Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Concept Art Sunstreaker (Deluxe)

Review:  #805

Name:  Concept Art Sunstreaker

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Studio Series

Year of Release:  2024

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 24)

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Sunstreaker transforms into a Cybertronian sports car, and while the robot is based upon the concept art from the Bumblebee movie, the car is made up.

This is a decent vehicle mode, and the back is nicely concealed and whole.  While lacking paint as it is a solid yellow, at least there are no unsightly gaps and exposed robot parts.

Size-wise, Sunstreaker is about on par with most Deluxes nowadays.

The wheels are slightly weird, since firstly, it is cast in yellow plastic so it looks bad, but secondly, the whole wheel doesn't roll.  It's molded into the body, and only a small strip underneath allows it to roll.

Sunstreaker's weapons can either combine and peg onto the roof, or separated and peg onto either side.

This is a nice vehicle mode that looks sleek, even though it is alien in design.

TRANSFORMATION:

The transformation is simple, although a little tight in places, especially concerning the legs.  The front splits to form the legs, and the hood pieces fold into the back of the legs.  While the sides are the arms and the roof becomes the torso.  The rear of the vehicle forms big shoulder pads for the robot mode.

ROBOT MODE:

Sunstreaker's robot mode looks really nice, and the Concept Art sub-series as a whole creates some nice looking robots, even if they aren't of the traditional Transformers aesthetics.

He is mostly clean of kibble, with only the shoulder pads really getting in the way.  Although yes, he has significantly hollowed forearms, thankfully the plastic used is thick and strong enough that it doesn't feel weak or flimsy.

The head sculpt is okay, the two yellow pieces on either side solidifies the character, but it is still a fairly alien look.

He is somewhat short in robot mode too, but not too thin and spindly like some movie characters.

As part of the Studio Series line, he comes with a cardboard stand, depicting a scene from Cybertron.

Articulation is fairly decent, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with a pair of guns, which can be held in both hands.

When not in use, the guns can combine together and then peg onto his back.

His feet are shaped a little bit awkwardly both in terms of looks and how practical it is.  It is not a big problem, but his ankle tilts can feel like they are not giving the right angle to allow him to stand flat sometimes.

A great looking robot mode.

OVERALL:

Concept Art Sunstreaker is a nice and solid figure.  He looks great in both modes, and he focuses on being a good Transformer.  So while he doesn't have too many gimmicks in robot mode, he makes up for it with his solid feel and general good design.

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Attack on Titan: The Final Season - Part 3 (2023)

Attack on Titan: The Final Season - Part 3 is a special length version, being one hours long, or approximately the length of three episodes. It is split into two chapters. It pulls no punches as it starts off with the total devastation of the titans just rumbling across the landscape. Probably what hits you the hardest is how it shows the terrifying last moments of the people as they try to escape, only to find that there is no escape. Considering that a lot of the population are innocent, that makes it all the worst, and the anime nails this aspect.

Then the perspective moves back towards Mikasa and Armin’s group as they continue their journey to try and stop Eren. At this point, considering the sheer size and scale of the titan army, it is difficult to see what they could possibly do to stop Eren. Despite slowly transitioning Eren into a monster and villain, Part 3 puts in several scenes where Eren has doubts within himself on what he has to do. So now you are not sure whether Eren just went crazy with the revelation that even though he might not wish it, it was fate that pushed him to do it.

Despite the situation being dire, and Eren obliterating everything in his path, the pacing can still be considered somewhat slow. A lot of focus is placed upon Mikasa and Armin’s group in how they try and prepare so that they can head out to confront Eren. While it is much less political than the previous two parts, and there are some fantastic action sequences, there are plenty of scenes where it can feel that it is partly fluff and could have been shortened. The group is so focused on getting to Eren, that the plan around how to stop him is still somewhat hazy. It is shown time and again that the titans aren’t completely invulnerable, just that their sheer number and strength of each individual one makes it particularly hard to stop a horde of them. As you would expect, Part 3 ends with a cliffhanger, so you’ll just have to wait until the final part.

Overall, Attack on Titan: The Final Season - Part 3 is good and consistent with previous parts. It still has a bit of a slow pacing going on, but it nails its themes. The despair that people must feel when the titans are coming to obliterate everything in their path cannot be understated. You can kind of see what the anime is trying to do, in terms of healing the rift between the different nations. And finally, the anime continues to nail the epic feel of its fights, even when sometimes, when broken down, the fights don’t have much excitement in it.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Legacy United Tigerhawk (Leader)

Review:  #804

Name:  Tigerhawk

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Maximal

Line:  Generations - Legacy: United

Year of Release:  2024

Size Class:  Leader (Wave 1)

Mold Status:  new

BEAST MODE:

Based upon his appearance in the Beast Wars show, Tigerhawk transforms into a combination of a tiger and eagle (for obvious reasons).

He features gigantic wings and the beast mode impressively hides pretty much all of the robot parts.

As a Leader class, Tigerhawk is sizable, above is a comparison against a Voyager figure.

The head is more of a tiger, and the mouth can open and close.  That's the only movement you'll get though as it cannot move up / down or left / right.

The element that dominates the figure is of course the wings, and they are huge.  The wings can move up and down, and can open and close.  It's not as flexible as you would like though.

Cannons can be flipped forward on each wing for some additional firepower.

If you looked at the figure from the side, you can see how "front-heavy" it is.  It looks huge and substantial with the front tiger half, but the rear eagle half feels anorexic in comparison.

There are plenty of nice sculpted elements to the figure, and the green plastic used is transparent.  Tigerhawk does feel worthy of the Leader size class.

While the actual design is probably hit or miss depending on your tastes, the figure does a great job of translating the show model into a physical figure.

TRANSFORMATION:

For a beast Transformer, Tigerhawk is more than just stand the beast mode up and rearrange the limbs.  While the front pair of legs do form the robot legs, you effectively unfold the whole torso and then rotate the robot arms out.  It's a neat design of the transformation scheme, although on the whole, it relies a bit too heavily on panels.

ROBOT MODE:

Tigerhawk's robot mode is also an acquired taste.  It can be ugly or beautiful depending on your preferences.  It's accurate to the show though, which is what mostly matters.

He carries a huge chunk of kibble, those absurdly large wings, on his back.  Luckily, they do not make him back heavy.

The head sculpt has an organic design to it, furthermore, it also feels alien (fitting given the nature of the character was in Beast Wars).

He is taller than a Voyager in robot mode, but also much bulkier and heftier too.

He carries a plethora of weapons, the first is a double barrelled blaster than pegs onto the outside of his forearms.

The next are his feather blades which are blended perfectly with the rest of his ring, and a pair of blasters that just detach from behind his wing.

With the feathers, instead of being springloaded missile launchers like the original toy, they're now just swords for him to hold in either hand.

While with the blasters, he can hold both of them in his hands.

You can also let the blasters stay where they were stored in the wing and flip them up, this configuration is officially in the instructions, although it looks stupid.

Articulation is good, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and a little bit for his ankles (up / down with no side to side motion).

He has huge heelspurs which keeps him stable.

Despite the plethora of joints though, it can be restricted by his kibble.  The eagle legs on his shoulders also do not peg in, they just sit there.

This is an impressive looking robot and will no doubt stand out on your shelf.

OVERALL:

Tigerhawk is an excellent update to the original figure, and one that you don't really expect to have been made.  It's great that focus has been put onto characters other than the core of the main cast.  The figure itself doesn't break what's not broken, and improves massively in the aesthetics department over the original figure.  He also properly feels like he is worth the Leader class price point.

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