Toy Review: Transformers Generations Legacy United Geocron (Core)

Review:  #854

Name:  Geocron

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Legacy: United

Year of Release:  2024

Size Class:  Core (Wave 3)

Mold Status:  retool of Generations Legacy United Bouldercrash

VEHICLE MODE:

Geocron transforms into a rocky motorcycle and despite being a retool / redeco, he actually has a similar color scheme to Bouldercrash at first glance.

It's in the smaller Core size class, so the motorcycle is... compromised.  It has three wheels so it doesn't need a kickstand to stay up.  The back is really thick since it's both the robot legs folded up.

Size-wise, he is okay, the combination of Core and motorcycle mean he should feel smaller than usual but he isn't so bad because this is such a chunky motorcycle.

There's a huge blade that just sticks out the back.  This is permanent as you cannot remove it without removing the whole top piece.

Officially, the blade can fold forward into some kind of attack mode.

However, there's a 5mm peg that sticks out of the back and it's designed to be held by larger figures.

It's a unique vehicle mode and it manages to pull it off more than you'd expect, even though it's still not the most amazing.

TRANSFORMATION:

He is simple to transform, remove the top which includes the giant blade.  Then you can unfold and split the back to form the legs.  The sides are from the side and that's kind of it.

ROBOT MODE:

The robot mode is not bad either, although he almost loses all aspects of the motorcycle mode, except for the wheels next to his feet.

He still carries a fair amount of kibble on his back that kind of sticks out.

The head sculpt is surprisingly simple, in that it is smooth and kind of creepy with its toothless smile.  This is a new head, and the retool part of the release.

He's okay in terms of size, on par with previous Core figures.

Articulation is fine, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees.

The blade weapon from motorcycle becomes the robot weapon.

He can hold the weapon in either hand and it's designed to cover his arm, so despite the oversized nature of the weapon, it still looks fairly decent.

Despite the bland color scheme, the robot mode manages to pull it off, just.

OVERALL:

Geocron is an okay figure.  It is a hard sell given that this is a new unknown character, and combined with the small size (basically the worst value size class), it's probably best to wait for a sale.

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Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (Vita)

The second in the Sonic racing series and was ported to the Vita with pretty much all content intact. It is a kart racer, but Sonic theme. The controls are easy to pick up, although there are small tutorials when you first start playing. The right shoulder button accelerates, while the left shoulder button drifts. Then the X button uses the current power up that you have. The game plays similarly to Mario Kart and other kart racers. You race along a race with other racers, picking up powerups from containers along the way. Then you use this to wreck havoc on the other racers to get ahead. Drifting around corners is a must, as this is linked to a speed boost that’s dependent on how long you drifted for.

The unique gimmick here is the “Transformed” theme, where both the kart and the tracks will change. The karts transforming from vehicle to boat to plane is interesting, but not too mind-blowing (although the plane suddenly gains another degree of motion). The tracks changing after each lap are much more impressive, especially when some of the changes are substantial, and make it feel completely different.

There is a decent single player mode with initially only three difficulties, but a fourth one will eventually unlock. It forgoes any attempts at a story and instead provides you with events that have a variety of objectives. This is a good decision, and it gives the game a bite-sized play experience that ends up becoming addictive. You will easily get into the mindset of playing just one more stage to progress just that little bit further.

While there are only 20 or so tracks, the single player modes give it variety by having different objectives for each of those tracks. In this mode, the player plays each event to gain stars to unlock new characters and new stages. These differing objectives include racing, drifting events, attacking enemies, ring challenges, boosts and more. This variety keeps it from being too boring. While not all these objectives are stellar as something can be annoying, it doesn’t get to become too repetitive for this mode at least.

The events are spread across six “worlds” and after completing the first five, you will see the credits. The sixth world is a bonus, and it is one where you will need to go back to previous events to play the hardest modes to get enough stars to unlock everything. The gating of events by the number of stars you gain isn’t a big problem for the first five worlds, and it takes around three to five hours to complete it the first time around.

To be fair, the medium difficulty is a good difficulty for people who are not amazing at kart racing. It’s not too hard and not too easy. You must put in some effort to try and secure third place or higher to complete that event. It can get annoying but persist and you will proceed even though it can be luck based. Although that’s nothing new for this genre.

