Zobovor
2024-07-16 16:11:46 UTC
When we first heard that there was a new Leader-class Springer coming,
which would effectively supplant the old Voyager-class version of
Springer released during Siege in 2019, a lot of people were wondering:
would we get an all-new, larger version of the character? Or would they
actually take the Voyager toy, put some lipstick on the proverbial pig,
and try to sell it to us at the Leader-class price point (like they're
also going to do with Soundwave)? Well, this is Hasbro we're talking
about, after all. In retrospect, we all should have probably known the
answer to that.
However, despite being initally bothered by what was clearly a
cost-cutting move, I actually feel like the new-and-improved Springer is
significantly better than the one we got five years ago. He might even
be worth the $55 price point. (This toy was originally solicited for
October, so I was very happy that he shipped early!)
Springer comes packaged in robot mode, so let's start there. The most
obvious visual difference is the completely overhauled color scheme. It
wasn't immediately obvious to me until I got the two toys side-by-side,
but the Voyager version of Springer was a very bright lime green (what I
used to call Raphael green) and the yellow accents on his shoulders and
chest were this highly-saturated shade that wasn't entirely accurate to
what we see on screen. Something not many people may realize is that
the paint colors used on animation cels do not equal the final colors we
saw on television or in the movie, because the cels were backlit and
photographed under fairly harsh lighting conditions. So even if you
were to go back to an original animation cel and do some color-picking,
it still wouldn't be fully authentic to what we saw on screen.
Anyway, Springer is a lighter shade of green now, and he's complemented
with a lighter canary yellow, which to my eyes makes him look a lot more
like the on-screen character. The shade of grey used on the Voyager toy
was also heavily saturated and has always looked very blue to my eyes.
They arguably overdid it a bit. The Leader-class version has a more
toned-down, more neutral grey color which is also more accurate. Just
about every character in The Transformers: the Movie was multiple shades
of the same color (Blurr was multiple shades of blue; Cyclonus was
several different shades of purple; etc.) and the same holds true for
Springer. A very light green was used for his fists and upper legs and
face, which is also correct for his animated look.
So, let's talk about accessories for a minute. One of the things that
elevates this from a $30 USD toy to a $55 USD toy is the inclusion of a
lot more weapons. Siege Springer has his helicopter blades and a couple
of skinny rifles that connected together, and that was it. This version
also has those rifles (one supposes it was already part of the
production mold, so why not) but the helicopter blades have been
completely redesigned. Instead of having a rotor mount where the swords
plug into either side to form the helicopter blades, it's a single piece
with metal pins attaching the rotor blades, and they can be rotated out
for helicopter mode or the blades can be closed together to make a
sword.
Of course, they took some creative liberties with Springer's sword in
the animated movie, which doesn't just look like a couple of helicopter
blades closed together. So he's actually got a second sword accessory,
one which does not form his helicopter blades, and which looks more like
the one he equipped when he tangled with Wreck-Gar on the Planet of
Junk. He's also got a "I got better things to do tonight than die!"
catapult launcher missile, allowing you to recreate one of his most
famous moments. Finally, he comes with a Wrecker hammer, cast in the
same light green as his fists and upper legs. It's not an on-screen
accessory, but I imagine they had some extra room left in the tooling so
they just threw it in as a value-added item. It's a thermoset plastic
that doesn't take paint very well, which might be the reason it's got no
Autobot symbol on it, despite there being a pentagon-shaped spot clearly
intended for one. But, you could sticker it up pretty easily if you
wanted to. BMac of Hasbro suggested a while ago that another character
might be coming who could carry the hammer (my money is on Rack N'
Ruin).
Finally, he's got a very large rifle, the screen-accurate gun that he
carried most of the time. It's also a weapon equipped with Ultra Magnus
in an early scene from The Transformers: the Movie, so you could give it
to your Studio Series '86 Ultra Magnus toy if you wanted to. (The
character designs for the new
characters from The Transformers: the Movie didn't include their guns,
which were supplied on a separate sheet. That's why nobody in their
Marvel Comics TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE profiles are carrying their guns,
and it's why there were kerfluffles with some of the characters'
weaponry.)
