Post by shaxper on Aug 6, 2003 15:51:31 GMT -5
(sorry guys. Can't upload pics at the moment).
Dear Hasbro,
I officially apologize for everything bad I've ever said about you, particularly about how you skimp out on quality and will do anything to save a buck on production costs.
TIDAL WAVE ROCKS!!!!!!!!
He really doesn't look like much when you see the box. The Dark Fleet looks very unimpressive, but once you get him out of the box, you really begin to see it. This toy is amazing! The designers clearly put a tremendous amount of thought and love into every inch of the toy!
General Overview
Tidal Wave is made up of three sea vehicles. Each has cool and unique features. The aircraft carrier has a hidden elevator compartment that pops out from the deck and can store Ramjet (the included minicon) within it. The gunship rotate's it's main guns when Ramjet attaches to the powerlink. The stealth sub can transform into a platform with four seats for mini-cons, which is far more fun than you may think!
Together, they can form a giant combined vehicle. The vehicle is not as impressive as it originally looked in the pictures, but it's still cool. I also came up with a simple alternate mode in which it becomes a Skybase, which is tremendously fun. I'll be posting it on my website soon.
Combined, the vehicles can also form Tidal Wave, which is, without a doubt, the single coolest looking Takara robot I have ever seen in my life. The detail; the shape; the solidity of the toy are remniscent of a quality I used to think only Popy was capable of producing. This thing is simply gorgious.
Another incredible bonus that I never expected from Takara is that Tidal Wave transforms into the combined vehicle. It's only necessary to detach the individual vehicles when you want them as individual vehicles. Now that's quality!
The Good News
1. Every inch of this toy is covered with detail. Even the insides of joints are coated with little details. This toy is gorgious to look at in every mode, which is further helped by an excellent paint job with absolutely no sloppiness. The detail screams perfection.
2. Every side of this toy looks like a robot when it's a robot, and every side of it looks like a vehicle when it's one or more vehicles. This is not one of those cheap transformers that looks like a disjointed car from the back when in robot mode.
3. Tidal Wave is very posable. He's not super posable like RID Scourge, but he has a lot of flexibility, particularly in his forearms and hands. I love that he looks a bit like the brick-rigid super robots we all grew up with, but he doesn't move like one.
4. The features are fun! This toy fires off my imagination and demands that I play with it constantly.
5. This toy is incredibly sturdy. He won't fall over, his arms stay up if you leave them up, etc. He's even more satisfying to move than to look at.
6. The size. He's just slightly smaller than Optimus Prime in combined mode, but he looks larger than life. You'd swear the thing was six feet tall. This toy could have been sold as a model with no vehicle mode, and he still would have been worth it.
7. The price. I can't believe this guy was $15 less than Optimus Prime when he's so much better. $34 is extraordinarily reasonable for a toy I would have paid $60-$80 for.
The Bad News
1. Ramjet blows. He's the smallest Mini-Con I've ever seen, and his robot mode is absurd. They could have done better.
2. Tidal Wave's missiles automatically eject and shoot his legs when he transforms into robot mode. I recommend leaving the missiles out, entirely.
3. Scale. Tidal Wave is perfect in robot mode, but the vehicles are too small to fully enjoy individually (especially with all the detail that was put into them). Further more, I'm still not entirely sure how relative scale works in the Armada world with big vehicles and Mini-Cons, but the Dark Fleet is mini-con scale. The guys driving the mini-cons would fit in these vehicles control rooms; not the guys driving Wheeljack.
4. The Megatron armor mode. Personally, I feel that this was a waste. Megatron isn't that cool a toy, and this armor mode doesn't really make him any cooler. In a toy where every inch is so carefully used, Takara could have used the large amount of area on each vehicle used to connect to Megatron for more amazing features that could be enjoyed with Tidal Wave alone. Fortunately, these connetors are at least cleverly hidden.
5. In combined vehicle mode, the aircraft carrier is a little loose. It holds well, but sags in the front. I think the small area of Tidal Wave's head that protrudes into the back of the carrier in this mode was designed to steady it, but it doesn't work.
The Wrap Up
Tidal Wave has me looking at Hasbro/Takara in a whole new way. I honestly think this may be the best Transformer ever made. The quality first glimpsed here seems prevalent in the upcoming Alternator toys we've seen pics of, so maybe this is the begining of a whole new era for Transformers. All I know is I'm rushing out to buy more mini-cons for my Tidal Wave Skybase mode!
