Review of Differences in Platinum Intel Ops Blaster and Perceptor set and New Slide Feature

carytheone wrote:

Blaster Face.jpg

Go ahead, try and get some sleep tonight. Blaster will be there, watching, waiting, plotting....

carytheone wrote:

Blaster Face.jpg

Go ahead, try and get some sleep tonight. Blaster will be there, watching, waiting, plotting....

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

carytheone wrote:

Blaster Face.jpg

Go ahead, try and get some sleep tonight. Blaster will be there, watching, waiting, plotting....

As I am getting ready for bed....

Sabrblade wrote:Will posted that, not me.

william-james88 wrote:While the Transfomrers Platinum Autobot Intel Ops set, featuring a rerelease of Blaster, Perceptor, Ramhorn and Steeljaw, has been out for a while, there hasn't been an in depth analysis to what this set offers over previous rereleases. The new slide feature has not been covered correctly elsewhere with reviewers making the dreaded mistake of not following the instructions.

Since he is now sold out at this product's exclusive retailer in America, it seems a lot of folks now have this fun new collectible and I will list the main differences with this release and go in depth for the new slide feature.

Firstly, while the box art is awesome...



... no one has yet to comment on the dumb grin Blaster has. I guess he does really enjoy pummeling Decepticons, as his bio says.



While the quality is not terrible, the grey plastic used for Blaster has the similar flecks found in the the plastic used for contemporary Transformer toys. You can see the reflection from the camera's flash:



The grey plastic is also a shade more brown than the original release.



Also, while the original mold indentations for the date and copyright are found on the figure, there is also a contemporary trademark stamp found all across Blaster's upper back.



A significant difference over the original Perceptor is that his gun can no longer fire, which is customary for many reissues. However, unlike the previous reissue, there has been a slight change so that the missile will not fall from the gun when inserted for poses. If anyone knows if these missiles can still fire when entered in the original gun, please let us know in the forum.



Also, Perceptor has an Autobot logo sticker in his abdominal area which is absent from the stock photo in the back. This reminds me, all stickers are preapplied.








Now onto the New Features!

The main difference between this and previous releases of the Perceptor figure is the inclusion of a whole new accessory for his microscope. He comes with six microscope slides which have diverse sci fi imagery, ranging from fractals, solar flares and technorganic cell as well as a blueprint for Optimus Prime.



These six slides can be held by a case which can close.






This case, in the open formation, can be attached to Perceptor's back. It has four pegs which match with the already existing holes found on Perceptor's back.






Now, for viewing the slides themselves, I haven't found any review that has done this correctly. This is not how you are supposed to place the slide:



While you might think that they are made to fit on the chest plate (which still works visually if you want to pose him in microscope mode), this won't work and the instructions instead indicate that they must fit over the smaller mirror.



The slides indeed fit snugly over the mirror due to a molded indentation on the slide. The slide can only fit on the mirror when it is upside down.



The gimmick actually works since Perceptor retains his ability to be a working microscope. Here is a messed up view of what you might see.



Woah, let's back up a bit. Ok, so here is the tecnorganic cell slide placed on the mirror:



And here is how it looks under the microscope. You will notice that it is reflected upside down.



Now let's look at the Optimus slide.



Here is what it looks like under the microscope.





Hopefully this helped highlight the new feature as well as explain how to get the most out of this set. I know I am having a blast (pun intended)!

Hellscream9999 wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

carytheone wrote:

Blaster Face.jpg

Go ahead, try and get some sleep tonight. Blaster will be there, watching, waiting, plotting....

As I am getting ready for bed....

Then you definitely won't want to see that rhinox digibash...

HA! Found it - regretted it immediately:




That mustache gave me nightmare's for days

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

carytheone wrote:

Blaster Face.jpg

Go ahead, try and get some sleep tonight. Blaster will be there, watching, waiting, plotting....

As I am getting ready for bed....

Then you definitely won't want to see that rhinox digibash...

