Unique Toys G-02 Sharkies - Pictorial Review

One of the things that I love about 3rd party releases is that most of them are random! Yes, there's a pattern where they focus more on releasing combiners (not to mention, the Headmasters and the Wreckers) but aside from that, fans mostly are surprised with their offering. And the fact that they are producing some obscure characters for the fans is most welcomed. Wonder how long would it take for Hasbro to release a PROPER Reflector?

After the release of the first 4 figures from their War Lord Beasticons set, Unique Toys, the successor of CHMS, decided to take a detour and release an obscure character (which previously was teased by iGear) from the famous 1986's Transformers The Movie, the Sharticons, dubbed UT-G02 Sharkies.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Made their debut in 1986, Sharkticons are a group of shark-like (well, land-cyber-shark, if you will) soldiers for the Quintessons. Although, despite their name, I myself see more piranha in them rather than sharks. From the picture above, your first impression might not be too far off. The Sharkticons are basically fierce killing machine with almost zero intelligence. And they are big and round. In short, aside from their numbers and also giant razor-sharp teeth paired with those empty eyes, they are just walking potatoes.

The Sharkticons served as the executors for the Quintessons, killing any being sentenced by their masters. However, when it's Kup and Hot Rod's turn, the Sharkticons failed their mission. Making things worst, the Dinobots came to the duo's rescue and by Grimlock's order, turned against their master simply due to their nature of obeying the strongest one.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Despite the name, Sharkticons were released under the Gnaw which kind of confused me. I can understand that maybe Hasbro wanted a character name for the toys instead of using 'Sharkticons' in general but I can't seem to find any reference to the name Gnaw until Dreamwave's 2003 Cold War comics, giving back story to Gnaw as one of the Sharkticons, who became attached to a young Autobots, Wheelie.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Generations Whirl - Pictorial Review

For now, 2014 seems like a well-balanced year, with interesting releases from both HasTak and 3rd Party companies. There's still no sign of the Generations Deluxe Wave 4 here in Malaysia, kind of worrying; considering this won't be the first time I have to outsource some of the regular releases. We are lucky though, since the Wave 4 (if not mistaken) of Generations Voyager has already arrived.

Pic Credit : Web

Whirl....the weird character both in term of his design AND personality. Don't get me wrong Geewunner, I have nothing against his design, just calling a spade; a spade. Whirl is a member of the Wreckers, which recently given more spotlight in the Transformers world. Honestly, I think it's because of that spotlight that fans could have a chance to get our hands on an obscure characters like him (and not long after, Voyager Roadbuster).

Wreckers are well-known to be 'reckless', not abiding to most rules written. But Whirl take it to another level. None can determine whether Whirl is in fact insane OR he just believes that insanity makes an extremely effective weapon.

G1 Whirl
Pic Credit : Web

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Custom Robots Revoltech Style Not-Shockwave - Pictorial Review

This will be the first official review under TransMY Reviewers Community. The review is made possible with the help of our sponsor, X2OToys who was kind enough to provide me this figure.

http://x2otoys.com/

Perhaps one of the most memorable characters in Transformers universe. Despite making an appearance mostly in Generation 1 (and a few other homages of him in other series), he's a fan favorite. Making another appearance in the Dark Of the Moon, Shockwave's popularity now grows with the newer fans.

Pic Credit : Web

One of Megatron's most trusted generals, Shockwave was given the job to govern Cybertron as Megatron went on the mission to intercept an Autobot mission. The most loyal to the Decepticon's cause, Shockwave overseen all of the activities with logical, scientific mind which led to the evolution of Cybertron's technology, including the Space Bridge.

Pic Credit : Seibertron.com

This is not something that I would've guessed to be released but Custom Robot surprised me when they decided to release Revoltech-style Transformers characters. If I'm not mistaken, Not-Shockwave is their 2nd offering after Sonic (Not-Soundwave).

TransMY Reviewer Community - The Initiative

It's been a slow year, kind of caught up with a lot of things from personal, work to hobby. Hopefully, in 24 hours, will be able to post another review so stay tuned.

After TransMY collaboration doing Malaysia's Transformers 30th Anniversary Expo, we're trying to move forward and expend our group, hence TransMY Reviewers Community is born

The idea behind this is to get few TransMY-ian to start up their own Transformers reviews on any platform (blog, youtube, etc) to help promote the group, the fandom and also themselves. Also, through this, hopefully we can groom and help each other to bring forth more reviewers (from Malaysia, especially)

Universe 2.0 Cheetor - Pictorial Review

One of the figures that I vowed to skip and never even considered before, Universe Cheetor. This changed, however, since my wife decided to start collecting the Neo-Beast Wars figures (thanks a lot, Rhinox and Rattrap!!)

Pic Credit : TFWiki

The young and enthusiast Maximal was never short on energon. Despite his good intent, Cheetor had few times caused problems to his teammates and almost leading them to the brink of destruction. All of this reminded me a lot of Hotrod in the 1986's Animated Movie.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Among the initial crews of the Axalon that crash-landed on the 'mysterious planet', Cheetor quickly went on his way, after choosing a cheetah as his beast form, going on a run with others of his kind....sort of. This 'harmless' act brought him face-to-face with Waspinator and the other Predacons which resulted him being rescued by Optimus Primal. And that won't be the last....

Unique Toys Maniaking - Pictorial Review

It seems like forever since I've last done a review as I was busy at the office and also been involved with Malaysia's Transformers 30th Anniversary Expo early February. Thanks to a dear friend who's kind enough to lend me the figure that I'm about to review next. First, a little back story.

Earlier this month, Transformers : Age of Extinction (AOE) Teaser Trailer was released depicting some interesting cast with appearance of Transformers' iconic character, Galvatron.

Screenshot from AOE Teaser Trailer, showing Galvatron
Pic Credit : TFW2005

Not a newcomer, Galvatron is a character that almost all TF fans have heard of, be it from Transformers Generation 1, Armada, Energon, Cybertron or any other media (comics, etc). Let us explore Galvatron throught Generation 1 continuity.

Pic Credit : Web

After the fierce battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron in Transformers : The Movie (1986) that left most children then crying their eyes out (I still cringe everytime I watch the death fight), Optimus Prime died (for the first time, not the last) and Megatron suffered the most fatal blow ever, leaving him half dead and was evacuated from the battle by Soundwave.

Not long after, Megatron was betrayed (not the first time) by Starscream and was left in space to rust alongside with few others. There, the unfortunate few met Unicron which offer Megatron a new, stronger body in exchange for total obedience. Hence, Galvatron was born. Throughout Transformers history, Galvatron made frequent appearance as either an upgrade of Megatron or a separate entity.

G1 Galvatron (the non-accurate-color version)
Pic Credit : Web

As a CHURGs collector, I was pleased when Hasbro announced the release of Universe Galvatron back in 2008. Yet, the fact that he was only a Deluxe-sized figure was a small issue; compared to the nightmare of the figure design.

Universe Galvatron
Pic Credit : Web

Since then, there's a lot of news hinting that 'this' or 'that' company will be releasing their own Galvatron but only in 2013, Unique Toys showed their prototype and Maniaking was released in January 2014.