Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Wheeljack / Que (Deluxe)

Review:  #866

Name:  Wheeljack / Que

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Studio Series

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 28)

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Based upon his (only) appearance in the Dark of the Moon movie, Wheeljack (or known by his screenname Que), transforms into a blue Mercedes E550.

It's a decent vehicle mode, even if it looks just a tad bit chubby and simplified.

The size is okay, around average Deluxe size.

The robot weapon pegs onto the side of the vehicle.

He only has rolling wheels as a gimmick.  The detailing on both the front and back is nice, and he doesn't have any obviously exposed robot parts which is always nice.

A decent vehicle mode and probably the better mode of the two...

TRANSFORMATION:

Transformation into robot mode is not hard, nor is it inventive or amazing.  While he can't be called a shellformer, effectively, only the headlights don't form the backpack.  Everything else unfolds from underneath the shell of the car.  The back splits to form the legs, and the arms from the roof and sides.

ROBOT MODE:

Wheeljack's robot mode is okay.  There is a lot of unpainted grey plastic, which dulls all the intricate sculpting and makes him look really bland.

He features a massive amount of kibble.  Half the car is on his back, and the other half is behind his legs.  At least they all peg in solidly and doesn't flop around.

The head sculpt is ugly, but that's more due to the ugly movie head designs.  It's too human looking, and given Transformers are machines, having him look so aged (and like Einstein...) doesn't look right either.

He is shorter than your average Deluxe, and skinnier too.

As mentioned, he has a lot of intricate sculpting, just that the shade of grey used is the horrible "Hasbro grey".

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

He comes with two weapons, a staff-gun, and a smaller gun.

The staff can be held in his hand at the tip, which looks a bit too long and awkward for him.

While the gun can be held in his other hand, but it's a bit thin looking too.

Alternatively, the staff and gun can combine and held in his hand as another type of weapon.  To be honest, it's hard to tell what sort of weapon this is supposed to be exactly.

Both of the weapons can peg onto his back for storage.

You can tell that the engineering was sacrificed to be more simplistic, and this robot mode suffers as a result.  Wheeljack just feels cheap as a result, and not up to the standards the Studio Series line had set before.

An okay robot mode that might look passable, but is a disappointing effort in the end.

OVERALL:

Wheeljack is one of those figures you'd get, because it's one of the only accessible figure of the character.  The vehicle mode is find, it's the transformation and robot mode that just disappoints.  There aren't any game breaking flaws, it's just that he could have been so much better.  The simplicity led to a huge amount of kibble, and his robot mode isn't even fun to make up for it.

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Taiko no Tatsujin: V Version

Taiko no Tatsujin: V Version is the Vita version of the long-running Taiko no Tatsujin games, a series of rhythm games where you hit the buttons in time with the music based on the prompts. There are two types of notes, the face buttons and direction buttons are used for the red prompts, and the shoulder buttons are used for the blue prompts. There are some different button combinations such as pressing two buttons at the same time or rapidly hitting them, but it is a simple control scheme. It gives you flexibility since you can hit any of the face buttons for the red prompt and any of the shoulder buttons for the blue prompt. There are no other gimmicks such as forced usage of the touch screen or touch pad.

As you’d expect, the game features a Free Play Mode, where you go in, select the song, select the difficulty, and away you go. You can hit the notes and get graded with a Miss, OK, or Great. These will then combine into a score at the end. Of course, it is preferred to not miss any notes and get a full combo. You can also fail songs which will end it prematurely. There are four levels you can pick from, Easy, Normal, Hard and Oni. Easy and Normal are very manageable for most players, while Hard starts to get tough, and Oni requires a lot of practice.  Rhythm games live and die by their song lists, and V Version has over 80 songs from a variety of genres. This is probably one of the game’s strongest assets. The song list is grouped into categories such as J-pop, anime, Vocaloid, game, classic and Namco Originals etc. One thing to note is that the anime music is usually the short versions, rather than the full songs, probably due to licensing restrictions. While the game is only in Japanese (or Chinese subtitles if you have the Asian version), the game is easily picked up even if you don’t know the language given the limited amount of text.

With the free play mode, that’ll be enough content for most rhythm games, but V Version goes one extra step by including a story mode called Donder Quest. The story mode is required to unlock all the available songs for free play. The story itself is simple as you’d expect, having the two characters, Don and Katsu, finding a book that ends up transporting them into an alternate world. From there, they help as adventurers to defeat the monsters. Although they must work from the lowest level up to the top to gain the strength and rank required to fight the villain.  The story mode is structured as you would expect but there are still a few slight differences. Of note is that the minimum difficulty level is Normal. You will select “Quests” from the menu, which his basically playing through a song to defeat enemies. Successfully hitting the prompts will allow characters to attack, while if you’re only getting Good, or missing them entirely, the enemy will attack. There are prompts inserted into the song that you are not supposed to hit, otherwise you will be attacked. There are also effects where it will obscure the prompts, which are explained by the enemies’ special effects. These don’t occur in the free play mode, and so it allows the story mode to feel different and adds another layer of difficulty.

In the story mode, there are some RPG elements, such as ranks, which are used to progress the story, and equipment which will augment your stats. There are ten ranks in the story, and beating quests will unlock more equipment. Although if you play the songs good enough, you can get by. Equipment still plays a role but not a crucial one where you need to min max the stats. The other thing is that in the quests, you don’t necessarily need to play through the whole track either. It will end when you’ve reached the objective, of which there is a variety such as hitting a certain number of notes, beating the enemy, getting the enemy’s health down to 50%, or achieving a certain score.  As you get further into the story, the bosses in each rank do get harder. They’re harder in the sense that their effects are extremely annoying. It basically hides the prompts or moves them in unorthodox manners, so it crosses the line to being overly gimmicky. At least if you keep losing to the boss, then the difficulty is dropped down by lowering their starting health. After the story, which takes a decent number of hours (around 5 hours if you play all the songs), there is a post-game section with harder levels and further unlocks.

