I just picked up Starscream and Blackout deluxes, as the best out of a truly "uggh" lineup. Passed on Ratchet and Ironhide. Does Ironhide even roll - I can't imagine so with those giant cannons under the chassis - BIG dissapointment. Ratchet I will probably pick up. It was a toss up between him and Starscream. Didn't want to get too many, especially after seeing them up close.
Optimus Leader class...don't know what to say about that one, but after the original and the 20th anniversary/masterpiece edition, all the other versions of Optimus are utter garbage, this one included. 20th Anniversary Optimus has totally ruined all other so called Optimuses, and toys for that matter, for me.
Saw all the little personal electronics transformers, most were pretty "meh", but was thinking about getting the Laserbeak/Buzzsaw looking one.
I saw the 2 pack Scorponok and Blackout, now that one was very cool and was thinking about picking it up, but opted for the regular Blackout for now. I will probably pick the 2 pack up later. Scorponok definitely looked good and he was the one I was expecting to be the worst. Great colors/details/paint on him IMHO.
They had a few of the Titaniums, but nothing really caught my eye. Megatron's titanium looked uber lame...what is he supposed to be in vehicle mode, some sort of alien starship bat out of hell? Haven't we had enough of those since Scourge and Cyclonus?
On the non-deluxe one, they only seemed to have these horrible looking "ages 4 and up" vehicles - in the same sort of packaging as the Scorponok pic posted above, but these looked really pathetic. I didn't see a Scorponok one so I'm hoping it's a different line, only a really lousy Bumblebee and Barricade that I can remember. Oh and a Jazz...bad enough it looks like he's a freaking Pontiac for the movie - how humiliating, but I guess GM paid the big bucks and Hasbro whored themselves out. The Barricade/Bumblebee didn't look like the ones in the Walmart 2 pack posted above. Are these some more of the awful Junior Transformers meant for toddlers or something, or are these the official figures?!? I didn't see any other figures in that style of packaging (non boxed)...so these must be them, unfortunately.
Too bad all of the toys looked for the most part pretty damn cheap and fragile. The plastic appears to be the really cheap, low grade kind as well.
God what I wouldn't give for more Alternator type Transformers - realistic and with at least a bit of die cast metal to them. Or better yet, the originals (or at least the original robots in updated vehicles but not the cheesy 'futuristic' or 'alien' ones). Hasbro could make so much money if they got the right engineers and spent the money on quality instead of mass producing. We collectors would pay the premium for higher quality Transformers that paid homage to the originals. This way, despite the smaller production runs, they could keep the profits up or even increase them.
Imagine Jazz as a current Porsche GT or Cayman. An updated Sunstreaker Lambourghini, Bluestreak as a new Z or G35...maybe one as a BMW X5.
These could be the tightest toys of all time, as they once were!