Video Review for Transformers: Robots in Disguise Combiner Force One-Step Strongarm & Heatseeker

Prime Target wrote:he shares the same flaw of TR Twinferno being not having actual hands Dragon heads

Not really, having the elbows bending on the good direciton mades him less flawed than TR one.

Hey guys, been a while.
I haven't seen anyone post a sighting of these guys, prolly just missed it..
Anyway, I picked up the Dragstrip set in the Park City Walmart north of Chicago.
I actually think they look alright for being so simple.


Aside from the minicons, this is the only thing I've bought from this line..

Fellow Seibertronian DISCHARGE has dropped by with a US sighting from the Transformers: Robots in Disguise line, specifically the new Combiner Force series: two-packs for Dragstrip / Wildbreak and Warnado / Shockdrive! These were found in a Chicago Walmart for $14.97, as you can see in the images below.

Makes sure to use our Sightings section for yourself or help out fellow toy collectors too, and happy hunting!

Hey guys, been a while.
I haven't seen anyone post a sighting of these guys, prolly just missed it..
Anyway, I picked up the Dragstrip set in the Park City Walmart north of Chicago.
I actually think they look alright for being so simple.
Aside from the minicons, this is the only thing I've bought from this line..

Want to rep your favorite robots this upcoming school year? Well, Toys R Us has you covered there, too, because a good deal on TLK toys was not all that catalog had to offer. No, in addition, we also got a look at two new pieces of Transformers merchandise: A Backpack featuring artwork from Transformers Robots in Disguise, plus a new silver Autobot symbol lunch bag to go with it! Rock these threads and then rock the forums threads down below by letting us know if you see these at TRU or anywhere else in the coming weeks, and definitely tell us if you plan to be the coolest kid in school and pick these up.

I just got that circular in the mail today! I've seen that lunch bag for a month or so, though, ever since my "local" TRU set up their TLK display.

The Combiner Force Menasor figure from Robots in Disguise is now up for sale on Amazon. It is coming out in 3 days fellow Seibertronian Scotty P telling us the one he just ordered from them should arrive by next Wednesday. It is Amazon itself selling the toy (not a marketplace seller) for $29.99 and eligible for Prime shipping.
If you are interested in seeing more of this toy before purchasing him, check out the review we posted.

Potential spoiler!!!!!!https://mobile.twitter.com/tfwiki/status/881373745352409089

Hey Awesomepow! Just letting you know, if you want a web link to be active when posting you have to use the URL tag. The tag buttons are located just above the text field when posting. I went ahaed and took care of it for you. You can hit the quote button on your post to see what I did.

that is a juicy spoiler! And fruity! (potentially)

Our very own xRotorstormx found those Transformers Robots in Disguise backpacks and lunchbags that were just spotted in the new Toys R Us serial (plus a couple new ones) at a Michigan TRU! Along with the RID pack and the silver Autobot symbol lunch bag, she also found bags with artwork similar to standard Generations designs, plus an Autobot logo backpack!

That generations Bumblebee on that lunchbag looks really up to no good with that expression. I don't trust him at all. Nope nope.

According to twitter it looks like a new Transformers themed snack is going to be hitting shelves. These will be made by the brand Signature Kitchens which is owned and sold by Safeway grocery stores. They come in fun shapes of Transformers: Robots in Disguise characters, shown below.

If you need a Transformers lunchbox to go with your snacks, have a look here.

The first thing I thing I thought of when I saw this was that Filthy Frank video where the bald guy shouts "FRUIT SNACK! FRUIT SNACK!"

Twitter just announced this now? I've been seeing these at the grocery store since at least last Christmas.

Glarryg

I think the really important take away from this bit of news, other than a tasty fruit blaster fun snack
for lunch on the go is..................





MEGATRON?!?!?!?!?!?!

Also Acme, Albertsons, Vons, Pavillions, Shaws, Jewel Osco! Just to name a few.

They're all owned by the same patent company which unified it's store brand across all its banners.

Somebody's got to bite the bullet fruit snack and give us a review of them.

