Toy Review: Transformers Cyberworld Optimus Prime (Cyber Changers)

Review:  #925

Name:  Optimus Prime

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Cyberworld

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class: Cyber Changers (Wave 1)

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Optimus Prime, as you'd expect, transforms into a red and blue truck... but not a very good one.

The back while bad, may be a little bit better.  Still, it's the robot legs and it's completely hollow.

He is smaller than your typical Deluxe, and since he has a lot of hollow limbs, he doesn't feel hefty at all in comparison to his size.

Looking from the back, you can see how it's basically just his robot legs pegged together.  The only play value is rolling him on a flat surface (which admittedly, is the only play value for a lot of more expensive figures too).

The front is gappy and out of proportion, in order to accommodate the simple transformation scheme.

There's no way around it, this is not a good vehicle mode, and is the worst in the Cyber Changers size class.

TRANSFORMATION:

Optimus shares the basic transformation scheme with the rest of the Cyber changers.  The back splits into two for the legs, the arms fold out from the sides.  Lifting the roof allows some internal gearing to shift the windshield into place as his torso while pushing out the shoulders.  It's quite a neat aspect and surprisingly complex.

ROBOT MODE:

Robot mode is definitely the much better mode of the two, and Optimus looks pretty decent here.

He still has a decent amount of kibble, mainly centred on his backpack, plus the wheels that sticking out behind his forearms and his legs.

The head sculpt is fine and classic Optimus Prime.

He is quite a bit shorter than your typical Deluxe figure in robot mode.

Articulation is very limited, he only has joints for his shoulders, hips and knees.  An elbow joint would have been super welcome and given him so much more potential.

Given his hollow legs, he can actually bend his knees a bit further than you'd expect.  However, that same hollowness gives the figure a cheap feel.

A passable robot mode in terms of display.

OVERALL:

Optimus is a good figure for its intended purpose, which is that it is a cheaper toy for younger fans.  The shades of red and blue used is actually really nice.  The transformation is simple but works well.  Just a shame the vehicle mode is quite poor.

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Toy Review: Transformers Cyberworld Starscream (Cyber Changers)

Review:  #924

Name:  Starscream

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Decepticon

Line:  Cyberworld

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class: Cyber Changers (Wave 2)

Mold Status:  new

JET MODE:

As part of the Cyber Changers size class, Starscream transforms into a jet, and looks somewhat familiar, although has some elements of the tetra jet form he sometimes take.

It's not great from the back as his robot legs are completely exposed.  The jet mode is also lacking in paint, as it looks somewhat bland.

In terms of size, he is smaller than a Deluxe, but can be deceptive as he had a wide wingspan that makes him look bigger than he really is.

Due to the way the wings are attached to the fuselage higher up, and then angles downwards, it gives the illusion that he barely has any undercarriage kibble.

It's an okay jet mode.  He's small and does feel cheap, but also does the job.

TRANSFORMATION:

Starscream shares the similar transformation scheme as the rest of the Cyber Changers.  The back splits to form the legs, the arms from the sides.  Folding down the nose will automatically shift his shoulders out.  He has an extra step in that there is an extra joint for the nosecone to fold fully down into his chest.

ROBOT MODE:

Despite the simple transformation, this robot mode is familiar to everyone as instantly being recognizable as Starscream.

He carries a lot of kibble, primarily the wings on his back which are completely unchanged from jet mode.  Makes him feel a bit awkward standing with so much junk on his back.

The head sculpt is fine, it is lacking in some detail but like the rest of the toy, it does the job.

The robot mode shows how much smaller he is when compared to a Deluxe.  The figure also has hollow limbs wherever possible.

Articulation is limited, he has joints for his shoulders, hips and knees, so it's tough to eke out great poses.

Starscream lacks a weapon, he doesn't have the nullrays that's iconic to the character (but it doesn't seem a part of his character model anyway).

Starscream has one of the better robot modes of the line, at least from the front.

OVERALL:

Starscream is an okay figure when you take into consideration the target audience, and the lower price point.  He has an advantage of being a familiar and iconic character, so it able to take some slack.  As a result, he's probably one of the better ones in the line.