HA! Found it - regretted it immediately:




That mustache gave me nightmare's for days

I am so glad that I did not see that until just now. i would not have slept

cruizerdave wrote:I don't know about any reissues, but the G1 Perceptor's gun never launched missiles. Unless you got the Japanese version. There's even a part of his instructions that state the missile launcher is only designed to hold missiles, not launch them.

AutobotAlvaron wrote:Thanks for the great pictorial review William-James88. Finally, someone explained and demonstrated Perceptor's new specimen-slide feature. It's interesting as a novelty and I'm glad that it is unobtrusive. We need more G1 re-issues like this set. Well done Hasbro!

nycPrime wrote: I could be wrong but there doesn't seem to be that much interest in this figure at this price point

Well a flurry of activity led to a presold preorder for Trypticon Reissue

william-james88 wrote:

nycPrime wrote: I could be wrong but there doesn't seem to be that much interest in this figure at this price point

Quote from Premium Collectibles:

Well a flurry of activity led to a presold preorder for Trypticon Reissue

nycPrime wrote:Thanks for the info. Ultimately I'm still comfortable passing on this at the current price. I'll give it until Cyber Monday to see if Amazon discounts this at all.

Optimum Supreme wrote:That stamp on the back of Blaster is distractingly ugly. Especially the CE thing. Was this even sold in Europe? I seem to recall reissue Ramjet having a similarly obtrusive stamp somewhere.

william-james88 wrote:

nycPrime wrote:Thanks for the info. Ultimately I'm still comfortable passing on this at the current price. I'll give it until Cyber Monday to see if Amazon discounts this at all.

I truly hope it works out for you. I was waiting till black friday/cyber monday as well and it didnt work for me since amazon pulled it from amazon.ca to provide stock in the states. If I cant get it at a decent price, I hope at least a fellow seibertronian does

nycPrime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

nycPrime wrote:Thanks for the info. Ultimately I'm still comfortable passing on this at the current price. I'll give it until Cyber Monday to see if Amazon discounts this at all.

I truly hope it works out for you. I was waiting till black friday/cyber monday as well and it didnt work for me since amazon pulled it from amazon.ca to provide stock in the states. If I cant get it at a decent price, I hope at least a fellow seibertronian does

Thanks. For what it's worth, Amazon currently has Trypticon at $159.94 (6% off retail).

william-james88 wrote:

nycPrime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

nycPrime wrote:Thanks for the info. Ultimately I'm still comfortable passing on this at the current price. I'll give it until Cyber Monday to see if Amazon discounts this at all.

I truly hope it works out for you. I was waiting till black friday/cyber monday as well and it didnt work for me since amazon pulled it from amazon.ca to provide stock in the states. If I cant get it at a decent price, I hope at least a fellow seibertronian does

Thanks. For what it's worth, Amazon currently has Trypticon at $159.94 (6% off retail).

But I am assuming that isnt down enough right? What is the price you are hoping for?

nycPrime wrote:I still would have to pay almost 9% sales tax. I'm trying to be good and not buy everything under the sun, so don't really have a target price. I may bite at a sub $150 price all in.

william-james88 wrote:

cruizerdave wrote:I don't know about any reissues, but the G1 Perceptor's gun never launched missiles. Unless you got the Japanese version. There's even a part of his instructions that state the missile launcher is only designed to hold missiles, not launch them.

Thanks to you and Fenrir for the precision, I made an edit in the news post

AutobotAlvaron wrote:Thanks for the great pictorial review William-James88. Finally, someone explained and demonstrated Perceptor's new specimen-slide feature. It's interesting as a novelty and I'm glad that it is unobtrusive. We need more G1 re-issues like this set. Well done Hasbro!