Amusingly, they really tried hard to incorporate some kind of weapons
storage. Fully one-quarter of the instructions are dedicated to all the
ways you can plug things into his back. His rifle stores on his back.
His helicopter blade sword stores on his back. His other sword also
stores on his back. Want to store his catapult missile? Plug it into
his back. Want to tuck away his hammer? Oh, look, there's a spot on
his back. You can't quite do ALL of this at once (you can get about
four weapons plugged into place) but an effort was made. They get a You
Tried! star.
A fair percentage of the toy was also remolded, in service of making him
more accurate. He got a new robot head, slightly larger than the old
one, and it only rotates side-to-side now instead of being on a ball
joint. I kind of thing this was done to replicate the way he moves his
head in the animated film, especially in the "Kup and Hot Rod just
bought it!" scene. The robot chest was completely redesigned, and it
more authentically captures the way his chest armor hangs down at an
angle, as opposed to the way it's perpendicular to the ground on the
Siege toy (and the G1 toy). New joints have been added to the shoulder
armor parts so that they can hang from his shoulders at an angle. This
really helps to cement this as cartoon Springer.
He also got a modified right forearm so that you can flip out that tiny
little blaster he used in the 1986 movie to fire on Starscream as he was
strafing Autobot City. What a tiny but memorable detail to include!
There are other changes as well. The upper legs have been redone to be
more smoothed-out and cartoon-like, with fewer extraneous Siege-era
greeblies. The hands have been redone to allow for opening fingers,
which allow him to (sort of) grasp the catapult missile. His belly and
"belt buckle" have been redone. His upper arms are new. He got an
entirely different backpack, which benefits the vehicle modes (see
below). There have also been some very minor engineering changes, but
despite this, the transformation is mostly, but not completely, the
same.
The slightly altered engineering also means he's just a little bit
taller than before. It's not nearly as significant as previously
reported. The difference isn't even half a head in height. But, it's
something. A fully screen-accurate Springer would be close to Ultra
Magnus in height, but we're not going to get that with a toy that was
designed to be a Voyager. With the empasis on scale, this is one of the
reasons I had thought perhaps the Leader-class toy was going to be a
scaled-up version of the Voyager toy.
Transforming the toy is roughly the same. The robot head tucks away in
a different manner, and now folds up and stows inside the robot chest.
The blast effect pegs are gone from the chest, which on the Voyager
version would essentially help lock him into vehicle mode. It was
really hard to get the chest folded down with those pegs grabbing onto
the cockpit piece, so I'm really glad they eliminated this design
aspect. Because the hands can open now instead of being functional
peg-holes, the back of his hands grasp the vehicle shell parts a little
less tightly. But, aside from that, transformation to car mode is about
what you would expect if you're familiar with the Siege toy.
However, the car mode has a darker shade of translucent blue used for
the cockpit, which helps hide the engineering a bit better. He got a
completely different backpack which now includes the screen-accurate
square-shaped thrusters on either side, which can point up for car mode
or can fold to the sides in helicopter mode to make more room for the
rotor blades. Car mode is a much cleaner look, lacking all the battle
damage paint from the Siege version, and the front fenders were also
remolded, with details more accurate to the G1 animated design. The
peg-holes on the tops of the fenders were eliminated, and the only
peg-hole on the top of the car is the one in the roof meant for the
helicopter blades to attach. You can also plug his rifle or even his
sword (?!) into the roof, according to the instructions.
Helicopter mode is essentially a variation on the car mode, of course,
but anybody who owns the Siege toy knows there's almost an absurd number
of things you have to do in order to get in there, all in service of
moving the fenders so that they don't protrude farther than the hood, or
making the back of the car change shape so that it's long and skinny and
can become a helicopter tail section. All the same transformation
tricks are the same, as the engineering for the legs wasn't changed at
all. Weirdly, they added a new tab to the winglets that unfold from his
arms, and they don't lock as cleanly. I'm not sure what he intention
was here, but whatever they were trying to do, it didn't quite stick.
