I grew up on Transformers, but hadn't collected the toys since my younger teenage years. I was recently pulled back in, however, after I saw the Studio Series 86 line, or more formally, the Studio Series: The Transformers: The Movie line (what a mouthful!), based on the 1986 animated film, which, by the way, is an awesome movie and highly recommended! I'd seen the toys on shelves in previous years, and they definitely caught my attention, but one of the line's offerings made it impossible to continue resisting. You'll see just which one below! This article contains short reviews and pictures of all the figures currently in my possession, in order of when I obtained them.
Bumblebee
Very nice little figure! He's very posable and both forms look great, even if the car mode doesn't hold together quite as solidly as I'd like. It's always kinda splitting open in the middle. Comes with a little silver gun. He was the first one I got from this line. I had already preordered a handful, but I found Bumblebee locally, so he went home with me. I played with him a lot for a while! I hope he wasn't enjoying his only child status, because I was pretty quick to grab more.
Coronation Starscream
I quickly broke one of his pauldrons by storing them in the back of his throne as intended, and one of the slots had a death grip on the peg. So... maybe don't do that. Considering he can barely sit in the throne anyway, I don't think it was worth the price increase to include it, but I do love the crown, pauldrons and big pink cape. The figure looks great as a robot or a jet, though the transformation has a step or two that make me feel like I might break it even more.
Sludge
I adore this figure. He's got a big chunky robot mode and a big imposing yet kind of adorable dinosaur mode. The brachiosaurus does have a hollow cavity in his underbelly with his two robot feet sticking down out of it, but I think the robot mode kinda makes up for it. It's so rock solid that you can't even imagine how it becomes a dinosaur until you put your hands on it and see how the parts move. It's brilliant. His gun is kinda swanky too, with its gold accents. It stores on the aforementioned protruding robot feet in dino mode, but I would've gladly traded that feature to fill in his chest. This figure is known to have certain loose parts, like his "wings" and his legs, but I found a fix for the legs involving a simple cotton swab. Nothing on the wings yet, though. Maybe a little careful heat...? I'm not too worried about them.
Scrapper
Here's one that probably costs a little more than it needs to, but regardless, I'm a fan. Solid articulation in robot mode, cute little front loader mode, and as fans will know, Scrapper can also transform into the right leg (or more accurately, the right foot and shin) of the legendary Devastator, who, when completed, I estimate will stand just over a foot tall. I've heard the increased price on this figure is due to the cost of installing some extra articulation for his leg mode, which will give Big Dev more posability. I cannot wait to assemble Devastator late this year, and in fact, he's why I started collecting this line in the first place. I knew I had to get all the constructicons, so I figured I'd grab some of the other standouts, too. Scrapper comes with a small black blaster and two purple blasters which connect together to form Devastator's giant gun.
Swoop
This dinobot has quite a simple transformation, but it doesn't really need to be more than that. He looks great in either mode, and in pteranodon form, his wingspan is quite impressive. At a whopping 13", it's as long as a fully outstretched Sludge! He comes with two guns to be mounted under his wings or held in his hands, plus two swords, one of which is Grimlock's. The kid in me can't help but wish his guns fired spring-loaded missiles, but the adult in me recognizes that none of my childhood Transformers kept their missiles for very long. Who knows where they ended up... His transformation can chip the gold paint on the pteranodon form's head, as the circular parts on one or both sides may be misaligned with the holes they're meant to go into. That could just a problem with my figure specifically, but it's worth pointing out, I feel.
Snarl
His stegosaurus mode is SO. CUTE. He's so fat and squat that if it weren't for the armored plates jutting out of his back, I'd give him the biggest hug. His robot mode is great too, though I do feel like he looks a bit too similar to Sludge, but that one's on whoever designed the character back in the day, rather than this specific figure. The insides of his legs are hollow and you can see his dino mode's front legs folded up inside, which makes me appreciate Sludge's dino mode even more. He comes with a silver sword that can be stuck onto his back in dino mode, which, like a lot of these alt mode weapon storages, doesn't look good or really make much sense. Just chuck it in a drawer when he's a dinosaur (rhyme!!). Definitely one of my favorites over all, though. He may take up like two or three seconds of screen time in the film that this line is based on, but this figure takes up a lot of room in my heart.