Thank you so much, your comment made all the time dedicated to this review well spent. I am very surprised that none of the new functionality was adressed in any other review. These are well established toys, many know how they are, so what I found really important was to see what was new and I was quite impressed with how Hasbro made the extra accessories fit retroactively on the figure. Granted, it isn't a perfect pegged fit since the slides are heavy for Perceptor to carry, but it is a great effort on Hasbro's part. I feel this was a perfect way to rerelease these legendary toys.

Ironhidensh wrote:If only we could get real dinobot generations figures, without having to go 3rd party.

Decepticon Sunstorm wrote:

Ironhidensh wrote:If only we could get real dinobot generations figures, without having to go 3rd party.

Saying that is like beating a dead horse at this point, because this is probably the best they can (and most likely will) give us.

Ironhidensh wrote:If only we could get real dinobot generations figures, without having to go 3rd party.

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Sunstorm wrote:

Ironhidensh wrote:If only we could get real Dinobot generations figures, without having to go 3rd party.

Saying that is like beating a dead horse at this point, because this is probably the best they can (and most likely will) give us.

I think they work quite well for Generations Dinos. With the exception to Swoop and Grimlock of course, but we already have a Generations G1 Grimlock, and the new TAV Swoop is a great G1 Swoop homage.

william-james88 wrote:I know Decepticon Sunstorm, I didnt take it meaning anything else And I feel the same way. The idea here is not that these must be bought on site to finish a classic collection but rather for those who couldnt get the SDCC toys or didnt want to pay the high price tag (like myself).

So this set is two things to me:

1. A barely there placeholder for Classics Dinobots

2. An opportunity to get a whole set of the SDCC Dinos, including Slog, for cheaper and with exclusive heads.

And like I said, these toys might not be the dinos we want but hey are still beautiful looking toys.

Decepticon Sunstorm wrote:I do wish some G1-accurate Dinos were in my price range.

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Sunstorm wrote:I do wish some G1-accurate Dinos were in my price range.

To be fair, a truly accurate G1 dino would have a copyright of Hasbro/Takara on them, just like the G1 toys had

fenrir72 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Sunstorm wrote:I do wish some G1-accurate Dinos were in my price range.

To be fair, a truly accurate G1 dino would have a copyright of Hasbro/Takara on them, just like the G1 toys had

Not anymore mi amigo! Them bigbad KO makers from China got that in their corner. Only way you can tell is if you eyeball it personally.

Going rate for a boxed G1 JP Grimlock in Japan runs around 40000Y up

william-james88 wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Sunstorm wrote:I do wish some G1-accurate Dinos were in my price range.

To be fair, a truly accurate G1 dino would have a copyright of Hasbro/Takara on them, just like the G1 toys had

Not anymore mi amigo! Them bigbad KO makers from China got that in their corner. Only way you can tell is if you eyeball it personally.

Going rate for a boxed G1 JP Grimlock in Japan runs around 40000Y up

It was a joke, Tonto. And I wanst referring to the G1 molds. I said that a Classics Dinobot toy that would truly a homage to G1 would also have that copyright (aka not be a third party).

william-james88 wrote:While the Platinum Dinobots set is still unavailable in the US, it has been available in other territories for a while, including Canada. It is even on sale at the time of writing this article at 100$ cdn (75$ US) at its exclusive retailer Toysrus. While it is unavailable online, there are still several boxes found in stores scanning the same discount (even if the price tag has not been changed).

Since I bought one set and had some problems with it, I wished to make a quick review on some points regarding this set going through each dinobot. Images of this Generations set, like the one below, can be found here.



The main difference is the inclusion of the new classic styled G1 heads and that all five Dinobots being there at once (Slog had to be ordered off Amazon to complete the SDCC set) but there are other deco differences. In general, this Platinum Generations Dinobot set has less colour than the SDCC set except for the first one I will mention.


Slog:

Aside from the head, there is no visible difference between the deco of this release and the Amazon exclusive G1 deco release. I feel the plastic dino belly flap is improved simply by being positioned better in the box, which avoids creating unnecessary angles that go against the intended shape of the flap.


