LG-EX Big Powered

Hasbro may have rebooted Transformers Generations into this War For Cybertron Siege thing we’re in right now (and which has, to be fair, turned out a lot better than I initially expected), but TakaraTomy’s determined to mine as much mileage out of the old stuff as they can. Indeed, Legends never die (they may get renamed into ‘Selects’, however) and one such last gasp is a big one. A Big *Powered* one, even. Yes, the Legends EX Big Powered set is here. There’s been some trepidation from some who got it in-hand since this thing was released, so let’s see how I’ll like it!

(Just off the start, love that box)

So what we have here is the latest-of-late-G1 Cybertron Commander Dai Atlas and his two retainers, just in time to interact with all those Micromasters Siege is giving us. I’ll start with the smaller, less important dudes: Roadfire was the one I was actually kinda looking forward to the most. The original Roady’s a bit of a general grail, being a late, hard-to-find Japanese-exclusive toy (and pretty much nonexistent, personality-wise). He’s retooled off of TR Twin Twist, which is pretty much a perfect fit, turning the boxy drill-tank into Roadfire’s comparatively-distinctive boxy regular-tank. A large part of this design is now based in the giant removable cannon section (which even includes the Titan Master cockpit now!) but that’s how the original toy worked too, so it’s kinda fair. This mold still rocks anyway, with it’s nifty-as-hell transformation tricks like the arms or the spinning torso-front. Some of the plastic tolerances on my copy of this version do seem unfortunately loosey-goosey, particularly the waist connection and the hand-holes where the gun pegs in. It’s nothing that’s a real deal-breaker, but it does undermine a toy I otherwise really want to like, alongside the whole super-premium exclusive deal this set is embodying.

Next there’s my eternal nemesis, Sonic Bomber. Look, I’ll just be endlessly amazed that a dude who barely has fifteen minutes of canon to his name could irritate me so much. Maybe this is why JG1 Autobots generally *don’t* have much in the way of personality, because they end up being Sonic Bomber instead. Similarly irritatingly, I actually quite like his toy! It’s based on the Triggerhappy mold, which got retooled within an inch of its life each time it got used in Titans Return, and is similarly completely redone here. In fact, if you hadn’t been told what it was based on or could recognize the few base structural parts it has left, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was an all-new toy! He even does something new with the leg transformation, a first for this mold, and ends up giving him some decent ankle tilts. His alt-mode is the same sort of impractical flying dagger it was before (and also gives me BWII Starscrem vibes). I like his rifle, but not so much his solid black cockpit- Half the appeal of the TR gimmick is being able to see the little dudes piloting them! Another thing you’re terrible at, Sonic Bomber!

And of course, there’s the big map himself, Dai Atlas! He’s retooled from Overlord in ways that work out…interestingly. Okay, so the big thing is that Dai Atlas’s vehicle mode is supposed to be this giant weird combined tank/jet thing (that also has a drill for some reason), which should work right well based off Overlord’s own ability to be a stacked-together tank and jet. But they decided to make the vehicle mode more ‘proper’ here by removing the ability for the tank and jet components to actually separate, and their solution was…to just chain them together at the midsection with this simple, swively, plastic-joint piece. It just feels incredibly perfunctory, and everything about this design decision results in the most hindering compromises of the rest of the toy. The turret section of the tank is gone, so the rotating panels that make up his robot legs look oddly hollow from some angles (thankfully it’s not nearly as bad as it looked in some pics). The loose chain bit replaces Overlord’s old connection point, so his waist feels annoyingly wobbly when you’re handling him. It just feels like the sort of design choice that was made with as little effort as possible, and the whole toy comes off less cool for it.

Not to dump on King Atlas too hard, because he’s not *bad*, just not as cool as he could have been. His modes still look cool as they are, in fact I need to highlight just generally terrific the sculpting, colors, and paint on all these toys is. They really sell that blocky, chonky, late-G1 Japanese super robot charm, with lots of poppin’ whites and reds picking out their own base color schemes. Dai Atlas in particular does do a good job of looking even larger than he actually is, and the dude’s always had a wonderfully distinctive design by the standards of a ‘good guy leader’ TF. My only other major complain is that he doesn’t come with his signature giant ‘Z’ sword- The best you can do is sort of approximate it by popping off and combining his wings, and even then it can only peg onto his arms.

Each one of these guys has a ‘base’ mode tacked on, in the spirit of the tacked-on base modes the originals had (okay, Dai Atlas’s mold had a base mode to begin with, and it’s even still got bits to combine with the other TR bases if you’ve got them around). They’ve also all got connection points to stick together into the titular Big Powered combination, and it’s actually way cooler than I expected. The sheer size of this thing is impressive as-is, buncha big toys like this stuck together. And the spacey nature of the altmodes means it actually works as a big silly spaceship rather than looking too disconnected for what it is. If you’ve got the space for it, it actually makes a pretty cool display on its own. They also all retain the Titan Master functionality of their original toys, and you’ll have to pry out of my cold, dead mind the headcanon that two of them are Cain and Akira, the cutest couple in TF history. No idea who the third one would be though. Rabbicrater?

So the Big Powered set isn’t perfect, and in fact is in an odd place where the ‘centerpiece’ of it, Dai Atlas, is actually the most flawed of the bunch. Roadfire and Sonic Bomber are actually both excellent little retooled deluxes, while Dai Atlas has…issues, but isn’t outright bad or anything. As a big exclusive Japanese toy set, this bunch are actually pretty modestly-priced, and are absolutely your surest bet as far toys of them are concerned. Zone’s a real cool little OVA, so if you’ve got love for it and want some of those dudes, this is worthwhile as an esoteric collection.