They're like every fruit snack out there: artificial flavoring, gummy texture, and only slightly less likely to get stuck in your teeth than traditional Gummy Bears (rest assured, they will get stuck, but only to a slightly smaller extent). The shapes are hit-or-miss; there are as many that look like the picture on the box as there are those that are barely-decipherable blobs. You won't learn any more about Megatron in RID15 by buying these than you will by looking at the above pic.

That's not to say they're bad. It's just that fruit snacks are a dime-a-dozen product; if you've had one, you've had them all.

Glarryg

I work at a Harris Teeter grocery store in North Carolina. They've had those RID fruit snacks for about 2 years now...maybe 3 years. They cost like $.97 with your VIC card. They taste just like every other fruit snack. I buy them every once in awhile just for a treat...

There is lots of new Robots in Disguise toys found both online and in stores for Canadian fans.

Canada had skipped on every Legion class wave under the "weaponiser" so toys like Bisk and Grounpounder never appeared. However, Bisk is rereleased with Blurr under the "combiner force" subline and is currently found at Toysrus.



The latest Warriors such as Twinferno, Thermidor and Bludgeon have been found in Toysrus stores and are also available on both toysrus.ca and walmart.ca



The same applies to the latest wave of Crash Combiners which includes Dragbreak Lunaforce Primestrong and Shocknado. They have ben found at both Walmart and Toysrus stores but only Toysrus.ca has them online at the moment.

When it comes to Thermidor, this review, and images found within, will mostly be comparing him to Bisk. I'd love to review the toy as new but in reality he is similar to Bisk in every way aside from the head and deco. For those who do not own this mold, it is simply perfect. The alt mose is original, the robot mode has great personality with alt mode integration. It's a fun transformation that is not at all bothersome and both intuitive and creative. The real difference here is the deco and the head. The head has very features, he actually has pupils for a change.












The deco for the eyes works rather well. The paint may be sloppy depending on your copy, especially in the lower mandibles. The amount of paint apps between both is almost the same but Thermidore wins out with having his whole abdominal area painted silver while Bisk's is left unpainted. Also, I always appreciate when the rims are painted which is the case here so no need to wait for the Takara version here (not that it would happen).













I recomend this toy to any fan of the Bisk mold and to those who have not experienced this mold yet, as well to those who want a nice representation of the character found in the show. I am happy with my purchase and there isn't much more I could ask for.

That blue is GORGEOUS.

Heh, Thermidor is to Bisk what Cryotek was to Transmetal 2 Megatron.

I like that Thermidor looks like he's ether happy or screaming depending on the angle you look at his face.

Maybe this one's face won't SNAP OFF. Great mold though, these colors really work it.

In nature, blue lobsters are rare and considered a sign of good luck by lobster catchers:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36369687

MaverickPrime wrote:That blue is GORGEOUS.

It IS! I have never seen such a full blue like this on TF plastic before. And the fact that only detailing on it is painted gives it a nice unifying look.

Terrsolpix wrote:Maybe this one's face won't SNAP OFF. Great mold though, these colors really work it.

It only snaps off when the "neck" piece is not locked in correctly.

I short, Warrior Bludgeon is lots of fun and gets the job done. He of course has a few cons (heh) of his own but the pros far outweighed them. Now onto the full review!

I do not know if you're like me but every single picture I see of a toy will never prepare me for the real thing. There will always be something I had not noticed. With Bludgeon, it is all about the head sculpt. There is a depth to it that no picture can show and I hope I will be able to demonstrate it this time. Firstly the centre of his helmet crest sticks out forward quite a bit. Then there are he's very very deep set literal cheek bones.





It's now that we get to the cons. The depth also extends in the back but not in the best way. You see there is a peg they put there with the edge unpainted that is used for the alt mode and not to great success if I may add.



But that should not detract from the amazing headsculpt which I believe is the best we have ever gotten for a transforming bludgeon. Especially when you realize that it's mae of orange plastic, meaning that every other colour is painted. I also had not noticed the fangs which are very different from the artwork on the box which makes him look more like a Jack O Lantern.



Another element I had not noticed was the point of the black outline on the shoulders. You see, they appear to be tank treards and since he turns into a tank we would assume that they would be used in the altmode. However those that own Megatronus (which is the base mold for Bludgeon) know that the shoulders were never part of the treads below. So the shoulder treads actually do not contribute to the alt mode at all and are simply there for the robot mode as an homage to the Revenge of the Fallen toy whos tank treads imitate Samurai armour. This was quite a fun revelation for me.

