Which current Human Alliance toy is the best? Options

[Octavius Prime]

Well?

This really is, in my opinion, the breakthrough line of the year. Out of all the stuff in ROTF (a line I enjoy very much), here's a subline that finally gives us something new, but that something is also a feature we've been wanting for a long time - human/transformer interaction.

(Yeah, we've had Fortress Maximus and other Headmasters, but it's not really the same thing).

So, out of the three available so far, which is the best?

Bumblebee gets points for being the only non-legends new mold Bumblebee for ROTF. All other versions are just remolds. He also does what even Ultimate BB can't do - have a correctly working battle mask.

Sideswipe's car mode looks much better than the deluxe's, with less gaps/panel lines, and he also has a G1-referencing shoulder mounted missile launcher. However, he's a major shellformer and his leg articulation is less useful than the deluxes.

Skids is the best looking version of this design yet. He's also the most stable, although the door-wings aren't part of his official look. He gets a neat back-mounted gatling gun for Mikaela. Arcee is not bad for a sub-basic transformer, but she fails to look much like Arcee's actual design (or even much like Chromia, who this mold is supposedly made for). Skids is also very short, not being much taller than the deluxe version.

[Smitty]

I only have Bee but I just love him. My wife's cousin has Sideswipe he's OK but I don't like the Eps figure. I really want Skids and Mudflap, but mostly got the bikes.

Also Skids is short and he's a really small car so his toy should be short.

[BleedWell]

Its a toss up between bee and skids right now. I like SS, but at the end of the day he isn't a fun or posable as skids or bee. since skids is the newer figure and has more of a wow factor at the moment Ill give it to him.

[NightViper]

I'm going with Skids, if only because of the vast improvement over the Deluxe. Bumblebee's good too, but so was his $10 toy, which means I've so far been able to resist him.

First sale though, I'm nabbing me a Bee (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

[Octavius Prime]

Smitty - Yes, I know why Skids is short - it's a mass/height ratio thing based on his short alt mode. Even so, it's still a turn off to a lot of people (at least form what I've seen online). I personally don't mind too much.

NightViper - The deluxe bumblebee molds are, as you say, very good, but this dude (HA BB) really does blow them out of the water. He's worth the full price (not the 35 dollars that Kmart and TRU sell him for).

This post has been edited by Octoberus Prime: Oct 11 2009, 07:47 AM

[NightViper]

Yeah, I've had him in hand (I even took a gallery of images), so I know all about his awesomeness. But something is keeping me from the $30 tag. It think it's the fact that I have 8 Bumblebees from the first movie and so therefore don't feel the need to drop that much for another one.

It's a shame; I know how how great the figure is, but every time I see him in stores I think, "he's just another Bumblebee."

Ah well, here's hoping for a $5-10 off sale in the near future to clean the armies of Bees and Sideswipes from the shelves (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)

[Robogeek1973]

Hmmmm, both Bumblebee and Skids are awesome, but BB's lack of a hand knocks him just below Skids.

[Powered Convoy]

Smitty - Yes, I know why Skids is short - it's a mass/height ratio thing based on his short alt mode. Even so, it's still a turn off to a lot of people (at least form what I've seen online). I personally don't mind too much.

Also, in the film, Skids was half the size of Bumblebee too, so I think it would be very off if he was really any taller.

For me it's Skids by a large margin. Granted I like BB & Sideswipe a lot, but the only thing I think SS has over the Deluxe is the car mode is beautiful (my favorite of the line). BB is great overall (NightViper, I think you'll regret not getting him one day). Epps is really bad, having too short of a torso and not really looking like Tyrese at all to me. Sam and Mikaela are about the same, but Sam's arms are a bit too long. BB's mask face doesn't look quite as nice as I would hope, but the fact it slides over his face forgives any issues I have with the sculpt.

Skids is just really great. The only negative thing I can say about Skids is the way his hands face when bending his elbow joint.

Randy

[Nighthawk.]

I only have Bee but I just love him. My wife's cousin has Sideswipe he's OK but I don't like the Eps figure. I really want Skids and Mudflap, but mostly got the bikes.

Also Skids is short and he's a really small car so his toy should be short.

I dont realy like the HA sideswipe I was realy happy with the idea of him but when I saw the pictures of him he looked way to bulky his blades were realy chunky and he didnt look like the fast sleek robot like the deluxe skids looks quite good bumblebee is the one who's size compared to the deluxes and voyager characters is round about the same scale in the film , plus he has the flip down mask (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-ironhide.gif)

[Nevermore]

I dont realy like the HA sideswipe I was realy happy with the idea of him but when I saw the pictures of him he looked way to bulky his blades were realy chunky and he didnt look like the fast sleek robot like the deluxe skids looks quite good bumblebee is the one who's size compared to the deluxes and voyager characters is round about the same scale in the film , plus he has the flip down mask (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-ironhide.gif)

Were punctuation and capital letters out of stock?

