Jolt

 For the longest time I passed on Jolt.  I really kept walking past his figure on the pegs because I wasn't going to get tied back up in the Revenge of the fallen product.  I had already picked up the figures that I really wanted, as far as I figured I was finished.  That was until I was on a mad hunt for the Animated Arcee figure.  All my wife knew was that I kept freaking out looking for a $10.00 female Autobot named Arcee.  When she came home from the store and presented me with the ROTF Arcee I couldn't help but to be excited.  That "forced" me to go out and search out the rest of the Revenge of the Fallen cast to complete my TF2 shelf.
As shown above, Jolt's alternate mode is a Chevy Volt, Chevrolet's consumer electric car.  He made is first appearance (movie-verse) in Revenge of the Fallen, but can be lost or forgotten quite easily.  In the movie he has no really important lines, and he is rarely in the foreground of the camera shot.  His shining moment is when he zaps Optimus Prime and  Jetfire so they can combine at the final fight.  Other than that he is just another robot on the big screen.

 Jolt's figure really has some room for improvement.  His robot mode is quite blocky like the old G1 bots, which is great for an 80's Transformer, but can't compare to the molds used in Classics/Generations.  I know that the movie designs are really hard to correctly capture and for that part make sure that the toy can correctly transform, but I think that Jolt really missed the bar.  And for me the most important part is the head mold, which really leaves much to be desired.

 Jolt's weaponry is his two electrostatic whips which rotate out from his arms.  In the movie you can see him use the whips to try and scare the US Armed Forces when the Autobots are taken into custody, and in the scent mentioned before where he helps Optimus and Jetfire combine.  As far as a gimmick goes, again it is a bit disappointing of an accessory or action feature.  All things considered, my ROTF Jolt will much like his character in the film, fade into the background.

Name:  Jolt
Faction:  Autobots
Accessories:  None
Line:  Revenge of the Fallen
Price Point:  Deluxe ($9.00-$12.00)
Grade:  D-

Drift

I figured that since I reviewed Blurr, I might as well review Drift as well.   Drift is an IDW character that found his way into plastic in the first wave of Generations in 2010.  I know that when I first heard of a fan project Drift I was interested to see what he would end up looking like, and didn't think that Drift would make it in an official release. 

Drift's alternate mode is a tuner sports car with his graphics down the side complete with Kanji on the doors as he appeared in All Hail Megatron.  In car mode all of the accessories are hidden either by the clips on the bottom of the car for the long sword or the short swords are held in the hip sheaths. 

 As far as his plastic likeness is concerned, Hasbro/Tomy-Takara did a really great job in capturing his look from the books.  Additionally the swords are stored exactly how they were in the comic, and everything translates nicely into robot mode from the vehicle form. 

 The main sword almost is at least 3.4 of the height of drift, and there is enough articulation so that Drift can hold it in both hands, even with the little bit of kibble from his front two fenders.  This is something that I really cant remember seeing in any other Transformer, so i was astonished when I first did it with Drift.

Again, the other two swords fit perfectly into sheaths inside of the door panels.  The sword hilts are hinged so that they can be folded down to complete Drift's transformation.  Again they are a great design that closely follows the swords that Drift had in All Hail Megatron. 
All things considered, Drift is a very stable and articulated figure that can hold just about any pose that you put him into.   He is a great display piece.  However, he really doesn't have the appeal to a G1 enthusiast, especially if you haven't read any of the IDW fiction.  I think that everything that Hasbro tried to tackle on this figure was achieved, however, I wouldn't pick a Drift over my Blurr.  I really think that Blurr should have been the original release, while Drift got credited with the "remold/repaint" but still i feel that Drift is and incredibly stable and strong figure.  Drift fits into any Classics collection perfectly and would be a great addition, but I think that his story line is the real reason that I picked him up before a War for Cyberton Optimus of Bumblebee.  Overall I would highly recommend you to pick him up, but not at the expense of a Blurr.

Name:  Drift
Faction:  Autobots (Former Decepticon)
Accessories:  Large Sword, 2 Smaller Swords
Line:  Generations
Price Point:  Deluxe ($9.00-$12.00)
Grade:  A-

Blurr

When in heard about the chances of getting a new Blurr figure I couldn't wait!  I do not have a Gen 1 Blurr, and have always been a fan of him (WhatAboutMeMagnus?), and instead of getting a G1 reissue it was going to be in classics... I was ecstatic to say the least.  When I found out he was a repaint of Drift... I knew it would be good... I just didn't know how good it would be.  I remember looking at my Drift and thinking how they were going to do it.  I knew that it would be a good choice sharing a tuner car mode would be a great update (or downgrade) from the Cybertroninan sports car he once was.  One question wandered on my mind though... Drift was a hand to hand fighter... his swords were awesome accessories... how are they going to work on Blurr.