There are five stats to each character, such as top speed, acceleration and handling. Each character trades off one area for strength in another, and you unlock more characters as you play. There is a slight RPG element where every time you complete a race or event with a character; they will gain XP. Level up and it unlocks a slightly different stat distribution profile, like Sonic is focused on speed, but he can unlock a profile that gives up some speed to boost his handling. It’s a neat way to be able to keep using your favorite character but in a way that suits your playstyle, without making all the characters feel the same.

The graphics are good for a Vita game, especially one that was released this early on in its life. Of course, it cannot compare to the console versions but it’s good enough. The design of the tracks is generally good, but some can be annoying with its sharp turns and gaps on the track. While novel at first, the transformed aspect of the vehicles can be annoying as the boat and plane controls are naturally more floaty and harder to control. Also, it can feel like they slow down the race in certain sections.

The World Tour mode with all the events represents the bulk of the single player content. You can then play other modes such as Grand Prix, Time Trials and Single Race as supplements. You will need to play Grand Prix to unlock all the tracks, given that mode provides all the mirror tracks. Mirror tracks can feel so different even though it’s the same tracks you’ve been racing… just mirrored, so it can work contrary to your muscle memory.

Overall, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed is a surprisingly good kart racer. There is a sense of chaos and speed at its best, and it is extremely additive and fun to play. The difficulty is nicely balanced, since no one weapon feels totally unfair, and all of them can be avoided or blocked in some way. Yes, it can still be luck based but it feels less so than some other kart racers. The Vita version may not be the prettiest or the most polished, given that there are still bugs after all the patches, but it is a great portable version.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Optimus Prime (ROTB) (Voyager)

Review:  #853

Name:  Optimus Prime

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Studio Series

Year of Release:  2024

Size Class:  Voyager (Wave 27)

Mold Status:  rerelease of Buzzworthy Bumblebee Optimus Prime

ALTERNATE MODE:

Optimus, based upon his appearance in the Rise of the Beasts film, transforms into an approximation of the truck from the film.

The truck looks fine from the front, but from the back and side, it is messy thanks to the mess of parts (part of the robot's legs) right behind the cab.  Quite disappointing in the modern era of Transformers engineering.

Size-wise, he's fine for a Voyager.  Like with most Voyagers, he's quite compact in vehicle mode.  The huge grey piece of plastic for the cab roof isn't too flash either though.

The robot weapons can peg onto the back.

To be honest, the front isn't bad, it's just the back which really ruins this mode.  It's like the designer ran out of budget and just had to shove the pieces where they are as a result.

An average vehicle mode at best.  At least he holds together well even if he doesn't look that flash.

TRANSFORMATION:

This is where the figure starts to redeem itself.  The transformation is surprisingly different and more fun than you'd expect.  You'd think with the mess left in vehicle mode, the leg transformation will be overly simple and disappointing but it has a lot of interesting manipulation of parts.  Similarly, unfold the arms and torso from the cab isn't as simple as you'd expect.  This leads to an interesting and engaging transformation scheme and easily one of the best parts of the figure.  It's also very different to the previous Studio Series Optimus which this mold was only marginally based on.

ROBOT MODE:

Okay, this is another area where the figure redeems itself as the robot mode looks pretty good.

He's quite solid, and has a limited amount of kibble.  He looks slim as a result.

The head sculpt can be a bit messy, like with a lot of complex movie head designs in toy form.

He's a typical Voyager size, and despite being very similar in design to the Bumblebee version, here, you can see how different he is, and the proportions overall being better.

He's one of the last releases of the Studio Series line to have a cardboard stand.

Articulation is good, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrist, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with two weapons, a sword and the tip of his gun.

His fist rotates back into the forearm so you can attach the gun, to make it seem as if his arm transformed into the weapon.  While the idea is good, it does make the gun seem a bit small.

The sword attaches above his wrist on his forearm, and looks great there, even if it makes his wrist fold down slightly.

Both weapons can peg onto his back for storage.

While his shoulders can lift up and down, due to how they are jointed, they do look very weird if lifted up too high.

Otherwise, he has a great range of articulation, and he can pull off many great poses.

If you don't like the sword coming out of his forearm, he can hold it as a handheld weapon.  It doesn't look as wicket but still passable.

A fantastic robot mode that looks and plays great.

OVERALL:

Optimus Prime was a pleasant surprise.  You might write him off at first, but reconsider.  The vehicle mode isn't great, but the fun transformation and excellent robot mode redeems the figure.  This is actually a strong release in the Studio Series line, which has been floundering recently due to the constant cost cutting.

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