This post has been edited by Nevermore: Oct 11 2009, 09:30 AM

[Octavius Prime]

I dont realy like the HA sideswipe I was realy happy with the idea of him but when I saw the pictures of him he looked way to bulky his blades were realy chunky and he didnt look like the fast sleek robot like the deluxe skids looks quite good bumblebee is the one who's size compared to the deluxes and voyager characters is round about the same scale in the film , plus he has the flip down mask (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-ironhide.gif)

Were punctuation and capital letters out of stock?

Dude, you can't complain about grammar online; it's just his "style." Or didn't you know? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-arcee.gif)

[Asquian]

I honestly wish i could give an educated answer, but I'm still holding out for a sale before picking any of these up.

[crazyjw18]

This is a tough one, as both Bumblebee and Skids are really nice. Bumblebee is probably the winner due to having the least clutered interior of the 3, the battle mask, and the very nice exterior vehicle mode. Even though it would be less movie accurate, I'd have preferred they made the launcher next to the hand, like they did on Skids.

Skids vehicle mode looks odd because of the lack of paint on the upper door edges, and he's got the center console clutter, though to a lesser extent than Sideswipe. I really like him otherwise, the launcher feature is nice, the transformation is pretty interesting, the feet are great, and the moving mouth feature equals the Bee battle mask in coolness.

Sideswipe looks awesome in vehicle mode, but having the entire car shell on his back and the odd leg engineering definitely hurts him. The rotating blades gimmick doesn't really do much for me either. Even so I still love him, so overall I call this line a good job in every aspect.

[Smitty]

Hmmmm, both Bumblebee and Skids are awesome, but BB's lack of a hand knocks him just below Skids.

That is what I was just thinking...

Smitty - Yes, I know why Skids is short - it's a mass/height ratio thing based on his short alt mode. Even so, it's still a turn off to a lot of people (at least form what I've seen online). I personally don't mind too much.

Also, in the film, Skids was half the size of Bumblebee too, so I think it would be very off if he was really any taller.

Randy

I know so why on Earth would you want the short guys toy to be tall? It's like the people who want Powerglide to be a scout because he was small in G1.

[Rhinox]

I just got a chance to play with Skids this weekend and I think he's far and away the best of the trio currently.

[Axaday]

I voted for Bumblebee, because he's so wonderful. But I just opened up HA Skids and was surprised. I intended to turn him to robot once and then put him back in car mode for display, because Skids' robot is so ugly and he's got a face only Wioslea could love. But I actually liked him in robot mode. First time I appreciated the design. So he's displaying in robot mode.

Is he really supposed to be so small compared to Bumblebee? I guess I didn't notice in the movie.

This post has been edited by Axaday: Oct 15 2009, 09:33 AM

[Robogeek1973]

Is he really supposed to be so small compared to Bumblebee? I guess I didn't notice in the movie.

Yes he and Mudflap are quite small next to Bee. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)

[Smitty]

Is he really supposed to be so small compared to Bumblebee? I guess I didn't notice in the movie.

Yeah they are about half his hight. Just look at how small the cars are...

[Treadshot 2.0]

I'm eagerly awaiting Skids. Not having him in hand, I can't really evaluate him like that, but I can say unequivocally that Bumblebee is better than Sideswipe. SS has a beautiful car mode (which he stays displayed as) but there are numerous issues... his torso is too small (about the size of a Deluxe), the backpack could and should have been done much better, the leg articulation doesn't allow for many poses because he doesn't have ankle joints (unlike the Deluxe), and the 'hydraulic tubes' are placed too close together on his body so when you move his legs it puts WAAY too much stress on them (compare to the Deluxe and how they're anchored on two separate points on his torso).

Bumblebee isn't perfect though. The leg mod is easy, but I shouldn't have had to do it in the first place. The gun-arm is sub-optimal. What really bothers me, though, is the car mode seats. If they had just made them so they could fold down flush against his forearms, it would have substantially improved this toy's movie-accuracy, and for the life of me I can't understand why they didn't make him that way. (Skids seems to have rectified this oversight)

Hopefully I'll find a Skids today, since it's payday!

[ShinRa Inc]

Is he really supposed to be so small compared to Bumblebee? I guess I didn't notice in the movie.

Yeah they are about half his hight. Just look at how small the cars are...

Bumblebee picks up both of them by their necks and tosses them out of the Temple at Petra, remember.