The modified upper legs also means that the Tamashii-style figure stand
plugs are gone, so there is no readily-evident way to display Springer
in helicopter mode in mid-flight. The new helicopter blades are
slightly shorter than the originals (about 7.5" inches, half an inch
shorter than before) and spin freely.
Maybe the only design choice I don't like is the fact that, since his
shoulder pads are now separate from his upper arms, his front wheels are
now mounted to his shoulders and they don't hide inside the wheel wells
as well. It's harder to pretend that they're not there.
So, five years ago I was pretty satisfied with Siege Springer, and I
considered him an acceptable update for the character and worthy of
display on the neo-G1 shelf I don't actually have yet. (Maybe next
year!) But, the new update represents a substantial improvement in a
lot of ways, and now I find myself questioning why I was ever okay with
Siege Springer. He's good, certainly, but he doesn't reach the level of
greatness that the Leader-class toy manages. So, I have officially
reversed my stance, and I am okay with paying $55 USD for a former $30
toy when they manage to make this many substantial improvements. (And,
really, it's ultimately no different than me shelling out $25 for a
Nonnef Productions upgrade kit. This way, Hasbro includes the "upgrade
kit" already in the package.)
They've been systematically knocking out most of the important
characters from The Transformers: the Moviem, to the point where there
is almost nobody left untouched. I would like to see a larger
Quintesson Leader toy, perhaps even something that transforms, along the
same lines as what was done with the Quintesson Judge toy during
Earthrise. At this point I actually wouldn't hate seeing transformable
version of Kranix and Arblus, either, who, despite not being Autobots
and not being true Transformers, are still fairly memorable and pivotal
characters in the film. But, we're really at a point where you can put
together a toy collection of pretty much the entire cast, and that
really speaks towards Hasbro's dedication to give us updated versions of
all these great characters.
Zob (Q: Why won't Springer help color Easter eggs? A: Because he's got
better things to do tonight than dye)
which would effectively supplant the old Voyager-class version of
Springer released during Siege in 2019, a lot of people were wondering:
would we get an all-new, larger version of the character? Or would they
actually take the Voyager toy, put some lipstick on the proverbial pig,
and try to sell it to us at the Leader-class price point (like they're
also going to do with Soundwave)? Well, this is Hasbro we're talking
about, after all. In retrospect, we all should have probably known the
answer to that.
However, despite being initally bothered by what was clearly a
cost-cutting move, I actually feel like the new-and-improved Springer is
significantly better than the one we got five years ago. He might even
be worth the $55 price point. (This toy was originally solicited for
October, so I was very happy that he shipped early!)
Springer comes packaged in robot mode, so let's start there. The most
obvious visual difference is the completely overhauled color scheme. It
wasn't immediately obvious to me until I got the two toys side-by-side,
but the Voyager version of Springer was a very bright lime green (what I
used to call Raphael green) and the yellow accents on his shoulders and
chest were this highly-saturated shade that wasn't entirely accurate to
what we see on screen. Something not many people may realize is that
the paint colors used on animation cels do not equal the final colors we
saw on television or in the movie, because the cels were backlit and
photographed under fairly harsh lighting conditions. So even if you
were to go back to an original animation cel and do some color-picking,
it still wouldn't be fully authentic to what we saw on screen.
Anyway, Springer is a lighter shade of green now, and he's complemented
with a lighter canary yellow, which to my eyes makes him look a lot more
like the on-screen character. The shade of grey used on the Voyager toy
was also heavily saturated and has always looked very blue to my eyes.
They arguably overdid it a bit. The Leader-class version has a more
toned-down, more neutral grey color which is also more accurate. Just
about every character in The Transformers: the Movie was multiple shades
of the same color (Blurr was multiple shades of blue; Cyclonus was
several different shades of purple; etc.) and the same holds true for
Springer. A very light green was used for his fists and upper legs and
face, which is also correct for his animated look.