Strafe:

No picture has done this new head justice. He actually has a very long crest along his moving well past his head on from the front to the back (with the back being much longer). As for deco, the only paint on his arms is the yellow that appeared on the SDCC version (no green) and the back of the wings have nothing on them aside from the layer of chrome. There are differences in where the paint is applied on the chest where the Generations Platinum version has four dark grey/black triangles painted. What I find funny about the cover art is how toy accurate it is, and even includes the tails curved the same direction (a flaw still not corrected in this release), while the back shows a version of the toy with the tails pointing the right way.








Grimlock:

This toy has some major quality issues. The robot forearms and shoulders split, where the molded halves connect, whenever they ate rotated. This can happen on either side or both (I returned a set for Grimlock and Slug and thus held two versions of each). One of the Grimlocks I had also had silver paint splotches on his red T-Rex heels and had a loose peg which made him unable to keep his robot feet connected to his forearms. As far as a difference with the SDCC version, this Grimlock lacks the red chrome and blue paint on his legs.






Snarl:

Snarl by far has the greatest difference with his SDCC self since all the gold chrome was replaced with standard silver chrome. There is no yellow found on this toy anywhere aside from he cover picture. Speaking of the box, the picture in the back depicts the translucent dino head having a silver streak across it but this is also absent from the final toy. The head is just clear plastic with red eyes.






Slug:

Slug also has no yellow or gold on him aside for his painted eyes. However, he does have the only tinted chrome on any of these dinobots, which is the blue on the dino's front legs, though the shade of blue will be different on any toy. I had one which had light blue on one leg and dark blue on the other. The tail joint is very tight and the plastic connecting the tail to the body is very weak. My first version crack while transforming and eventually fell off.



So in general, while the deco is not as good as the SDCC Dinos (aside from Slog) and the quality is questionable on two, the heads are great (especially on Strafe) and the deco is still very nice with all the clear plastic and chromey goodness. We all had a lovely day together and I am overall very happy with this set. However, I did only pay 75$ US for it (plus taxes) and was lucky enough to get a replacement set.

PS: This is who is advertised on the back of the box:

fenrir72 wrote:
wj88

Those guys look Boss but, they are all so spikey. Are they made of hard or rubberized materials?

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Sunstorm wrote:I do wish some G1-accurate Dinos were in my price range.

To be fair, a truly accurate G1 dino would have a copyright of Hasbro/Takara on them, just like the G1 toys had

william-james88 wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:
wj88

Those guys look Boss but, they are all so spikey. Are they made of hard or rubberized materials?

All the chromed bits are hard plastic (triceratop head, pteranodon wings, stegarausur back). The soft plastic is only on the same few parts that had soft plastic in the original AOE molds, like Slug's horns.

Rated X wrote:You do know that you can make swoops tails straight with hot hot faucet water. Just hold em in the position you want them and let the hot water run on them for a few minutes.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I WISH these were just $100 in Canada. It was more like $200. Maybe my Toys R Us was just terrible with their prices.

Slog is only like the Amazon Slog in robot mode. Platinum Slog's arms aren't chrome. Also, the neck on SDCC's is slightly painted, this version is all clear with a fully painted head. There may be more, I don't have both in front of my right now. When you compare the two in-hand you can really tell the difference. I think your milage may vary with that large rubbery piece. My own was HEAVILY deformed because of the way it was jammed into the box. I've had it in Dino mode with a clear elastic around it to try and get it bent the right way for a while now and it's still not fully there. But it's close enough.

IMO, head aside, Swoop is better here than in the SDCC set. True he lacks some paint apps (including the back of the wings), but the red on this version really makes the shadows pop in comparison to SDCC's. Just add some Autobot stickers to complete the look and you're set.

william-james88 wrote:Anybody get their trypticons yet? I heard some horror stories online:

william-james88 wrote:Anybody get their trypticons yet? I heard some horror stories online:

fenrir72 wrote:
WTFrak?!