LEGOLAS

Today's  LoTR review is on the figure Legolas. This elf was one of the early batches of figures that I owned. Hence, the paint job probably wasn't up to par.
 

The ends of the arrows are painted white to be made to look like feathers. The fine linings are then outlined with gold ink.

Lastly, here's Legolas for size comparison standing next to Gimli.

DESTRUCTICON BLUDGEON

Today we take a look at Destructicon Bludgeon from the Robots in Disguise series. One thing unique about this toy is that it comes packed in a Transformers Armada line packaging.

In vehicle mode, Blugdeon comes in the form of a tank.

This toy has been on display in my shelf for many years now. It was until recently that I fiddled with the toy, to take it out for review purposes that I noticed the hairline cracks on the rubber tube.

Transformation only takes a few simple steps. In robot mode, you can see a huge Decepticon insignia right at the lower chest of Bludgeon.

Here's Bludgeon with the huge rocket. This toy comes with two rockets but I'm only using one for review purposes. The other one is tucked somewhere in my stash of missiles.

The legs are not flexible, hence giving Bludgeon limited posability.

Much to my resentment, just as I was about to end the shooting session, the rubber tube actually broke off. This was a real bummer for me. Right now, I'm leaving Destructicon Bludgeon in robot mode, with the tube glued on for good. This goes to say that the air firing mechanism won't  work anymore.

ARMS MASTER OPTIMUS PRIME

It's the month of September & my birthday's coming up. What more than to kick the month off with a cool post!

Today we're going to take a look at Arms Master Optimus Prime from the Transformers Arms Micron series. This post is packed with loads of images & you'll know why shortly. If it takes a while to load, my sincerest apologies as I hope you can bear with me.

I would say that this would be the leader class version of Optimus Prime from the TF Prime series. Prior to this there were a couple of deluxe class Primes as well as a whole load of various voyager versions.

As you can see, thie Prime carries the huge Matrix at the back of the truck.

Here's a gimmick that the truck pulls off. First, you'll have to loosen the grill of the truck in front just a little. Then all you have to do is to press down the grey button at the top of the cab. This will cause a pair of spinning blasters to literally roll out. However, as cool as the picture look in the blog & on the box, the rolling out mechanism isn't smooth at all. Almost 10/10 times the blasters get stuck half way & you would have to manually drag them out.

Here's different angles of the truck with the blasters fully rolled out.

Being a leader class figure, transformation is very simple. Prime stands all high & mighty until you start realizing that Prime looks like he's suffering from a hunched back when you view the toy from the side.

Do take note of the yellow button at the kidney area of the robot. Once pressed, the spinning cannons are drawn out.

Here we have the spinning guns in robot mode. Just like in vehicle mode, 10/10 times the blasters get stuck half way out.

With both blasters out, Prime now looks more formidable.

Now let's see what the Matrix can do.

Prime's chest opens for you to clip the Matrix onto the main body. If you look closer at the picture above you can see a small reflective mirror at the centre of the body. Now I wonder what you can do with it?

Here's prime with the Matrix & his Arms Micron R.A. (Blue). The original Arms Micron weapon first came together with Ratchet.

Posture is a little difficult as the legs are huge & bulky.

Here's the other cool thing about the Matrix. It can be twisted & folded to form part of a large blade that can be attached together with AM R.A (Blue).

Now Prime looks a whole lot better than having the silly huge Matrix sticking out like a sore thumb attached to the chest.

In case you haven't known, I've actually been collecting this series heavily because I've been quite obsessed with the Arms Micron weapons. This was proven many years ago when I was collecting the Armada / Micron Densetsu line where I was hunting high & low for rare Mini-Cons.

Being the largest figure in this series, I reckon that Prime would be equipped with many more holes & pegs for me to attach the AM weapons onto him. Below is a chronological order of how I kept increasing the number of AM weapons to be attached onto Arms Master Optimus Prime.


Arms Master 50 - OP Mark 1

Here's the charged up version. Presenting to you, the making of AM74 - OP Mark 2

Step 1 - Shoulders, Rear thrusters, Hand weapons

Step 2 - Fists

Step 3 - Shoulder pads, Leg shields

Step 4 - Matrix, Chest shield

Step 5 - Jetpack

Here after combining all the different sections of the Micron sets, we have the final product.

Even though there are seventy four Microns on this figure, I've attached them proportionately & the figure wouldn't topple to the back. The main reason is because of the rear thrusters. This serves as a back up stand to prevent the figure from falling backwards.

In conclusion, to date, I've yet to find any other combination that I can maximize & fully utilize all the Arms Microns. As I am blogging about this figure, I have just obtained another set of exclusive Arms Micron from the Transformers Go! series. However, I'll leave that for another time.