We spoke of paint earlier I have no need for more paint aside from maybe the samurai skirt and the kneecaps as well as the teeth on his chest. His weapons can be weilded in very different ways. He has two cannons on his back à la Bruticus but they can actually be either become shoulder cannons or simply lowered in the back not to be seen.







They can also be removed and used as a handheld weapon and even stored on the side of his legs were you have a peg hole. Speaking of those peg holes, they work perfectly for the sword and are actually painted green so that they can match the end of the sword making it resemble a scabbard for the weapon. Speaking of the weapons they are both very well painted with the sword blade painted fully in silver and the same for the cannons which are all in silver aside from some very intricate purple detailing on the sides.















I like the look of the robot mode, he looks like a force to be reckoned with. My main problems with this toy come from the alt mode and how the robot parts are (not) hidden. Firstly you have the arms and while I do very much like the paint on them (it's a gorgeous red) I do not like how the hands stick out. It is very similar to the problem we have with Soundwave (though I admit I adore transforming both these toys, they have dynamic and fun yet chunky transformations). Megatronus had the extra step/piece which made you able to hide the hands inside the arm so this is a step back. Another robot part which is very noticeable is the head now sadly I would have thought that putting the sword on top of the alt mode was optional weapon storage but it is not. If you want to hide the robot head the only way is to use the sword. However I must admit it does not look terrible and hides the head quite well. The holes on the legs that imitated a scabbard are still useable in this mode and can be used for any 5 mm port weapon.













In the end, even with its flaws, I still find this very well-done toy and I think any fan of Bludgeon will be pleased, especially wth the headsculpt and homages to previous versions. The paint is well applied and the colour variation is perfect and it is fun to now have a fully articulated deluxe sized Bludgeon. It's pretty cool to think that one could now make a top 5 list of Bludgeon releases.

william-james88 wrote:

Terrsolpix wrote:Maybe this one's face won't SNAP OFF. Great mold though, these colors really work it.

It only snaps off when the "neck" piece is not locked in correctly.

What do you mean? The tiny pegs connecting the face, eyestalks, and antennae on broke off with the face, the neck piece was always lock in correctly. I think this one will fair better with a smaller face, but I'm not sure.

Terrsolpix wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Terrsolpix wrote:Maybe this one's face won't SNAP OFF. Great mold though, these colors really work it.

It only snaps off when the "neck" piece is not locked in correctly.

What do you mean? The tiny pegs connecting the face, eyestalks, and antennae on broke off with the face, the neck piece was always lock in correctly. I think this one will fair better with a smaller face, but I'm not sure.

Oh sorry, I didnt know you meant it broke, I thought you meant it popped off. I wouldnt know then. My Bisk never broke off and I have transformed Thermidor a bunch with no issues so far.

william-james88 wrote:

Terrsolpix wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Terrsolpix wrote:Maybe this one's face won't SNAP OFF. Great mold though, these colors really work it.

It only snaps off when the "neck" piece is not locked in correctly.

What do you mean? The tiny pegs connecting the face, eyestalks, and antennae on broke off with the face, the neck piece was always lock in correctly. I think this one will fair better with a smaller face, but I'm not sure.

Oh sorry, I didnt know you meant it broke, I thought you meant it popped off. I wouldnt know then. My Bisk never broke off and I have transformed Thermidor a bunch with no issues so far.

I tried to do reconstructive face surgey on him........... I don't think I'm fit for any sort of medical field. Also, scotch tape is great for holding on broken parts while glue dries, then proceeds to break the connection because I don't have any super glue at home. Oh, and since these 2 are retool/decos, is there any obvious mold degradation?

No pictures of him next to Blastwave?

kurthy wrote:No pictures of him next to Blastwave?

From what I can tell, a lot of people skipped him since he's just a palette swapped Bludgeon.

