformers

Hate - not quite hate, but I don't really like the Aerialbots. All four limbs have exactly the same transformation, and weak airplane modes because the robot is clearly visible underneath. Silverbolt's not all that convincing either. Aircraft undercarriage junk on Transformers is almost a given, but it's still annoying when so little effort is made to hide it. The gestalt is the only thing that saves the set. Even the basic mini-bots are more detailed and satisfying figures than the aerialbots.

[Dominic]

Okay, this may run contrary to things I posted in the "Hall of Fame" thread, but......

Best:
Soundwave. For the time it was made, (and the mould is as old as I am), the toy had a consistent character model and excellent articulation. The same could be said of the Minicons (yes, Minicons) co-sold with Soundwave. Granted, G1 is a low bar on this. But, yeah, Soundwave.


Worst:
Gotta flip a coin between Ironhide and Ratchet. I can think of nothing good about either.


Dom
-should we be listing G2 in this thread?

[138 Scourge]

Okay. This is gonna be tough to narrow down to one at a time, especially since I've been on a big G1 kick lately.

Love: Powermaster Optimus. This thing just rocked my face clean off when I was a kid, and surprisingly it's as cool as I remember it. The little Prime is less articulated than the first version, but he's got a back and non-removable fists, so he's come up in the world. Besides, who needs articulation when you can combine with a trailer full of firepower? The super robot mode for Prime was an amazing concept to young me, and it's still every bit as cool. Huge and intimidating Prime for when being a regular badass just isn't badass enough. Throw in a sorta-functional base mode and the neat little Powermaster guy (which never made much sense to me, but whatevs), and he's pretty much a team of his own. And man, do I love the bonus of the Godbomber armor from the reissue? Yes, I do love it. Blocky and goofy, and making a nice armor for the super-Prime for total ridiculous overkill. So much awesome play value in one toy.I know, it's really Ginrai with a new name, but I've never seen much of Ginrai's show, so I don't have to worry about it.

Hate: Nosecone. Because Drill Tanks are about the dumbest looking vehicles I've ever seen. The other Technobots look okay individually, but then Nosecones' there as a big ol' tank with a drill on it. But look at him, that drill doesn't make enough hole for the tank, so how far does he think he's going? I have similar questions about Twin Twist, but at least his bio acknowledges that he pretty much just uses his drills on Decepticons. Mean as hell, but makes more sense.

Well, Anderson beat me to the Arielbots. But I never cared for their combined form, either. That thing just doesn't appeal to me at all. You guys can bet that I loved that bit in Dreamwave's run when he tried to stop a nuke with his face.

[andersonh1]

I've got the original Powermaster Prime, so it's missing a lot of the extras that the reissue came with. The figure needs more articulation somewhere, but other than that I agree it's a really fun figure.

Do the large robot's fists retract on the reissue? They're permanently molded in place on the original.

[Onslaught Six]

The US reissue was based on the Japanese Ginrai reissue, so yeah. He's even got the shorter Ginrai smokestacks. (Yeah; Ginrai's were shorter than PMOP's. Yeah. Think about that.)

[Shockwave]

Ok, I'm game:

Love: Shockwave. The toy is at least half the reason I like the character (the other half being the way they characterized him), but this is easily one of the best toys of G1. Plus, character. If Spock were evil and a giant Robot purple space gun this is what you get. There's nothing about that that sucks.

Hate: Wheelie. Rhyming characters piss me off and the toy sucks.

[Onslaught Six]

Oh, yeah, guess I should do it for real.

Loved: Ratchet. Or, well, the mould in general. But only because of how he should've been done in Diaclone. Or if I imagine he really does have a whole head behind the windshield. Still want that Black Diaclone Ironhide reissue.

Hated: ...The Seekers. Now, in concept, and terms of pure design, they're awesome. I love the core Seeker 'design.' What I don't love is how many parts just get taken off and moved around the figure--and the result itself isn't all that glorious. The jet mode's pretty badass but the robot is almost total fail, seriously. Not even Thundy or Skywarp's spiffy colours can save it. Plus, none of the faces are painted! The most we get are bad eye stickers.

[andersonh1]

Hated: ...The Seekers. Now, in concept, and terms of pure design, they're awesome. I love the core Seeker 'design.' What I don't love is how many parts just get taken off and moved around the figure--and the result itself isn't all that glorious. The jet mode's pretty badass but the robot is almost total fail, seriously. Not even Thundy or Skywarp's spiffy colours can save it. Plus, none of the faces are painted! The most we get are bad eye stickers.

I have to agree, at least to a point. The jet mode is big and awesome, but the transformation with all the detachable pieces leaves much to be desired. And there's a certain degree of fragility that's introduced because of that. I long ago broke the thin lasers on Starscream (the only non-reissue jet I have) and had to glue them back together. That was when I was a kid. The last time I pulled the figure out to fiddle with, I broke one of the blue tail fins off at the peg. It just snapped. Either I'm just too strong for my own good, or else that plastic has grown brittle over time, or something. But it's annoying.

The nice thing about the original jets is that even though they aren't in scale with the Autobot cars, they're still a lot bigger. That's my only complaint with the Universe/Classics seeker mold, that it's too small compared to the cars. I'd love to have had that mold at a voyager size.

[Shockwave]

Probably a little of both, the plastic on some TFs does get brittle over the years and you might also be stronger than you suspect. I've never had problems with any of my seekers but I also tend to treat my toys with a lot of care, even when I was a kid (I never wanted to brake my toys). I could mold replacements out of a sturdier plastic.

[Onslaught Six]

The nice thing about the original jets is that even though they aren't in scale with the Autobot cars, they're still a lot bigger. That's my only complaint with the Universe/Classics seeker mold, that it's too small compared to the cars. I'd love to have had that mold at a voyager size.

Voyager's too expensive. At $20 apiece (before the price hikes, even!) I'd have found it hard to justify buying three, let alone six, of them. Times like this, I miss the Megas. The real Megas.