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God of War Ragnarok (PS5)

God of War Ragnarok is the sequel to the rebooted game from 2018. It’s a third person puzzle hack and slash. If you’ve played the 2018 game, then this game will be instantly familiar, and maybe overly so. The core gameplay loop remains the same. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the story starts a few years after the previous, where Atreus is now a teenager, although he remains quite annoying, especially in the earlier parts of the game where he’s rash and lacking the life experience of Kratos.

Still steeped in Norse mythology, Kratos and Atreus have been living in hiding, trying to avoid the consequences of their actions from the previous game. Ragnarok is coming, and they were okay to ride it out. However, they were forced into action. Kratos is the one that’s unwilling at first. He’s lost much of his bluster and rage from the original games, and displaying a lot more wisdom and reasonableness. Still, that only holds him back so far, and the story focuses on the father and son relationship, and how Kratos can sometimes struggle with connect with Atreus, and yet he really cares for him.

Gameplay wise, this is still a hack and slash. Kratos has two main weapons, his Leviathan Axe, and his Blades of Chaos. The axe is more suited for one-to-one combat, while the blades have a move set that makes clearing swarms of enemies easier. Light and heavy attacks are mapped to the right shoulder buttons. Complementing that is the ability to block using his shield. He can aim and throw either weapon at enemies. And through a combination of different button holds, Kratos can execute different moves. Completing his move set are Runic attacks that can be swapped in and out, depending on your preferences.

It’s a robust enough combat system, and it is a more personal system given that the camera is permanently closer to Kratos (no different than the 2018 game). This can also make it feel claustrophobic, as you’ll often get enemies flanking Kratos, where he’s facing the wrong way and needs to evade an incoming attack. Atreus is almost always there, and he can help during the battles by firing arrows or stunning the enemies. He’s mostly controlled by AI, but you have limited control such as having Atreus fire the arrows on command.

There is a light RPG system where Kratos and even Atreus gain experience. It isn’t used for leveling up in the most traditional sense but rather is used to unlock more moves. Use these new moves enough and they get enhancements, thereby encouraging the player to mix up combat (which you would also want to do to avoid combat getting too repetitive and stale). Furthermore, loot is a big part of the gameplay loop. Beating enemies will cause them to drop loot, but you’ll get most of them from exploration. There are always constant branches in the main path where there’ll be a chest hiding (and often, even in plain sight on the main path). To the point where the characters even make jokes about Kratos constantly diverging to find a crate. The loot is then used to upgrade his weapons, armor and other accessories.

Unfortunately, the game’s structure is already very similar to the 2018 game, and this game doesn’t evolve it much more. It instantly feels samey, and playing through the first ten hours, it ends up being predictable. This is because each chapter is structured almost the same in that you’ll explore, solve some puzzles, fight some enemies, get to the end with a bigger cutscene, and then make your way back fighting some more enemies. It’s tiring and feels like a lot of it is filler. Which can be said for the puzzles, most of the puzzles are simple, but can border on annoying. These puzzles can be boiled down to finding something for Kratos to throw his axe at to hit a switch, thereby breaking through an obstacle to progress. It’s not deep and while it is a good change of pace from the combat, it’s not… fun or satisfying.

And that brings us to the game’s biggest problem, there’s too much filler. The game’s story, measured in hours to finish, isn’t that long. It only takes 25 to 30 hours. However, it’s the feeling of the journey that makes it feel long. The original game could get away with something like this, given that was more about the personal journey between father and son. This game, on the other hand, is on a larger scale, and you can say that the story could be cut in half and you wouldn’t lose any of the impact. There are just too many slow scenes that are pointless. There are long treks of repetitive nature. The characters constantly get sidetracked. All too often, they need to go to a location but need something else first. So, they go there to get it, but then need another thing, taking a big loop only to not need to in the first place, and we get back to the original intent.

The story also takes way too long to get interesting; it literally takes 15 hours before we get to the first bit of truly interesting plot. The game starts off okay, with Odin and Thor visiting Kratos and Atreus, while they are still on the run from Freya hunting them down. It evolves to the pair needing to deal with Ragnarok, the prophecy that foretells Asgard’s (and thus Odin’s) downfall. But for most of the game, you don’t see much of them doing much about it, despite the urgency. It’s only until the last third of the game where it feels overly brief and rushed to wrap up the story. It feels as if the developers ran out of time to properly do it justice, yet they still managed to find time right before the titular Ragnarok to send Kratos on yet another pointless detour.