Nah. Don't like it. Also the weapons storing just below the knees looks pretty poor and isn't really very practical either for walking or drawing the weapon. The head sculpt is alright but looks like they're going for more of a vampire bat face than actual humanoid skull and I can't say I'm a fan. Was trying to think what it is about the colours that bug me but I think it's just that seemingly random purple on the 'eyes' of the chest armour. It's bizarre and doesn't really fit. The similar areas on RotF Bludgeon were just black and so didn't jar so much. And his eyes are purple too so are they all eyes? And then having the alt-mode's version of that chest armour end up on his butt...so does he have eyes on his butt? Sorry the whole figure just seems extremely dumbed down from what is one of my fave Transformer figures of all time. And that's me done. Nice review though and great picture quality.

It's a nice looking mold and I love the robot mode. The vehicle mode is a bit "Huh?" but I can dig it. I have a few qualms stopping me from getting it though. The colours look...wrong somehow. Dunno if it's just the camera, but somehow he looks a bit wrong. Like, the orange reminds me of burger cheese. The toy suffers a lot from RIDitis though. His legs are annoyingly hollow and so is his head. But by far my biggest problem is the size. I could overlook the other two issues and have him as my CHUG Bludgeon if he were Voyager scaled (yes I know RID doesn't have Voyagers, a crying shame IMO as the designs are great) but as a Deluxe he's just too small.

THAT SAID, I might track him down and redeco him into Banzai-Tron at some point. He does look like a lot of fun, and as a toy his flaws are mostly overlookable.

Our very own Seibertronian staff member ScottyP ran into the Transformers Robots in Disguise Activator Optimus Prime and Hi-Test in Cary, North Carolina! These two come from the most recent wave of RID Activators, meaning there's a good chance we'll be seeing their wave mates, Soundwave with Lazerbeak, very soon!
These two were selling for $19.99.



If you find any new Toys out in the wild, please report them to us via the sightings link under the Toys tab!

Tis a shame the legends Bludgeon from a few years back didn't see wider release.

Carnivius_Prime wrote:Nah. Don't like it. Also the weapons storing just below the knees looks pretty poor and isn't really very practical either for walking or drawing the weapon. The head sculpt is alright but looks like they're going for more of a vampire bat face than actual humanoid skull and I can't say I'm a fan. Was trying to think what it is about the colours that bug me but I think it's just that seemingly random purple on the 'eyes' of the chest armour. It's bizarre and doesn't really fit. The similar areas on RotF Bludgeon were just black and so didn't jar so much. And his eyes are purple too so are they all eyes? And then having the alt-mode's version of that chest armour end up on his butt...so does he have eyes on his butt? Sorry the whole figure just seems extremely dumbed down from what is one of my fave Transformer figures of all time. And that's me done. Nice review though and great picture quality.

You know I always appreciate your legth and well thought out comments. Also, its crazy how picture quality improves exponentially when using natural light. Any blurry shot was simply because I couldnt get the right focus (which is harder to do when not using flash). More to come with a Twinferno review in the evening.

As for the purple, I know it was never in those areas but purple has been part of his colour pallet in he past and it didnt look out fo place for me. Its the decepticon colour and I welcome it if done right, which I feel is the case here, since it works well with the white skull and gets replicated as the eyes of the other skull. I like how full the colours here are. Esepecially on those forearms. Also, while the weapon might be lower than his thighs, it works with his reach.

Terrsolpix wrote:Oh, and since these 2 are retool/decos, is there any obvious mold degradation?

None that I could tell. Though The only parts reused from Megatronus (aside from unseen structural skeleton) is the legs.

Terrsolpix wrote:

kurthy wrote:No pictures of him next to Blastwave?

From what I can tell, a lot of people skipped him since he's just a palette swapped Bludgeon.

Yeah precicely. I saw no point in getting him and thus do not have any comparison pics. I feel I am not alone in not having bought him.

william-james88 wrote:You know I always appreciate your legth and well thought out comments.

Not sure if sarcastic cos I don't consider anything I say to be well thought out. OVER thought yes but not well thought.

Also, while the weapon might be lower than his thighs, it works with his reach.

