My Cyberverse Coat Of Many Colors

Sometime last night a siren rang out the most wonderful news, a song of new Cyberverse box sets. Not long ago I talked about the newer Warrior Class Starscream that seemingly transformed into the Vic Viper. As I said then and have said since, I'm not a seeker completist. Somewhere during the SCF/Heroes of Cybertron and Classics run... I had my fill. Though also like I said, this mold in multiple colors would change my mind. I'm very glad they're not 100% traditional in their colors.

Variety is the spice of life and man look at those seasoned space jets! I think Thrust and Skywarp are my favorite so far. They just pop. Thundercraker and Starscream ain't too shabby themselves. I kind of wish they were all new characters since the colors on the mold make them look like new characters. It's not a major gripe though. I'm just going to post that Gradius commercial again for good measure.

I am so bad at that game, but I love playing it.

Another bit of wonderful news from yesterday, is the sightings of a Repugnus box set. From the episodes with the swarm of Repugnus bugs on Cybertron is this set of various members of that swarm. That beautiful green Repugnus is a recolor of the Turbo Changer I raved about not long ago and man is is sharp looking! The other members of the swarm (Pesticons!) are tiny new molds, not unlike the Sharkticons from the prior Hot Rod set. They may be from Tiny Turbo Changer origins, but the Sharkticons were a hard plastic and not rubbery. These look a little bigger as well, so I'm not sure. Maybe.

Regardless of mold origin, the multiple colors are absolutely wonderful. I love the Cyberverse rendition of Repugnus and am looking forward to adding more of him to the shelf my current one will eventually sit on. I just moved last month, I'm getting there. Since this one is so similar to the Hot Rod, I'm assuming it'll cost around $20. The seeker pack... that was an ebay leak, so who knows? I kinda imagine it's a Christmas item and wagering around $40-$50. Hoping they're easy to get as I must own these.

Salamander Starscream

Since the new season of Transformers Cyberverse taking place on Cybertron, Starscream and the other characters are given new Cybertronian forms. In a breath of fesh air, Hasbro opted to do something new for Starscream and his seekers. Instead of the standard tetra jet Cybertronian mode, they went for a Vic Viper inspired look. This couldn't come at a better time as between various mini consoles and the Switch online service, the Gradius games have been getting some recent exposure. Even without the Konami connection, I really think this looks great.

In robot mode however, Starscream is pretty much what you'd expect. I initially thought he'd be a retool of the prior seeker warrior class mold and was glad to be wrong. This is a much better toy with more articulation. Not enough to roll in a ball or whatever articulation fans might want, but decidedly more than the first warrior had. In fact he's in a sitting position within the packaging, which was pretty funny once I noticed it.

Warrior class toys in Cyberverse have an action feature and Starscream's is the awesomely named 'Starseeker Missile' playing off the standard null ray guns/missiles you get with practically every seeker toy. Moving the Vic Viper cockpit on the backpack springs them forward as if they were firing straight forward. The missiles are mounted on the wings, so it doesn't block his arms. As far as action features go, this one's ok enough. It doesn't interfere with the toy, so I can't complain.

However I had a hard time getting one to stay in it's non-deployed position. Resulting in each time moving the cockpit back and forth to get it to lock in. That wasn't the greatest. Spring loaded features that won't stay in place is a toy pet peeve of mine, so I can't say I was happy with that. Your mileage may vary though, this could very well be a figure to figure issue depending on various situations in manufacturing.

That's the one complaint I have in a pretty good figure. I get my Cyberverse warrior toys for $11 and for that amount of money am really happy with this toy. It's a big improvement from the prior warrior class seeker mold and with the Vic Viper homage, I might be persuaded to buy other seekers based on the toy mold. Meaning I probably will.

Salamander Famicom

Between the Turbograpx 16 Mini (currently delayed thanks to the coronavirus) and the new Cyberverse Starscream toy, I've been on a Vic Viper kick lately. It's not a bad thing to be on though as it's been inspiring me to look into various Gradius related media. Such a good game series that I'm horrible at.

Nemesis Takes On A New Meaning

This is Starscream. You know who he is. This version you're looking at is from the upcoming Cyberverse season with Cybertronian based forms. Instead of doing the standard Tetra-Jet design they always do with Seekers, they did something different.

Pretty neat huh? Looks enough like the classic jet you're used to, but spacey and sci fi like. Hey, you guy's ever play a Gradius game? Somebody at Hasbro sure has.

Well howdy there Vic Viper, famed ship from the Gradius series of games, nice to see you in my Transformers. Usually I'm not a Seeker completist, but I might make an exception here. Not only does this design look great, but having a bunch of multi color Vic Vipers would be neat. I wonder if there will be any homages on the show? I've long thought Cyberverse (and RID before it) felt like they should be a game by Konami for Super Nintendo, and I guess I'm not alone on that.