Best products from r/transformers

I started typing and this ended up being really long, hopefully it helps. I might have gone overboard, so if you need / want a TL;DR or more info on anything just say the word and I'll do what I can :)

My personal preference is to add details and touch-ups to my figures. I've done a few full repaints, and I'm working on my first airbrushed figure, but I really like adding in details where the factory didn't :)

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Paints:

I've had good results using alcohol based acrylics like Tamiya, Model Master, or Testors Acrylics (I think Enamels are Testors' main line, so make sure to check what type it is). Alcohol-based acrylics thin and clean up nicely with 91% isopropyl alcohol, I usually pick it up from whatever pharmacy is nearby (don't get the 70%, it doesn't work at all).

Citadel and Vallejo make nice water-based acrylic paints in additional colors, you'll definitely need a primer if you're working with Vallejo (I've only used a couple of Citadel paints, so I can't really speak to them).

You'll want to stay far away from acrylic craft paint, I've tried it in the past and it doesn't come out well at all (I just use some empty glass or plastic jars from stuff like sour cream or salsa since they're not too big).

Some folks like enamel paints, and there might be another kind of model paint, but the chemicals in those paints and their thinner tends to be quite strong so I avoid them. I used un-thinned enamels when I first started painting, and when I tried to use the thinner it ended up melting my paint tray and making a mess, so I'm not too keen to give them another try.

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Tools are going to differ a bit depending on how you want to paint (hand painting vs airbrushing or spray painting).

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Hand Painting:

You'll need paints, some soft bristle brushes (I have a set like these), something to stir your paint (I use a Badger Paint Mixer and love it to bits), thinner (depending on your type of paint), a mixing tray, some pipettes for measuring paint and thinner, something to hold your parts while painting (I like these Aligator Clips), something to stick the clips into (I use a styrofoam block wrapped in plastic from a craft store, but I've seen folks use taped together cardboard like from Amazon boxes or the cheap foam coolers), some fine grit sand paper or nail buffing blocks to help rough up the surface slightly to help the paint stick, and something for topcoat (I absolutely love Pledge Multisurface Floor Care, aka Future Floor Wax, it's a clear acrylic wax that dries to a semi-gloss to gloss shine, it brushes on nice and self-levels for a smooth finish, and one bottle will last a REALLY long time; I got a bottle a few years ago and I've used it on a LOT of gundams and TFs and the bottle is still half full). You may also want some smaller containers or jars to hold your thinner, brush cleaner (alcohol or water), and topcoat if you're using Pledge just so you don't need to keep the big bottle out on your workspace.

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Airbrushing:

You'll need an airbrush and compressor, and then a lot of the same supplies as above. You'll also want some small-ish jars to store your thinned paint so you can re-use your leftover paint instead of having to toss it, and some painter's tape to mask off parts you don't want to paint and to keep your paint lines clean.

You can airbrush inside the house, but you'll want to do it in a well ventilated area if you don't have a spray booth (box with a fan and air filter to help move the fumes out the window and help keep the paint from spraying everywhere). I'm still learning to paint with my airbrush, so I don't have too many tips here.

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Spray painting:

You'll need your choice of spray paints, alligator clips, fine sand paper, and some painter's tape to mask off areas so it doesn't get everywhere. I definitely wouldn't advise using spray paints indoors, the fumes tend to be really strong. I haven't really used spray paints in a long time, so I'm not a lot of help here either.

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Markers:

Some folks might recommend sharpies or paint pens / markers, but I've never had good luck with them.

I do highly recommend using a Micron, Graphix, or Prismacolor marker / pen for highlighting panel lines in .005 thickness for most figures. The .01 and even .05 markers can work well too, but they might be too thick for some figures, so a couple different thicknesses can't hurt (I've got a pencil case full of lining markers from those brands). Don't use sharpies for panel lines, unless things have changed, even the thinnest ones tend to dry a purpley-blue instead of black, and the lines are still really thick compared to the Micron.

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Painting Tips:

• Always wash your figures in some warm soapy water, rinse them off, and let them dry fully before painting. This gets rid of any leftover mould release from the factory, it helps keep the parts from sticking in the moulds during assembly, but it will repel paint, pledge, primer, and panel lines like mad. I've skipped this step in the past, but things never turned out as well; so now I wash all my figures shortly after I open them up and make sure they're keepers.
  
• Always thin your paints! You might need 2-3 coats to get things just right, but the end finish will look really nice. I've found a 2:1 ratio of paint:thinner seems to work pretty well for most paints, but ymmv (the temperature and humidity can have a huge impact on how the paint comes out, and fans can speed the drying process, which can be a blessing or a curse, heh).
  
• If you're painting parts that will rub against others, lightly sand the surfaces first. This will help the paint stick to the plastic better.
  
• You might need / want to prime a piece before painting it. You can prime by hand with a primer like Vallejo Surface Primer, or with a spray primer. I find spray primer tends to come out smoother, but depending on what you're doing, either can work (priming by hand tends to come out a bit thicker, so ymmv again). When I paint by hand I'll usually only prime if I'm painting a dark piece a lighter color, but when I airbrush everything that's getting painted gets primed first.
  