Once Kratos heads into the final fight, it’s over in little more than an hour. While the climax isn’t completely underwhelming, it felt like it tried to close things off too quickly. It doesn’t help that the game has an amazing ability to not really create a likeable character. Almost all of them are annoying and extremely flawed to the point of not even being good to hate. The finale doesn’t answer much either, or a lot of the teases earlier on are not touched upon. That’s the biggest disappointment of the game; it sets things up but then they’re either cast away or revealed to be pointless. It truly does feel like a waste of your time.

After the story, there are still a lot of side activities to do. Each area you’ve been to has huge sections where they are optional and not visited as part of the story. There are hours of content, but whether you want to do more of the same stuff is up to you. Despite the fantastic graphics, and the high production values, yet it still somehow loses the wow factor. The combat and RPG elements become overwhelming. There are multiple ways to upgrade equipment, and then the characters themselves. It’s easy to lose track of what you want to upgrade next. Combat has a lot of options, and by midway through the game, you can finally use it to your full advantage, which is rotating weapons and utilizing the special attacks. It makes combat a lot more varied and enjoyable, but due to the sheer number of options, can be easy to lose track of.

There’s still one more major piece of content after completing the story and that’s the free DLC, Valhalla. It acts as an epilogue to Kratos’ story, for both the Greek and the Norse saga. It is a rogue-like, but despite that, it is still very story heavy. You are supposed to play through “runs”, and completing a full run will give progress the story. Dying is expected (unless you’re playing on the easiest difficulty) and you get stronger after each run. Yes, you do lose the temporary bonuses you get from the run, but you can then buy permanent bonuses to get stronger each time. Naturally, this means that the DLC is heavily combat focused, which isn’t too bad and can become addictive. It takes around five to seven hours to complete, depending on the difficulty you play it at, and it is a very substantial piece of content, especially considering it was free.

Overall, God of War Ragnarok doesn’t come close to the highs of the 2018 game. It had all the essentials to be an even better game, with the graphics, the core battle system, and the story coming off such a great game. Instead, it felt like it was half a step forward, like it was an extension of the game, rather than a proper sequel. The combat felt iterative, and the story was told poorly. Being semi-open world means that the story pacing suffers, and it already suffers from being overly slow for 80% of the game. There’s too much filler in the game, and so it feels like it constantly loses focus, and thus nowhere near as epic as what you would expect from the series.

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Toy Review: Transformers Cyberworld Wheeljack (Cyber Changers)

Review:  #923

Name:  Wheeljack

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Cyberworld

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class: Cyber Changers (Wave 2)

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

The Cyber changers size class is a simple line, and Wheeljack transforms into a sports car, which has a slight deformed stubby look to it.

The back is not great, but could be worse.  You can see the robot feet but at least it's not completely gappy.

The figure is smaller than a Deluxe, but bigger than the older Core class.

Wheeljack actually surprisingly has a lot more paint apps.  There is a lot of red and green, and it makes the vehicle mode look very decent.

The wheels roll and that's about it for play value, and given the size, it's not a horrible vehicle mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

Wheeljack shares the same basic transformation as Bumblebee from the same line, and very similarly to the rest of the Cyber Changers.  The back splits to form the legs, the sides are the arms, and the front folds down to form the chest, which also houses gears so that it automatically moves other pieces within the torso in place.

ROBOT MODE:

Given the simplified transformation, naturally Wheeljack's robot mode is heavily compromised.

He has a lot of kibble, there are large chunks of the car that just hangs everywhere.

The head sculpt is okay, and at least the mouth plate and sides are properly painted silver.

In robot mode, again, he's shorter than your typical Deluxe.

All the budget for paint went into vehicle mode, so most of the robot dedicated parts are unpainted white.  Thankfully, the black helps break it up.

Articulation is limited, he has joints for his shoulders, hips and knees.  Unfortunately, he doesn't have a weapon either.

For a basic representation of the character, the robot mode is okay and naturally he is for a younger audience.

OVERALL:

With all the Cyber Changers have so many similarities, they all share similar flaws and strengths.  One thing to keep in mind is that the line is designed for younger audiences and in that, Wheeljacks succeeds.  He's built so that he feels like he can withstand rougher play.  It's a shame this is the best representation we can get of the character thus far, because at its core, this is a very simple toy.

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