If I wore a large sword or gun down just under my knees rather than on my hips or back there's less chance of me being able to grab the handle of either weapon while moving (particularly if running into battle and needing to switch weapon like say if my gun ran out of ammo and I wanted to quickly grab the sword in a quick motion) and certainly trying to pull it out while keeping the legs moving could result in a trip and fall.
This actually bugged me about the Wolfwire mold when trying to repaint it into Carnivac cos he too has 5mm ports on either side of the knees rather than his hips so trying to store his weapons these looks silly and clumsy. SO much so I'm very tempted to carve those off and somehow attach them with small hinges to the hips if they can stil fit in right or at least a sensible place in wolf mode.

I have to say I can respect the appeal of a more simplistic Bludgeon for this RID line but I just don't feel it was executed as well as it could have. Certainly not with the same level of thought, clever touches and care that went into the RotF figure with touches like the rubber tank treads draping similar to samurai armour's similar pieces or the mechanism in his turret that stores his smaller sword or the way you can store both swords in robot mode on the same hip, or how the upper arms and legs show robot mode 'bones' spreading that skeletal look of his trademark face skull around the body a bit. I won't say the RotF mold is perfect, no Transformer I've ever seen has been, but there's just a 'beauty' to its design in both modes that I admire so much and I don't get much of that from this RID figure which again probably wasn't going for that and I like that it is obviously inspired by the general design of the RotF toy but like a budget version. Budgeon... hm..that's very similar to Budgens, a cheap small supermarket chain here in the UK.

Still, if I ever come across this figure heavily discounted in a store I MAY still buy it, even just as a disciple for RotF Bluddy?

"And now my student, I shall teach you the ways of Metallikato..."

william-james88 wrote:

Terrsolpix wrote:

kurthy wrote:No pictures of him next to Blastwave?

From what I can tell, a lot of people skipped him since he's just a palette swapped Bludgeon.

Yeah precicely. I saw no point in getting him and thus do not have any comparison pics. I feel I am not alone in not having bought him.

I must be one of the rare few that bought him. I get all the new characters for my 9 year old. They may not go on my shelves, but they are usually fun to play with (or steal the weapons).

I short,

That's okay, it's how tall you are on the inside that really matters!

Warrior Bludgeon is lots of fun and gets the job done

Cool, Hopefully this one will show up in stores, fortunately RID seems to get better distro than the lines I'm more interested... Watch this guy be an exception... Already passed on the predeco.

Black Hat wrote:The colours look...wrong somehow. Dunno if it's just the camera, but somehow he looks a bit wrong. Like, the orange reminds me of burger cheese. The toy suffers a lot from RIDitis though. His legs are annoyingly hollow and so is his head. But by far my biggest problem is the size. I could overlook the other two issues and have him as my CHUG Bludgeon if he were Voyager scaled (yes I know RID doesn't have Voyagers, a crying shame IMO as the designs are great) but as a Deluxe he's just too small.

THAT SAID, I might track him down and redeco him into Banzai-Tron at some point. He does look like a lot of fun, and as a toy his flaws are mostly overlookable.

Well he isnt supposed to replace the previous ROTF voyager as a classics Bludgeon. That one already works super well and plus we just got another voyager Bludgeon last year through the TFSS. Just like the Cyberverse one fits for a different collection, so does this one. Its more of an animated take on the character and it would be super cool to pose him fithing Animated Deluxe Prime or Prowl for instance.

Also, the advantage of using natural light is that the colours you see are as close as possible to the actual colours. So yes, his orange is like that. Although the kraft slices I usually use for my hamburgers are more on the yellow side. But hey, we are on different continents so who knows

Carnivius_Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:You know I always appreciate your legth and well thought out comments.

Not sure if sarcastic cos I don't consider anything I say to be well thought out. OVER thought yes but not well thought.

No sarcasm from me. If I was sarcastic, you`d know it, I am pretty obvious

Carnivius_Prime wrote:I have to say I can respect the appeal of a more simplistic Bludgeon for this RID line but I just don't feel it was executed as well as it could have. Certainly not with the same level of thought, clever touches and care that went into the RotF figure

As I wrote above, this isnt meant to replace that figure, just be a fun take on the character in a different aesthetic. If it was as great as that previous figure, then there would be no longer any point in owning it and that would be a sad day.

william-james88 wrote:

Black Hat wrote:The colours look...wrong somehow. Dunno if it's just the camera, but somehow he looks a bit wrong. Like, the orange reminds me of burger cheese. The toy suffers a lot from RIDitis though. His legs are annoyingly hollow and so is his head. But by far my biggest problem is the size. I could overlook the other two issues and have him as my CHUG Bludgeon if he were Voyager scaled (yes I know RID doesn't have Voyagers, a crying shame IMO as the designs are great) but as a Deluxe he's just too small.

