269-2
Takara Tomy- Transformers Masterpiece MP35: Grapple
Rating of worst to best of the Transformers movies continued; see review 208-2, 213-2, 217-2, 223-2, 226-2, 230-2, 234-2, 239-2, 243-2, 246-2, 249-2, 252-2, 257-2, 260-2, 264-2 & 268-2 for previous instalments:
Transformers Movie Rating #2: Bumblebee
The Good- I’ll be honest, if the movie suddenly stopped after the first 15 minutes I probably would have walked out of the theater happy as punch, thinking that I have just seen the best Transformers media to date. As a lifelong fan it was really cool to see a Generation 1 style, Cybertronian battle playout on the big screen. IT had everything I could have ever wanted: Optimus kicking ass, Soundwave and ravage and even StarScream tent ships! It was amazing and almost felt like a little nod to the OG fans, who always wanted a more G1 feel to these movies, but got the Bayverse instead. I also want to give some credit to the Haykey Stienfeild for doing a decent job playing Charlie. Sure some of the scenes and dialogue were cliche or downright silly, but I appreciated that she was not your typical Transformers leading role. Quick shoutout to John Cene as some of his one made me chuckle. Lastly, I'll say that I enjoyed the 80s vibe to this movie and even though movies can never quite get the 80s ‘feel’ right, it was still fun to see it and hear it play out with a pretty great soundtrack.
Pros- Not going to bury the lead, I love Grapple. Quick story (that may or may not be substantiated by my brother, but this is how I recall it). When I was younger my Dad worked for an airline (that seemingly had little regard for his families sanity) and often transferred his position for city to city every 2 years like clockwork. As part of this “deal” was that the company would pay for a moving company to carefully box up and move all of our prized possessions across the country and later unpack them at the destination. This would obviously lead to some breakage of the more fragile items which was covered by some type of insurance claim. Not to let an opportunity go and likely lessen the blow of yet another move, my parents dabbled in some creative insurance claims (to which they aggressively deny, but i’m sure my 6 year olf brain remembers better) and let my brother and I pick out a new Transformer because the movers ***nudge-nudge, wink-wink*** were careless and broke some of our toys while packing them up. And while I’m crystal clear on the events that lead up to us getting the toys I’m a bit hazy as to how the choice was made, but somehow I ended up with Grapple and my Brother ended up with Inferno; so in true fashion, I was now, and would ever be known as a fan of Grapple. Not that there is anything the matter with that as he was a decent G1 figure, but just that he was, well, construction equipment and in a world of Tanks, Jets and Race Cars a crane is not exactly the coolest of alt modes. But.. nostalgia is a hell of a drug, so I thought it would be only right to pick up my old buddy. Overall, this is a really great MP figure with lots of excellent accessories that you would expect from these figures. Multiple faces, 2 helmets, 2 laser hand extensions, a gun, a screwdriver, a number of different crane attachments, some random piece of tech that I vaguely recall him building from the cartoon and even blueprints for said random piece of tech. He also comes with 2 different truck grills for those who can’t decide between a cartoon accurate look or G1 toy accurate look; what a great design choice! Additionally he has a decent amount of articulation and while the transformation is tough, it's not overly difficult.
Cons- I’m sure that there are faults with Grapple, but I don’t really see it. I think maybe the biggest frustration for me is that his shoulders often fall out of place, but that's only prevalent when i’m fussing with him. Outside of that, I think he's a decent additional to any fan’s collection who is trying to fill the nostalgic gap of when their parents committed insurance fraud to get their kid a new toy, or for anyone is into trucks and stuff.