So, let's talk about accessories for a minute. One of the things that
elevates this from a $30 USD toy to a $55 USD toy is the inclusion of a
lot more weapons. Siege Springer has his helicopter blades and a couple
of skinny rifles that connected together, and that was it. This version
also has those rifles (one supposes it was already part of the
production mold, so why not) but the helicopter blades have been
completely redesigned. Instead of having a rotor mount where the swords
plug into either side to form the helicopter blades, it's a single piece
with metal pins attaching the rotor blades, and they can be rotated out
for helicopter mode or the blades can be closed together to make a
sword.
Of course, they took some creative liberties with Springer's sword in
the animated movie, which doesn't just look like a couple of helicopter
blades closed together. So he's actually got a second sword accessory,
one which does not form his helicopter blades, and which looks more like
the one he equipped when he tangled with Wreck-Gar on the Planet of
Junk. He's also got a "I got better things to do tonight than die!"
catapult launcher missile, allowing you to recreate one of his most
famous moments. Finally, he comes with a Wrecker hammer, cast in the
same light green as his fists and upper legs. It's not an on-screen
accessory, but I imagine they had some extra room left in the tooling so
they just threw it in as a value-added item. It's a thermoset plastic
that doesn't take paint very well, which might be the reason it's got no
Autobot symbol on it, despite there being a pentagon-shaped spot clearly
intended for one. But, you could sticker it up pretty easily if you
wanted to. BMac of Hasbro suggested a while ago that another character
might be coming who could carry the hammer (my money is on Rack N'
Ruin).
Finally, he's got a very large rifle, the screen-accurate gun that he
carried most of the time. It's also a weapon equipped with Ultra Magnus
in an early scene from The Transformers: the Movie, so you could give it
to your Studio Series '86 Ultra Magnus toy if you wanted to. (The
character designs for the new
characters from The Transformers: the Movie didn't include their guns,
which were supplied on a separate sheet. That's why nobody in their
Marvel Comics TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE profiles are carrying their guns,
and it's why there were kerfluffles with some of the characters'
weaponry.)
Amusingly, they really tried hard to incorporate some kind of weapons
storage. Fully one-quarter of the instructions are dedicated to all the
ways you can plug things into his back. His rifle stores on his back.
His helicopter blade sword stores on his back. His other sword also
stores on his back. Want to store his catapult missile? Plug it into
his back. Want to tuck away his hammer? Oh, look, there's a spot on
his back. You can't quite do ALL of this at once (you can get about
four weapons plugged into place) but an effort was made. They get a You
Tried! star.
A fair percentage of the toy was also remolded, in service of making him
more accurate. He got a new robot head, slightly larger than the old
one, and it only rotates side-to-side now instead of being on a ball
joint. I kind of thing this was done to replicate the way he moves his
head in the animated film, especially in the "Kup and Hot Rod just
bought it!" scene. The robot chest was completely redesigned, and it
more authentically captures the way his chest armor hangs down at an
angle, as opposed to the way it's perpendicular to the ground on the
Siege toy (and the G1 toy). New joints have been added to the shoulder
armor parts so that they can hang from his shoulders at an angle. This
really helps to cement this as cartoon Springer.
He also got a modified right forearm so that you can flip out that tiny
little blaster he used in the 1986 movie to fire on Starscream as he was
strafing Autobot City. What a tiny but memorable detail to include!
There are other changes as well. The upper legs have been redone to be
more smoothed-out and cartoon-like, with fewer extraneous Siege-era
greeblies. The hands have been redone to allow for opening fingers,
which allow him to (sort of) grasp the catapult missile. His belly and
"belt buckle" have been redone. His upper arms are new. He got an
entirely different backpack, which benefits the vehicle modes (see
below). There have also been some very minor engineering changes, but
despite this, the transformation is mostly, but not completely, the
same.