They fixed that issue easily by replacing the large sword on Drift's back to an awesome sniper rifle for Blurr. The engineered it to use the same "holster' points as Drifts sword and even added a second handle so Blurr can double hand this powerful beast.  I was still concerned though, why would Blurr have the smaller swords, as cool as they were.  They just don't fit!

 Again, Hasbro/Tomy-Takara came through and replaced the hip swords with two mirror imaged pistols for our fast speaking hero.  They fill the void left by the swords perfectly, and i think they even do a better job considering that the swords were jointed for their own little "transformation."  And still as an added surprise (since Blurr was a repaint, I just filed the instructions and went on my merry way) thanks to my cousin Josh, the pistols serve a second purpose.  As I said before they are mirror images...  If you take the two pistols and attach them barrel down toward the hilt of the sniper rifle they become a bi pod to give Blurr that added stability to make the shot! 

As far as a display piece this figure is amazing.  The head mold perfectly captures Blurr's likeness.  The accessories provide more than enough intersting poses. Additonally this mold is incredibly stable.  Also the joint are perfect for that intimidationg stance, and he can even hold his sniper rifle in both hands.  The only thing that i wish i could change would be to add a little more movement so that the neck could tilt up to set up that perfect crawl shot using the bipod, but its not like my Blurr will ever be caught on my display laying down!

Typically when I hear that Hasbro is doing a repaint, I really start to think about how much I really need to add another repeat mold into my collection.  with Blurr it was a no brainer decision.  I had to have him... he was a great character, and my classics Movie molds would be lonely without their rambling friend.  After releasing him from his bubble prison, he has become one of my favorite classics figures.  If you don't have Blurr, and see him, definitely snatch him up.  

Name:  Blurr
Faction:  Autobots
Accessories:  Large Sniper Rifle, 2 Smaller Pistols
Line:  Generations
Price Point:  Deluxe ($9.00-$12.00)
Grade:  A+

What to Expect from Cybertron and Beyond

So a week without a single blog and now two in an hour... I know crazy huh?  Well I figured that I would tell you what you can expect to read here on Cybertron and Beyond.  Basically I am going to try and give a bit of perspective on anything Transoformers... whether it be toys (old and new) accompanied by pictures taken by me (if they are bad to ok) or my talented beautiful wife (if they are awesome!), maybe a few show reviews from any season any series or movie, comics or whatever.  Also I am always open to requests or ideas from anyone who is reading this... so please let me know what you want to see!

The FIRST BLOG!

So I started this blog about a week ago, and since that point I have been trying to figure out what I should write about my first blog.  Finally, my beautiful wife gave me a great idea... she said "why don't you just write about how you got into Transformers."  Well here it is... on the amazing advice of my wife... how I got into the Bots and Cons!

When I was a small chitlin... I was a part of the dark side... that's right... Each morning I couldn't wait to run downstairs, and watch Gobots on Cartoon Express (God Bless You USA).  While watching the show I would sit attentively in front of the TV and stand up all of my Hotwheels and act like they were the real deal (even thought at that time the real deal was Leader-1 Scooter and the Cykill).  Never thinking that Hasbro would steal my idea twenty years later... I pined for a transforming robot.  I finally got my wish when I was walking through K*Mart with my dad... and since I was a good boy I was rewarded with a Micromaster Erector... on blue light special.   It may have not been an Optimus Prime, nor a Megatron... but hey... like I said this was way better than a Hotwheel standing on its bumper.  Since I was five at the time, it wasn't long before Erector just became a base... then a yard sale later he was gone. 


I am sad to say that the next few years were barely filled with Transformers. I really started to collect Formers due to my cousin getting back into the Formers collection due to Transformers 2000 (Car Robots).   There was a small hobby shop around my house that would sell import figs... and my cousin found the one fig he had pined for and never got... Fortress Maximus.  I received a frantic call from him one day... "Hey... I am coming over to pick you up... I just got the coolest thing ever!"  I walked into his room and there he stood... (Fort) Brave Max!  Josh started to pull out all of the old toys... and with that I got hooked.  He gave me his Canadian copy of Transformers the movie... I watched as Spike said "Shit,"  I found myself watching the film every other day.  He hooked me up with a copy of gen 1 on Real Media and .wmv... and I found myself wanting these robots to be mine... he let me borrow his comics... and within a week I had already read all of his Marvel G1 and G2 books. 

My first official Former was Jetstorm.. I needed to get something vehicle like... in the time of Beast Machines... he looked the coolest to me (deluxe size).  Then I found myself looking for Optimus Primal... since I had no Prime at this time I figured it would be close enough.  These held me off for a couple of months until Robots in Disguise was about to come out.  My first Real Car-Former was the RID Sideburn.  Funny enough I made my first purchase mistake for him... I bought him at a flee market for 20 bucks... the next week I found him and his other brothers at TRU for 10 a piece.  Needless to say Sideburn started my obsession.  I found myself tape recording Robots In Disguise.  I found my paychecks being devoted as much as possible to allow me to keep the collection up to date.  That in a nutshell... well rather large nutshell is how I got into formers.