The game has a great song selection and variety, and most of the song maps are decent. There are modifiers such as speeding up the notes or inversing the blue and red prompts, that adds more spice. As you complete songs, you will get customization options that can change the appearance of Don.  Overall, Taiko no Tatsujin: V Version is a fantastic addition to the series. It’s a big meaty rhythm game that packs way more effort than you’d expect. Not only is there a huge number of songs to play, but there is even a story mode, with its own unique gameplay mechanics. The graphics give the game a fun light-hearted atmosphere, and the sheer amount of content will give you plenty of hours of entertainment.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Bonecrusher (The Movie) (Deluxe)

Review:  #865

Name:  Bonecrusher

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Decepticon

Line:  Generations - Studio Series

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 28)

Mold Status:  new

ALTERNATE MODE:

Part of the first in the updated Constructicons team, Bonecrusher is based upon his G1 self and transforms into a neon green bulldozer.

It's a simple vehicle mode, and barely has any paint applications to break up all that green (which is accurate to how he was shown on screen in the cartoon but does make for a bland toy).

In terms of size, he's fine for a Deluxe, a bit narrow, but is very compact and solid.

The robot weapon, a gun, can peg on top of the vehicle.

One interesting thing is that there are no plastic wheels underneath so he cannot roll at all.  It's odd.  Apart from that, this is a functional, yet static, vehicle mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

For a combiner, in the Deluxe sized class no less, you'd expect something more complicated.  Instead, Bonecrusher has a very simple transformation (which is the general focus of Transformers these days, given all the cost cutting).  The treads become the legs, the middle of the bulldozer fold out to form his arms, and then you fold the pieces down to form the torso.

ROBOT MODE:

A bit more color comes into play for robot mode thanks to the chest details, and Bonecrusher looks okay, if a bit chubby thanks to his proportions.

He has a big piece of kibble on his back, being the combined mode's upper arm.  Otherwise, the robot mode is quite clean.

The head sculpt is good, and the splash of silver looks nice.

He's a bit bigger in robot mode now, both taller and bulkier than a few other Deluxes.

The combined mode piece sticks out a fair way from his back, but doesn't really get in the way.

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

His only weapon is a small black gun that he can hold in his hand.

When not in use, the gun can store by pegging onto his back.

A weird thing is that the shovel piece that is his chest, it doesn't quite peg in tightly enough so it can come loose when you're handling him.

Otherwise, this is a good robot mode, if like vehicle mode, he can be functional but bland.

OVERALL:

Bonecrusher is mandatory if you wanted to form Devastator.  Yes, he's definitely better than the Combiner Wars figure, but it doesn't wow you with its engineering.  It's simple and uninspiring, and that translates to both modes.  He just feels... clinical and by the books, as if the designers are so hamstrung by budget issues that they can only take the original transformation and add articulation to it.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Hatchet (Deluxe)

Review:  #864

Name:  Hatchet

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Decepticon

Line:  Generations - Studio Series

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 27)

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Finally, for the first time, we get a Hatchet toy in a full sized Deluxe offering.  He transforms into a Chevrolet Suburban car.

This is a pretty decent vehicle.  It's high riding, although the only let down is this thing underneath sticking out the back, which is the robot mode's tail.

He is an okay size.  He feels smaller than he should, given that he is supposed to be a large SUV, so he ends up being tall but narrow.

While there are some panel lines, thanks to the black, they're not that noticeable.

This is a great vehicle mode, and if you think about it, a lot of paint went into painting all the windows... so despite being a black vehicle, he isn't drab at all (plus all the lights are also painted).

TRANSFORMATION:

This is the biggest downside of the figure.  Hatchet has a horrendous transformation, further ruined by panels that are only loosely attached via friction, so they constantly fall off.  It's best to leave them detached when they inevitably fall off, and peg then back on in the end (it's more annoying getting into vehicle mode as a result).  He's a big shellformer, as most of the vehicle shell ends up folding on top of each other, with the rear legs unfolding from the back, and the front legs from the front.  Unfortunately, his tail is a separate piece that you need to attach yourself.

ROBOT MODE:

Hatchet has always had an interesting robot mode, being a quad-legged beast-like robot.  At first glance, he's pretty good here.

He has a lot of kibble, but that's actually good as it helps bulk up his figure.  His torso is actually quite skinny and insubstantial.

The head sculpt is one of the best things about this figure, it looks fantastic.

He's bigger than vehicle mode now that he's unfolded, but is still a relatively small Deluxe.

Another disappointing engineering aspect of the figure is his tail is a separate piece that you peg on, and it doesn't even peg on solidly.  It likes to fall off if you accidentally touch it.

Hatchet is one of the last in the line to come with a cardboard stand, depicting the highway scene.

Articulation is okay... with joints for his head, and each leg has a hip, elbow and ankle joint.

However, given the inherent limitations of a quad-legged figure, Hatchet can't really do that many poses where he doesn't look lopsided or falls over.

The dreads on either side of his head are also not locked into place, so if you're moving his front legs or the head, they tend to fold back towards the center.

A good looking robot mode at first glance, but is filled with flaws.

OVERALL:

Hatchet as a design has a lot of potential.  However the engineering effort that went into this toy is disappointing.  We haven't had such a flawed figure in a long time.  The pieces that are prone to constantly fall off, the poor transformation, and the lazy design elements, make Hatchet a hard one to recommend, unless you really want the only representation of the character we've had in all these years.

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