THAT SAID, I might track him down and redeco him into Banzai-Tron at some point. He does look like a lot of fun, and as a toy his flaws are mostly overlookable.

Well he isnt supposed to replace the previous ROTF voyager as a classics Bludgeon. That one already works super well and plus we just got another voyager Bludgeon last year through the TFSS. Just like the Cyberverse one fits for a different collection, so does this one. Its more of an animated take on the character and it would be super cool to pose him fithing Animated Deluxe Prime or Prowl for instance.

That's... that's friggin' perfect. As if I didn't have enough reasons to get Animated figures -- and I had way, way more than enough reasons -- now they have a BLUDGEON to fight!!

Yes! Thank you for this amazing pictorial of my mini me!

Mere moments after Scotty found Optimus Prime and Hi-Test, our gracious and glorious overlord Seibertron himself found the Transformers Robots In Disguise Activator Soundwave and Lazerbeak! This version of the beloved boombox is the latest in the ever-expanding line of RID Soundwave toys, and is selling for $19.99!

Twinferno is exactly what every collector feared when we first saw the Robots in Disguise line. He is overly simplistic, feels cheap and sports few details.

He truly feels like a toy for younger kids. The sad thing is that there is almost nothing ingenious about him. Certain kids toys can be fun to transform with their quick changing gimmick like Rescuebot, but Twinferno wouln't really offer anything fun to anyone. Any kid wanting a more streamlined transformer is much better off getting an Optimus Prime or Bumblebee from the Robots in Disguise line.





The simple transformation is one of my biggest griefs about this toy. All you have to do is bring in his legs and have him raise his arms. You then just put the wings and cockpit down and that's it. What blows is that this is very indicative in the design where you end up with a spaceship that has two dragon heads sprouting out of it. At least if it had those heads concealed it would make for a more interesting transformer but here it's just all the robot mode elements again. It's not that different to when you lift a Superman figure's arms in the air and call that a flight mode.





The deco isn't great either, it has way too much of that neon salmon that looks like those stickers distributed around Halloween to prevent kids from getting run over.





And it just feels so cheap. The quality control fails too with the left foot not being able to peg in correctly due to a far too narrow hole. They are dumb feet anyway, it's the kind of step that adds nothing. All you do is slightly compress the foot for the alt mode. The robot foot is still clearly visible so he might as well have had the feet be part of the same leg piece like some cyber trim toys of old. At least that way the foot would not keep falling off when you tried transforming him properly. And yes, since his foot can't be straightened out, stability problems might ensue.



The way they handle the fire breathing dragon heads is also a head scratcher.





Notice how the underside of the dragon head has a peg? I figured it was to secure the flames when they are in his mouth. But it doesn't fit that way so all those peg holes are good for is holding the flames UNDER the dragon jaws. They still fit in the mouth, but upside down, so what you see is the hollowed out side of the flames.





I think my biggest beef of all with this toy is that the fans who believe this line is junk clogging up shelves now have a mascot. The only saving grace here, aside from the nice looking dragon heads, is that he is an autobot and does not tarnish the wonderful reputation of the Robots in Disguise Decepticon toys.

I'm looking at RiD "Blastwave", and the sculpting seems identical to Bludgeon. Even da face....

DeathReviews wrote:I'm looking at RiD "Blastwave", and the sculpting seems identical to Bludgeon. Even da face....

Well... yeah. They're redecos of each other. Same tooling, different colors.

Sabrblade wrote:

DeathReviews wrote:I'm looking at RiD "Blastwave", and the sculpting seems identical to Bludgeon. Even da face....

Well... yeah. They're redecos of each other. Same tooling, different colors.

They went cheap on at least giving Blastwave a new face

Man, that's really disappointing. Twinferno was looking so cool too...

A few minor tweaks and they could have had a Dragon mode and a jet mode and a robot mode.

At least his head can be hidden in vehicle mode.