Wreck-Gar
I'm not sure how, but this Junkion somehow manages to pop despite his colors being fairly dark. His robot mode looks wonderful, and his motorcycle mode isn't too bad. His beard looks like it might be put on a little wrong, but it's the same way in stock photos, too... so, I dunno. His nipple gun things are on ball joints, which is very funny. I'm guessing that's so you don't accidentally snap them off, since they're really sticking out there. I also like that you can insert his wheels on either arm or leg in robot mode. It's a cool look. I will note that the long red spikes coming from his limbs seem to be notorious for bending. The one on mine's right arm has a slight bend, but supposedly a little heat will fix it up. He comes with some sort of pinwheel blade, and if he gives you any trouble, try talking TV with him so that he doesn't use it.
Kup (Buzzworthy Bumblebee)
Reviews I saw praised this version of the figure for being more movie accurate, but the only differences between it and the standard version are some of the colors. I have to say, this is another very impressive figure. The robot mode looks just about spot on, the truck mode is solid and fits together very well, and the transformation is... well, it's a little weird. There are a few thinner parts that had me worried, but they seem to be made of a more durable plastic, so you can click everything together without too much fear. He includes his blaster and, probably my favorite accessory so far, his container of energon goodies. I only wish that his hands were made differently so that the container could have been a little more accurate, instead of having a peg on the bottom which makes it look like it's just sitting on his fist. That's my only real complaint about the figure though, so he doesn't really need to bribe me with treats to earn my goodwill. He's so good that I'm genuinely considering grabbing the other version just to have. Oh right, he also has detachable limbs, so you can recreate the scene of him having just been dismembered by a robo-squid, if that's your kind of thing.
Arcee
I had a rough experience with this one right off the bat, as I bought her new, and right out of the package, her right arm immediately fell off at the elbow and wouldn't stay on. I more or less fixed it with a little heat, but it's unfortunate to have a figure where misshapen plastic goes beyond cosmetics and actually hinders the toy. The transformation is a bit fiddly and she has a lot of very thin pieces of plastic which feel like they could snap at any moment. The fin on the rear of her car mode often falls off during transformation, but thankfully it pops back in place. So long as the tabs don't break, at least. As you can probably tell, Arcee is the most delicate member of my collection thus far. On top of that, her robot mode has a pretty hefty "backpack" which I feel detracts from the overall look, though to be fair it does compress down in fairly clever ways. Her car mode has some gaping holes in the top, and various limbs dragging on the ground underneath if you're not careful. In robot mode, though, she looks mostly pretty good. I get that her feminine silhouette means that a lot of her body can't be particularly useful in her transformation, and that's not the fault of this figure's designer(s), but it's still a shame that like 98% of her car mode is strapped to her back. I got my Arcee pretty cheap, but at or above MSRP, unless you just gotta have her, I'd probably think twice. She includes a blaster which fits in her hands a little strangely and stores in her car mode's undercarriage, but it doesn't like to stay in.
Blurr
This is a figure I was so neutral on that I had trouble writing about him. After making the effort to spend more time with it, though, I've decided that my feelings are indeed neutral, but leaning a little more positive. I don't love his transformation which does some of the same things that made me dislike Starscream's, I think his face mold makes it look like he has a huge bottom lip at certain angles and he, like Snarl, has big, unsightly cavities in the insides of his legs. That said, over all I like the way he looks in both modes. I'm happy with his articulation in robot mode. I like how his bench seating folds out of his torso in car mode. He's also the only modern Transformer currently in my collection who has light piping in his eyes, which is a nostalgic feature to me. He's also packing a big white rifle, which is cool. Not counting the combined form of Scrapper's guns meant for Devastator, it's the largest gun for a figure of his size I have so far. He's not a bad little bot. Oh right, and I forgot about his little welding tool arm attatchment. I only put it on once and it was super tight. It went straight into the drawer after that.
