by Loran
It’s almost time, dear readers. The new Transformers film, “Dark of the Moon” makes its debut in North American theaters on July 1st. But what would the movie be without the toys? Yep, those are even closer, with a street date of May 16th. Many retailers have actually broken the street dates, throwing the toys on the shelves a few weeks ahead of schedule. I can’t quite say I’ve been all that lucky, though. I guess people in Massachusetts really adhere to what they read on the box. Ah well, not that it matters. It’s almost tiiiime!
Now, I wanted to take a look at the two new types of Transformers toys we’ll be seeing with the new movie: The Cyberverse Action Series and the Human Alliance Basics, two sublines that build on concepts started by the previous movies and beyond.
When I first saw prototype pictures of the Cyberverse Bumblebee, it had to be one of the coolest things I’ve seen Transformers do in recent years—the return of the Micromaster Battle Stations! I was too young to own any of those as a kid (seriously, I was born in 1990—G1’s final year on American shelves) so giving the concept a new spin makes me pretty happy. Wave 1 includes Bumblebee (of course!) with a military tractor-trailer, and Starscream with some odd Cybertronian spacecraft. Bumblebee looks to be the same Legends mold we’ve seen time and time again over the past, what, four years (geez, it feels like it’s been longer…) but Starscream might be new. I’m not sure. This subline will also include an Ark playset!! Took them long enough…
Of even greater interest to me are the Human Alliance Basics. The Human Alliance line was an awesome concept, in my opinion, but it just didn’t grab my interest. I really don’t like buying the same characters over and over again, unless the new version is a full-on upgrade for the character, like the Transmetals from Beast Wars. Also, the fact that the line had only one Decepticon didn’t help. Thankfully, it seems like we won’t have that problem this time around!
The Human Alliance Basics clock in at around the height of about a Scout. Of particular interest with these guys is their gimmick–three modes! They can even turn into weapons for the larger figures, building on the whole “Mechtech” idea. I believe some of them even have armor modes for their human companions. I really dig the human that comes with the Decepticon snowmobile—his name is Sgt. Chaos (which is awesome) and something about him just makes me think he’d be right at home with COBRA…
I think these guys are going to be my answer to the Power Core Combiners for this series. They don’t look perfect by any means, but they look like they’ll be a lot of fun, and to me, that’s what counts.
Say what you want about the movies themselves, but the new toys for the film look to be a homerun. I just hope a product glut doesn’t occur again and we end up not seeing any of the later figures like with G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. Whatever the case may be, you’d better be waiting outside FPNYC for these kickass toys in the coming weeks!
