Armor Bros. The Lost Levels

I knew Takara would hit the ground running with Cyberverse.

Super Armor Bros. Cyberverse Show

Cyberverse season 2 is starting in some parts of the world, I'm sure it'll start in mine soon enough. I'm really looking forward to it, I liked the first season quite a bit. The additions of the Spark Armor (which I've been calling Armor Bros... so now it's official, that's how this works right?) looks to add a lot of fun to the show as well as the added characters. Since the first seasons arc is over, I'm hoping for more direct into the action storytelling as now Bumblebee remembering stuff has pretty much caught us up to this point.

This past weekend (and earlier today) as I was hunting the G1 cassettes at local Walmarts, I passed up a few Cyberverse toys that I will most definitely get soon. I need more Armor Bros., I want that big ass Grimlock, Turbo Changers (mostly the Tiny Turbo variety, but a regular Hot Rod), and that's on top of the Siege stuff I want. It's nice to have so much on the shelves I want and also a little bit of a pain. There's a strange place between needing things and the store having nothing you need. That's usually reserved for a few months after Christmas, but it's weird feeling. "I'd like to buy something new, but there isn't anything new". Of course right now I'm swamped in stuff I want, so that weird feeling won't return anytime soon.

That darn cat bot

The other day I was playing with my Spark Armor Cheetor. It's a pretty fun little toy and for a Beast Wars fan it's nice to buy a Cheetor at Target again. It's not uncommon for my mind to race through potential repaints for the mold. There's the obvious Ravage (I'd go nuts for a Shadow Panther version) and Tigatron. That's always going to come up. Then my mind went to CatScan and Panther, which is a little more under the radar, but something I'd be all for. Though something I'd love would be a homage to the Fox Kids Transmetal Cheetor.

Beast Wars was a syndicated show here in the US that later aired on Fox Kids. New releases of some of the toys were made available to go along with the show now getting seen by a new audience. These Fox Kids versions had different paint jobs to differentiate them from the prior versions. Some a lot more extreme than other, like Transmetal Cheetor. Now in a darker red and black scheme dominating the toy, Cheetor looked like someone else.

It's a lot different than you'd expect Cheetor to look. Despite the weirdness of it, I've always liked the repaint and just thought it looked great. Spark Armor Cheetor, while looking more like the original Cheetor toy, is pretty angular and I'd like to think could pull these colors off pretty nicely. I'd be pretty happy with a million recolors of the toy in a million different cat bots. It's a great figure and one I'd love to see homage random versions of... Hey, you know what would also look great? The Armada one!

Spark Armor, POWER EXTREME

Earlier today (Monday to you) I went out for some errands. Well, one errand, I had to drop off some donations to the Goodwill. I then went to Target for a visit in hopes of new stuff as lately I've been coming up empty handed at my local stores (late summer stock clearing). Boy did I hit the jackpot! They had a bunch of new stuff, most importantly the Micromaster 10 Pack I've been needing so and Cyberverse Spark Armor Cheetor! In fact they had quite bunch of Spark Armor toys and man they got me excited. I've been pretty hyped for Spark Armor stuff as is, but seeing it in person was a real treat. As much as I wanted to take them all home, I just bought my Micromasters and Cheetor promising the others I'd come back for them (and I will). Let me also take a second to say how much more I want Alpha Trion after seeing his toy. I shamelessly want that. So good.

I've been bubbling with Spark Armor excitement all day ever since. It's hard not to like these guys, specially for someone who loves smaller toys and partner gimmicks. It doesn't hurt that thanks to the simplified nature of Cyberverse toys, these guys have that wonderful old school chunky Super Robot vibe running wild. Take a shot. I already liked the Cyberverse cartoon, but knowing the new episodes will follow this line is exciting. I'm hoping for some far out fights with the bots in their awesome Centurion ass armor.

I'm 41, I'm not concerned with being cool. I just want to go to Burger King and fortunately there's Spark Armor themed kid's meal toys currently. They're the standard non-Transforming figurines that kid's meals have had for the past decade, but they're pretty good looking. Hoping I can grab one or two before the promotion vanishes. Though admittedly I'd make some sort of scene ordering 50 kids meals and a Whopper (because I love Whoppers) and have some sort of battle across the restaurants floor before discovering they stuck something from a past kid's meal in the 50th one and OH HELL NAW.