Jazz
For this figure, I want to get the pain points out of the way first. For one, The paint on his hood in car mode already has a few scuffs and scratches due to the transformation, and it even came in box with a small but noticable paint chip. Still looking at the front of the car mode, the white plastic above the wheels is a little yellow compared to the rest of the car body. I hope that's just a slight color mismatch due to different materials, and the plastic isn't starting to actually yellow. There's also a step in the transformation that seems like it's putting a lot of stress on one of his waist parts, and I'm always worried I'm going to break it. The plastic here flexes a bit, so maybe it's specifically built to withstand it, but I just don't feel good putting so much force on a toy of this size. Additionally, I believe I've heard that the clear plastic used for the top of the car/back of the robot is prone to forming stress marks and even breaking, but mine seems alright so far. Lastly, his sports car mode has a big hole in the top of the roof so you can mount his gun there, but this is another case where I would rather just have a cleaner look and store his gun in a Ziploc bag or something. That's a lot of complaints, so you might be surprised that over all, I really like this figure. He looks wicked in both forms and his robot mode has the great articulation I've come to expect from this line. In the end, I think he's worth picking up; you'll just have to be weary of a few things.
Junkheap
I probably wouldn't have gotten this guy at MSRP, but I came across him for not much more than a firm handshake. I did want a Junkion bike for Wreck-Gar, and someone's gonna have to kiss Grimlock, who I'll be getting ASAP. Junkheap is about 80% Wreck-Gar, but with different arms, chest, head and back. That said, he does look good. His face looks just like Hank Hill, which is hilarious, and his bike mode has a tough, armored look. He has the same pinwheel sword thing as Wreck-Gar as well, which is a shame. The other Junkion, Scrapheap, has a gun, so it would've been nice if all three had a unique weapon. Though, technically, one of Junkheap's arm panels DOES have a built-in gun. In the end, he's not bad, especially if you're planning a dance party.
Slag/Slug and Daniel Witwicky
I think this is my least favorite robot mode of the dinobots so far in terms of character design, but man-oh-man is his triceratops mode great. It's another big fat adorable baby; chunky and hefty. I have to say that I promptly damaged it a little bit during transformation, but I was able to fix it with some careful heat. Watch the plates around his neck when transforming him; make sure they're out of the way before you move the shoulders. He also has a clever trick where his gun forms the tip of his tail in dino mode. He also includes a little Dan-O in his exo-suit, and this figure is a bit sorry. Very little articulation, permanent bent legs and no visible face, as his head dome is opaque. He can ride on Slug in either form though, so that's kind of fun. It's hard to pose him seperately without him looking like he's trying to drop a dino-deuce.
Photos coming soon!
Spike Witwicky in Exo-Suit
I didn't want Daniel to get too lonely without his old man. Spike shows us what Daniel could have been if there was an actual budget behind him, rather than him being a large-ish, vaguely articulated accesory for a different figure. That said, Spike isn't exactly amazing, but at least he's got decent articulation. He can bend his legs, for one. He also transforms. Sort of. Barely. He can lay on his stomach and twist his legs around, which I'm going to assime is purely on the mechanical side and it isn't straight up breaking his real human legs. The arm stage of the transformation is also strange, as the forearms rotate 180°. Maybe there's enough clearance and his arms are actually fine. I don't know. Maybe don't think about that too much. Unlike Dino Dumpin' Dan-O, you can see Spike's face, which is a decision somebody got paid to make. His face, hair and collar are colored separately, but while you can see his facial features in the sculpt, his lack of visible eyes is a bit concerning. Plus, in order to save 0.00002¢ on plastic, there's a giant hole in the back of his head. Like, not a screw hole, just a hole-hole. But hey, there's a tab on the back of his suit that lets you turn his head left and right! So that's cool. Okay, I admit that I do like this toy, and I'm happy to have it in the collection, it just happens to be really fun to make fun of at the same time. He also includes two small yellow effect parts, meant to attatch to his boosters in "vehicle" mode.
Photos coming soon!
Bonecrusher
I was hunting for this figure relentlessly after I found my Scrapper in the wild so early, but unfortunately, it took me a decent bit longer to get my hands on this guy. Another piece of Devastator, this time, his left arm, or really just his shoulder and bicep. His bulldozer mode is a satisfying little brick, though it could do with some wheels, and his robot mode is about as brick-like in regards to proportion. He's pretty wide and chunky with kind of dinky little arms, but I think he looks pretty good regardless. Now I'm a third of the way to building the big green baddie. Bonecrusher comes with a gun for himself, as well as a black block that attatches to his back, which doesn't seem like it's ever going to come off. So... some assembly required, I guess.
Photos coming soon!
