in honor of the 15th anniversary of the series and toyline, i cleaned up my transformers animated shelves. goodness gracious if i do not adore these figures--they're all a blast to transform, crazy screen-accurate, and full of fun, unobtrusive gimmicks that make each figure feel really unique and rich with character.
these toys have aged so gracefully. yes, i would love to see more torso articulation across the board, and wow am i not happy that ankle articulation has become standard in today's era of transformers design, but c'mon. look at these! they're richly detailed, popping with color, and have minimal gaps in their high-quality plastic! heck, the only figure that uses transparent plastic basically anywhere is swindle, and... well, there's a reason he's not on my shelf, and it's because his transparent plastic shoulders both broke years ago.
tfa is the closest to a complete collection i've got. obviously, i would commit minecraft atrocities to get my hands on some of the line's rarest figures--toys like hydrodive bumblebee, wingblade prime, and blackout--but i'm really happy with the collection as is--especially arcee and rodimus prime like, wow. aside from swindle, figures i've got but are missing here include:
- deluxe bee (not in scale)
- ironhide
- sentinel prime
- black soundwave (aka soundblaster--you can see ratbat in this pic though!)
- deluxe cybertron prime
- wreck-gar
- swoop (missing a head)
- sunstorm
- activators ratchet and grimlock (i just think they're neat)
sure, i'd love to get a lockdown at some point, if i can find one for under 30 bucks. i had both megatrons at some point, along with snarl, though all three found new homes with my niblings a long time ago. but ultimately i consider this complete, for my purposes. this set represents my favorite designs and characters from the series. it also means a lot to me that these are all originals, purchased with summer job money while the series was still airing.
besides, i hear legacy evolution's going to dip into some of these designs, and goodness gracious it's about time. legacy "prime universe" bulkhead may as well be an animated take, given it bears effectively no resemblance to TFP's take on bulk bot, and i can't wait to get my hands on that weird G1ized animated prowl and the rumored new take on TFA Prime. plus, the promise of a new CHUG take on Lugnut (chugnut) has me very interested, so consider me stoked.
i really do wish this series had gotten the send off it had deserved. Prime's a good show, sure, but TFA was absolutely phenomenal, and the waning days of the toyline gave us some of the strongest figures in the lineup. 15 years on a lot of what made TFA so special to me still holds up, and i'm happy i'm able to give this special little series a spot on my shelves.
rip derrick j wyatt