The slightly altered engineering also means he's just a little bit
taller than before. It's not nearly as significant as previously
reported. The difference isn't even half a head in height. But, it's
something. A fully screen-accurate Springer would be close to Ultra
Magnus in height, but we're not going to get that with a toy that was
designed to be a Voyager. With the empasis on scale, this is one of the
reasons I had thought perhaps the Leader-class toy was going to be a
scaled-up version of the Voyager toy.
Transforming the toy is roughly the same. The robot head tucks away in
a different manner, and now folds up and stows inside the robot chest.
The blast effect pegs are gone from the chest, which on the Voyager
version would essentially help lock him into vehicle mode. It was
really hard to get the chest folded down with those pegs grabbing onto
the cockpit piece, so I'm really glad they eliminated this design
aspect. Because the hands can open now instead of being functional
peg-holes, the back of his hands grasp the vehicle shell parts a little
less tightly. But, aside from that, transformation to car mode is about
what you would expect if you're familiar with the Siege toy.
However, the car mode has a darker shade of translucent blue used for
the cockpit, which helps hide the engineering a bit better. He got a
completely different backpack which now includes the screen-accurate
square-shaped thrusters on either side, which can point up for car mode
or can fold to the sides in helicopter mode to make more room for the
rotor blades. Car mode is a much cleaner look, lacking all the battle
damage paint from the Siege version, and the front fenders were also
remolded, with details more accurate to the G1 animated design. The
peg-holes on the tops of the fenders were eliminated, and the only
peg-hole on the top of the car is the one in the roof meant for the
helicopter blades to attach. You can also plug his rifle or even his
sword (?!) into the roof, according to the instructions.
Helicopter mode is essentially a variation on the car mode, of course,
but anybody who owns the Siege toy knows there's almost an absurd number
of things you have to do in order to get in there, all in service of
moving the fenders so that they don't protrude farther than the hood, or
making the back of the car change shape so that it's long and skinny and
can become a helicopter tail section. All the same transformation
tricks are the same, as the engineering for the legs wasn't changed at
all. Weirdly, they added a new tab to the winglets that unfold from his
arms, and they don't lock as cleanly. I'm not sure what he intention
was here, but whatever they were trying to do, it didn't quite stick.
The modified upper legs also means that the Tamashii-style figure stand
plugs are gone, so there is no readily-evident way to display Springer
in helicopter mode in mid-flight. The new helicopter blades are
slightly shorter than the originals (about 7.5" inches, half an inch
shorter than before) and spin freely.
Maybe the only design choice I don't like is the fact that, since his
shoulder pads are now separate from his upper arms, his front wheels are
now mounted to his shoulders and they don't hide inside the wheel wells
as well. It's harder to pretend that they're not there.
So, five years ago I was pretty satisfied with Siege Springer, and I
considered him an acceptable update for the character and worthy of
display on the neo-G1 shelf I don't actually have yet. (Maybe next
year!) But, the new update represents a substantial improvement in a
lot of ways, and now I find myself questioning why I was ever okay with
Siege Springer. He's good, certainly, but he doesn't reach the level of
greatness that the Leader-class toy manages. So, I have officially
reversed my stance, and I am okay with paying $55 USD for a former $30
toy when they manage to make this many substantial improvements. (And,
really, it's ultimately no different than me shelling out $25 for a
Nonnef Productions upgrade kit. This way, Hasbro includes the "upgrade
kit" already in the package.)
They've been systematically knocking out most of the important
characters from The Transformers: the Moviem, to the point where there
is almost nobody left untouched. I would like to see a larger
Quintesson Leader toy, perhaps even something that transforms, along the
same lines as what was done with the Quintesson Judge toy during
Earthrise. At this point I actually wouldn't hate seeing transformable
version of Kranix and Arblus, either, who, despite not being Autobots
and not being true Transformers, are still fairly memorable and pivotal
characters in the film. But, we're really at a point where you can put
together a toy collection of pretty much the entire cast, and that
really speaks towards Hasbro's dedication to give us updated versions of
all these great characters.
Zob (Q: Why won't Springer help color Easter eggs? A: Because he's got
better things to do tonight than dye)