Springer
This Autobot triple-changer can turn from robot to future-car to future-car-mangled-to-vaguely-resemble-a-helicopter. The latter is actually my favorite of his vehicle modes, despite its two biggest flaws: one, the tiny, uh, vestigial wing-things don't lock into place in any way, and two, the two halves of the tail fin stopped fitting together properly from the second transformation onward. It doesn't LOOK like I broke anything, but maybe I did somehow. There's also a chunk of his car mode that doesn't fit together as snugly as I'd like, always leaving a sizeable gap. Okay, complaints over! I really like Springer. He's a great figure! He also comes packed with around ten million accessories, those being a missile, a hammer, two swords (one of which becomes his propeller) and THREE guns. Four if you include his hidden wrist blaster, which he did indeed use in the movie. Nice attention to detail! I'm not sure what the deal with the hammer is, though.
Photos coming soon!
Galvatron
This chunky purple beast could probably tank a grenade. At least that's what I wrote before he got a random stress mark on his side. I must've dropped him or something. Regardless, he's so big and hefty and fun to handle, especially in robot mode. While I don't care all that much for his cannon mode, I can't deny that it does look pretty cool and holds together very well. You could even pose one of his Decepticon minions in the back as a gunner. He comes with the Matrix of Leadership, meant to be attached to a chain he can wear around his neck. The chain is a single thick piece of plastic which doesn't really look too great. I wish they could've at least given us something with actual links rather than one solid chunk, but I can probably whip something up myself for cheap if need be. For as many figures in this line come with a Matrix, it's funny that the first one I've gotten is the bad guy. I do wish he was able to hold it, though. That'd make for some cool poses. Oh, P.S., keep him away from Coronation Starscream.
Photos coming soon!
Steeljaw
I got this little cassette Transformer to pair with SS86 Blaster, which I do not have. Hopefully I will have him someday, though! At time of writing, he's super expensive secondhand as he was exclusive to Target stores. It's only been under a year since his first release, so here's hoping we'll get more so I have a crack at getting one. Oh, as for Steeljaw, he's alright! A very simple transformation takes him from a yellow cassette to a blocky little lion with guns and wings. He also includes a big gold speaker thing which can be given to... sigh... Blaster...
Photos coming soon!
Frenzy
Another cassette Transformer, he turns into a little guy with pile drivers for arms. I wanted to grab him ahead of the Soundwave figure that's been soft-confirmed. Frenzy is pretty good for his size, but he feels lonely without Rumble, which is just him but blue. I'll grab that one when I can! Frenzy comes with a pair of pile driver arms and a pair of arm cannons that can be worn on his back, which is a great look for him.
Photos coming soon!
Scourge
This devilish blue Vlad The Impaler-type guy has cool bat wings and painted hot pink nails and he turns into a solid slab of space boat. In space boat mode, you can even swing a part forward and reveal his face, as Scourge does at some point in the series. Where exactly, I can't recall. Unfortunately, the figure does have some big problems, and they're his legs. His thighs are completely painted and mine have some nasty chips. He has a thigh swivel, but his thighs are so chunky, you can hardly use them without being stopped by his crotch. Good luck posing him anyway, because he doesn't have ankle tilt. He's supposed to, but he doesn't. For some reason, when I try to use the tilt, which would already be limited, his feet spring back into their default positions. He'd probably look great pulling a cool pose on a flight stand, but if he's on the ground, he's gotta be standing perfectly straight, feet flat on the floor, toes facing forward. You basically have to tab them together as if you're transforming him. Dissapointingly limited. He comes with a gun and a swirly pink Special Beam Cannon blast effect, which is cool.
Photos coming soon!
Ironhide
When I was a kid collecting the 2007 Transformers movie toys, I needed that Ironhide like I needed oxygen, but after non-stop searching, I never found one. I missed this Ironhide at retail, but I felt a strong obligation to pick him up secondhand. He looks great in robot mode, has rock solid articulation and makes me smile. He does feel somewhat fragile at parts, so I'm being careful with him. His van mode is, however, very plain, desperately missing some much-needed deco, but the two guns that he comes with can store underneath it, where they pass for exhaust pipes. So that's cool. He also has two unsightly nubs on top of his van mode, which were for when they later reused the mold for...
Photos coming soon!