Cyberverse Spark Armor

New #Transformers spark armor revealed. A gimmick being added to Cyberverse. #SDCC #HASBRO #HASBROSDCC pic.twitter.com/3uYIS2rKZO

— ToyFan @ SDCC (@TheTFReview) July 18, 2019

Footage of the Spark Armor on the cartoon is making me look forward to the new episodes even more. Cyberverse is such a great little show it's hard not to want more of it. Seeing that the episodes are usually put on YouTube by Hasbro, they should tampograph a QR Code on the toys somewhere that links to episodes.

That darn cat

I've been really looking forward to the upcoming Spark Armor figures from Cyberverse and early today the first looks at Cheetor figure popped up. If your dogs started barking like crazy, my bad, that was me. I am absolutely in heaven over this figure. I love Cheetor so very much and getting a new toy of him is something I'll break the sound barrier over.

Cheetor is a much more mechanical cat than his traditional Beast Wars look would suggest, and I dig that. I've always dug the mechanical look of animal based TF's in G1 and it looks great here. Weirdly enough, Cheetors Spark Armor partner is a reuse of the boat that comes with Bumblebee. I don't have any real complaint with that, it just seems odd. Bumblebee often comes with some sort of water themed gimmick as a throwback to his original special ability of being able to swim. Cheetor... not so much, but it doesn't look bad in armor mode at all. I'm guessing it has more to do with compatibility of the molds than anything.

The prospect of a Cheetor mold in a mainline TF line excites me as a fan of Transformers who fondly looks back at the beast era. I really hope for a ton of repaints. Obvious ones like Ravage or Tigatron or even something more obscure like CatScan or Cataclysm would be a great start. Actually a Shadow Panther or Panther from McDonald's Beast Wars Happy Meals would look great too. That's one of the great things about a more simple toy mold like this one, it lends itself to other things easily. Thinking about it, Tigatron with a blue jet armor would make for a great Tigerhawk.

Spark Armor Up!

I've been heavily anticipating the upcoming Spark Armor Cyberverse toys. Sure the reaction to Cyberverse has been mixed to say the least, but who cares, they look cool. I've talked about these here before, but as the release draws closer, I'm obviously going to get more excited for these. This kind of thing just screams fun. Not to mention, the potential to make something great is high.

You see, Transformers has a tendency to reuse the toy molds in different colors and usually as different characters. That's relatively normal in toy lines, but with Transformers it's often used to further flesh out ideas and concepts. Random seemingly generic repaints can turn into an obscure character returning to action, or get used in the most crazy ways. The Spark Armor partners also add extra potential. While it's not clear how they could be traded from robot to robot (if at all), something that simple in a repaint could offer up several new ideas. Suddenly Optimus's jet armor paired with the Starscream mold could be a neat new version of Skyquake (assuming the parts can be swapped).

Outside of the obvious incoming repaints, the idea is just plain fun. Ever since God Bomber, adding armor to a Transformer has held a certain appeal to me. I really hope the gimmick gets a good bit of use in the cartoon. The show has been fun enough as is, but something like this can really add something to fight scenes.

Hey Rob, how about the exact type of thing you like?

 

Toy Fair is right around the corner waiting to jump out and stab you with a knife. It's THAT close. So, as per the norm, almost all the news from the show is being released early to various sites either officially or by leaks. I'm not complaining, because the news is just wonderful (and I just can't click every link on Twitter). Wonderfest was this past weekend holding tons of news that I'm interested and really want (hello Star Convoy and Armada Prime). Today the news was new Cyberverse toys. I've enjoyed the line as is, but haven't jumped in whole hog as it's not 100% for me (and that's ok). Well, now they made it 200% for me (and that's ok)!

The new Spark Armor Battle Class figures are exactly the type of thing I go for. Legion/Speed style figures (they might be a little bigger) with partner drone vehicle type things that can turn into armor for said figure. Pardon me while I find somebody to shake violently and yell in their face about how awesome that is. I'm really digging the looks of these toys too, completely traditional looking Transformers characters with the additional armor friends. Often they'll reinvent the look of the bot for such a gimmick, which I'm not opposed too at all. Just when they look so drastically different, I'd prefer they'd be a new character. That and maybe it's a holdover from Action Masters mentally that's got me really excited for traditional looking characters with such a gimmick.

With Siege being as awesome as it is right now, the general greatness that is the Walmart reissue line, it's extra fries and ketchup with my combo meal that Cyberverse is doing such an awesome awesome. I hope the gimmick see's life the the cartoon, that'd be great. It's hard not to be excited for such a thing, I kinda hope Takara gets hold of this as I'd love to see it in their manga stories. Seems perfectly compatible with the general storytelling that takes place there.