Dear Hasbro,
I officially apologize for everything bad I've ever said about you, particularly about how you skimp out on quality and will do anything to save a buck on production costs.
TIDAL WAVE ROCKS!!!!!!!!
He really doesn't look like much when you see the box. The Dark Fleet looks very unimpressive, but once you get him out of the box, you really begin to see it. This toy is amazing! The designers clearly put a tremendous amount of thought and love into every inch of the toy!
General Overview
Tidal Wave is made up of three sea vehicles. Each has cool and unique features. The aircraft carrier has a hidden elevator compartment that pops out from the deck and can store Ramjet (the included minicon) within it. The gunship rotate's it's main guns when Ramjet attaches to the powerlink. The stealth sub can transform into a platform with four seats for mini-cons, which is far more fun than you may think!
Together, they can form a giant combined vehicle. The vehicle is not as impressive as it originally looked in the pictures, but it's still cool. I also came up with a simple alternate mode in which it becomes a Skybase, which is tremendously fun. I'll be posting it on my website soon.
Combined, the vehicles can also form Tidal Wave, which is, without a doubt, the single coolest looking Takara robot I have ever seen in my life. The detail; the shape; the solidity of the toy are remniscent of a quality I used to think only Popy was capable of producing. This thing is simply gorgious.
Another incredible bonus that I never expected from Takara is that Tidal Wave transforms into the combined vehicle. It's only necessary to detach the individual vehicles when you want them as individual vehicles. Now that's quality!
The Good News
1. Every inch of this toy is covered with detail. Even the insides of joints are coated with little details. This toy is gorgious to look at in every mode, which is further helped by an excellent paint job with absolutely no sloppiness. The detail screams perfection.
2. Every side of this toy looks like a robot when it's a robot, and every side of it looks like a vehicle when it's one or more vehicles. This is not one of those cheap transformers that looks like a disjointed car from the back when in robot mode.
3. Tidal Wave is very posable. He's not super posable like RID Scourge, but he has a lot of flexibility, particularly in his forearms and hands. I love that he looks a bit like the brick-rigid super robots we all grew up with, but he doesn't move like one.
4. The features are fun! This toy fires off my imagination and demands that I play with it constantly.
5. This toy is incredibly sturdy. He won't fall over, his arms stay up if you leave them up, etc. He's even more satisfying to move than to look at.
6. The size. He's just slightly smaller than Optimus Prime in combined mode, but he looks larger than life. You'd swear the thing was six feet tall. This toy could have been sold as a model with no vehicle mode, and he still would have been worth it.
7. The price. I can't believe this guy was $15 less than Optimus Prime when he's so much better. $34 is extraordinarily reasonable for a toy I would have paid $60-$80 for.
The Bad News
1. Ramjet blows. He's the smallest Mini-Con I've ever seen, and his robot mode is absurd. They could have done better.
2. Tidal Wave's missiles automatically eject and shoot his legs when he transforms into robot mode. I recommend leaving the missiles out, entirely.
3. Scale. Tidal Wave is perfect in robot mode, but the vehicles are too small to fully enjoy individually (especially with all the detail that was put into them). Further more, I'm still not entirely sure how relative scale works in the Armada world with big vehicles and Mini-Cons, but the Dark Fleet is mini-con scale. The guys driving the mini-cons would fit in these vehicles control rooms; not the guys driving Wheeljack.
4. The Megatron armor mode. Personally, I feel that this was a waste. Megatron isn't that cool a toy, and this armor mode doesn't really make him any cooler. In a toy where every inch is so carefully used, Takara could have used the large amount of area on each vehicle used to connect to Megatron for more amazing features that could be enjoyed with Tidal Wave alone. Fortunately, these connetors are at least cleverly hidden.
5. In combined vehicle mode, the aircraft carrier is a little loose. It holds well, but sags in the front. I think the small area of Tidal Wave's head that protrudes into the back of the carrier in this mode was designed to steady it, but it doesn't work.
The Wrap Up
Tidal Wave has me looking at Hasbro/Takara in a whole new way. I honestly think this may be the best Transformer ever made. The quality first glimpsed here seems prevalent in the upcoming Alternator toys we've seen pics of, so maybe this is the begining of a whole new era for Transformers. All I know is I'm rushing out to buy more mini-cons for my Tidal Wave Skybase mode!