Ratchet
Everybody's favorite white Ironhide with a doctorate. Besides being a different color, he also has a red ambulance light bar that pegs into the nubs mentioned above, a partly unique head and some medical insignias on his shoulders which don't violate the Geneva Convention. Comes with the same two guns as Ironhide and the same lack of any deco in the van mode. I mean ambulance mode. Whatever. If anything, he's worse off than Ironhide since he's, y'know, an ambulance. A vehicle famously adorned with lots of words and symbols. Then again, I can kind of understand if they simply didn't have the budget to spare for all that, but Ironhide's yellow stripe was too much? Really?
Photos coming soon!
Wheelie
I really enjoy this little guy! He has a fun, simple transformation and looks good in both forms, save for the shiny silver fists sticking out of the back of his car mode. Just pretend they're exhaust pipes, I suppose. He's articulated pretty well for his size, too. What he is lacking, I can't really complain about for the size and price point. He comes with—what else—his slingshot, which is delightfully small and loseable!
Photos coming soon!
Hot Rod
I got a good deal on this guy, but it did cost me an hour's drive. He's a good looking figure, but he does has a slightly cheap, hollow feel and some super stiff joints. The plastic creaks a lot when I handle it and even after oiling his shoulders I feel like I'm going to break something when I move them. Like Springer, they pad out his price point with some cool accessories, those being dual blasters, some cool blue fiery blast effects for his exhausts, his arm saw for making robo-sushi, the Matrix of Leadership, and last but not least, a gorgeous light effect to go on the front of the Matrix which makes it look like it's being activated. I do wish the Matrix was just a bit larger. It would be nice if there was a proper grip on the sides which Hot Rod could stick his fingers through, but he can hold it well enough if you hang it from his thumbs.
Photos coming soon!
Hook and Long Haul
This two pack is what drew my attention to the SS86 line, and after months of waiting, it was a thrill to finally get them in my hands. Both toys feel robust, but have fairly simple transformations. I like flipping Long Haul back and forth more, but I think I prefer Hook's overall look. In their vehicle modes, I'm a bit bothered that Long Haul's dump truck bed is pretty much completely shallow and has a big split going down the middle. Hook looks mostly fine, and I enjoy playing with his extendable crane arm, but he does have a giant conspicuous black block in the middle of the vehicle. These two bots come with a gun each and a big artillery trailer which is made up of several pieces of Devastator, and which can be pulled by Long Haul in vehicle mode.
Photos coming soon!
Brawn
I expected this guy to be smaller, but he's almost the same size as Jazz. However, once he gets transformed, he's very compact! He's also pretty dang good! His transformation is fun and I enjoy the compact Jeep-thing he turns into. It's very fun that the spare tire on the roof can come off. I'm not sure why I enjoy it so much. I guess I just think it's cute. I also love the glossy yellow paint on his torso in robot mode. He comes with a pistol for fighting off Dedepticons.
Photos coming soon!
Gnaw
This guy is fun! Very round. The transformation is pretty good, and I like the look of robot mode, but I LOVE the look of shark-thing mode. Its little grabby hands, giant silver teeth and big beady olive-green eyes are all just so great. The head in the mouth passes for a robot tongue well enough if you push it down far enough. I ended up with two, since my first one had paint globbing up its left eye in bot mode. Shoutouts to Big Bad Toy Store for sending me the second one free! Thanks, guys! He comes with a rifle and two of his body parts can be wielded as weapons; his tail as a mace, and less convincingly, the fin on his back as a dagger.
Photos coming soon!
The Corpses
These morbid releases depict four beloved Autobots as they appeared while being murdered. Released as two 2-packs, they are currently MASSIVELY discounted everywhere, because... well, take a guess. Annoyingly, Ratchet and Ironhide are generally superior to their original releases due to omitting the clear plastic, which allowed for additional paint on the vehicle modes. The downside is that. Um. They have giant holes in their chests/front windshields and their faces are frozen in permanent agony. Prowl, mind you, at time of writing, doesn't have a standalone SS86 release. If you want a Prowl in this line, you'll have to collect his cadaver. Brawn is the least worthwhile of the four, being very close to his normal release, bearing only minor paint and plastic differences just plus a gaping crater in his shoulder and a face that just screams "I won't be in season 3!" His Car mode is near indistinguishable from his other figure, as all his battle damage ends up on its undercarriage. Possibly the biggest selling point for these sets is that they both come with cool 3-tier purple blast effects which pair nicely with Decepticon weapons. Or fatal Autobot wounds.
Photos coming soon!
Rumble
See Frenzy. Rumble was in stock when I started collecting, but I didn't want him then. Of course, once I did want him, the secondhand prices were outrageous. After a bit of hunting, I got one complete and in decent shape from a cool dude who very kindly sent him with some stickers and a CD single from his band, Bathroom of the Future. Check 'em out!
Photos coming soon!
Blaster and Eject
I had wanted these guys from the moment I started picking up these toys, but eBay prices were awful and I figured they wouldn't get reissued since they were a Target exclusive, so I imported them from Australia, which with shipping cost me $14 over MSRP. Of course, a week after they arrived, Hasbro announced a reissue. Ugh! As for the toys themselves, I love them. Blaster is a good looking bot, who stands taller than I expected, and Eject is a decent little cassette bot who's pretty basic, and I expected as much, but he does have an elbow bend, so take that, Frenzy and Rumble! Blaster looks great in boombox mode and Eject fits nicely into the tapedeck. Annoyingly, none of my other 3 cassette bots fit nearly as well as Eject, which is a bit frustrating. You really gotta cram Steeljaw in there, and I worry he'll get stuck.
Photos coming soon!
Ironhide (Core Class)
I'm up to 3 Ironhides now, and this is the stupidest. I'm not exactly sure why this was made. The other core class figures I've covered have been characters who are canonically small, like the cassette bots. Why did Hasbro, in a line where the toys are at least roughly in scale with each other, make an Ironhide that's considerably smaller than most of the other figures? Not only that, but it's probably the cheapest-feeling official Transformer I've ever handled. I spent a fiver on this just out of curiosity, and I don't really think it was worth THAT, let alone retail price. Oh, and its right arm broke off. Right at the ball joint. It's not even worth fixing. Comes with his two pistols.
Photos coming soon!
Perceptor with Ramhorn and Ratbat
I really wanted a Perceptor, and bought the original version before remembering this one was on the way and cancelling. He feels super solid in robot mode, though his torso is made mostly out of brown plastic painted a shiny red, which worries me should he start chipping. I'm also annoyed that his shoulder scope doesn't sit flush with his shoulder, and after trying to fix that for half an hour, I had to give up. His microscope mode is fine, I suppose. I wish his legs clicked or tabbed into position better, instead of just sitting mostly loose. Apparently, the original version of this figure had a third mode, some sort of mobile tank, but changes in the sculpt of this version make it not quite work anymore. As for the two cassette bots, these two are definitely getting further away from what a cassette tape actually looks like. Regardless, I do like Ramhorn. He's chunky and weighty and is really fun to flip back and forth. On the other hand, Ratbat is kind of a pain. Putting his head into position is really difficult and requires 110% of my thumb nail.
Photos coming soon!
Ultra Magnus
Now that's what I'm talking about. I'll write more in a bit!
Photos coming soon!
Optimus Prime
I've wanted an Optimus Prime like this pretty much my entire life. Looks great in both modes? Check. Has a nice big trailer? Check. Scales well with other figures? Check. Looks just about spot on to the cartoon? Check. Advanced articulation? The check factory just called; they need more time to produce all these checks. It's pretty much everything I could want from an Optimus Prime toy. My only complaints are that he's got a big backpack and a faux part in the form of the grill on the front of the truck. The one on the robot mode's stomach is a fake. Speaking of his backpack, the paint on his front bumper, which folds into said backpack, can be damaged by transformation into bot mode if you aren't careful. Additionally, his smokestacks are a bit loose, but I assume that's because Hasbro would rather them spin and pop off than break, which is forgivable. There's also the issue of the lack of any paint inside of the Matrix chamber in his chest, though that was apparently out of Hasbro's control, and I don't exactly display him with his ribcage split open anyway. All in all, this here's a prime Prime, and absolutely worth having. He comes with his energon axe, his ion blaster and two blast effects for it, two blast effects to recreate the scene in the film where he launches into battle, his trailer, containing Roller and his medical drone thing, and which stores all of his accesories, and finally, of course, the Matrix of Leadership.
Photos coming soon!