• After you paint something, let it sit for about an hour before doing another coat, and let things fully dry and cure before moving on to topcoating and panel lining (usually 24 hours between a final coat of paint and topcoat, and another few hours between topcoat and panel lines).

You're speaking my language. My favorite transformers are the Hasbro Legend class, the designers really are far more creative with these guys than any other, IMO.

I have a shelf at home dedicated to them. :)

Right now, my favorites are Cosmos, Shrapnel and Rewind. Honorable mention to Wheelie, he doesn't stay in car mode without a lot of fiddling. Cosmos especially is really fantastic. Super fun transformation and very posable. The balance to this figure is the little target master that comes with him is total trash.

Recently there's been sightings of Fortress Maximus at Ross for $55. You might want to try your luck there first.

ToysRUs still has it in stock as well. Or you can buy from Amazon.

I don't own one, but have heard very positive reviews about it. Massive toy so it will definitely be an impressive gift.

It depends on what you want to read.

If you want to read the 80's Marvel comics, pick up the Classics trade paperbacks.

If you want to read the new IDW comics, I would advise you to start with the IDW Collection Phase Two. It collects the first few issues of the More Than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise (now just "Transformers") comics. These are the current ongoing books, and the ones everyone talks about today, so it's a good place to start if you want to catch up with the current storyline.

If you want to start at the beginning of the IDW comics, you can pick up the Phase One collection. It's good, but the story is a bit of a slow burn.

If you're a G1 cartoon fan, you could start right in the middle with All Hail Megatron. The art is mostly spot on for the cartoon, and it's easy to pick up for a new reader, but the story overall is a bit...meh.

There are other collections besides the ones I linked to if you don't want to splurge on a hardback. Those collections are just a good start if you're interested in the comics.

I know this isn't quite as good as Entertainment Earth's $90 deal, but it it still $50 off one of the largest Transformers toys ever created. Plus free 2-day shipping for Prime members (or free slow-ass shipping for non-Primers)

Also:

$50 for the Platinum Edition Classic's Prime & Megatron set.

These figures have been released a bunch of times, but this is one of the better decos for Classics Megatron and at this price these figures are basically sellign for what the originals retailed at.

These are both "Deal of the Day" items so if you want them don't sleep.

My son loves Rescue Bots. There's an optimus in the line that turns into a T-Rex. Not sure if this fits your bill totally size wise, but they're fun toys and hold up pretty well.

https://www.amazon.com/Playskool-Heroes-Transformers-Rescue-Optimus/dp/B00HG54NHS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506437322&sr=8-1&keywords=rescue+bots+dinosaur

Here's an amazon link for Future Floor Polish.


They changed the label a little while back, so it doesn't say Future on it anymore, but it is the same product.

I use this stuff all the time, and it is very effective at tightening joints. If robot disassembly isn't your thing, you can even use an eyedropper or pipette to apply it directly into pinholes and joints.

After curing for 24 hours, even a small amount worked into a joint can make a huge difference.

An extra bonus is that it is fairly water-soluble, so you can undo a tightening or clean off excess with just a little water.

I might specifically recommend IDW Phase 2 Volume 1 for best value, or simply More than Meets the Eye Volume 1 if you want somewhat less of a commitment.

I started with Phase 2 and it's just a good spot; everything is established, characters are familiar but out there doing interesting and different things; definitely worth a read.

I might go back to phase 1 some day, but I still haven't caught up to the present releases.

I love my Soundwave to bits too - except for his breadbox "starship" mode. Even if Hasbro didn't want to go to the boom box well again, I'd rather have liked another "armored car" type Soundwave like the WFC/FOC incarnation.

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As for Siege Voyager Prime: Amazon has you covered:

https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Generations-War-Cybertron-Voyager/dp/B07D5QRVSS/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=siege+optimus+prime&qid=1557781398&s=gateway&sr=8-2

I definitely agree with the posters above...if you have the ability then you should definitely support the franchise and buy them when you can...you should check out the collected editions

Scalping sucks, but YOU, Nzaid, shouldn't be sorry about anything. It's your money... If you have the opportunity, buy as many of any damn toy you want. Don't take responsibility for another person's failure to act in a timely manner.

This thing has been out forever. It is absurd for anyone to act like they haven't had an opportunity to secure it for themselves at a reasonable price. If a person doesn't have it, it's because they didn't want it bad enough to get on a fucking website and pre-order it.

For those still looking, here he is for $13.99 on Amazon. Sure, it's inflated over in-store Wal-Mart prices... but, you snooze, you lose. There may be better deals, but I see others are selling this for over $25, so this may be as good as it gets.

https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Generations-Titans-Return-Legends/dp/B01BY1KP5S

r/idwtransformers would be able to go into things in more detail and would be the more on-topic location for this.

Basically, though, there are three 'eras' of IDW. If you're looking to start from the very beginning, that's what the IDW TF collections are for. They collect all the stuff in order. Furman's IDW run of Spotlight issues and miniseries, All Hail Megatron and the ongoing that span out of that, and then the More Than Meets The Eye era of IDW (this is all the post-war stuff, the adventures of the Lost Light, Starscream as a political figure, Windblade, Autobot Megatron, and so on).

I call them three eras because Furman's stuff feels different than AHM onwards (which is designed as a jumping on point), and this in turn feels different from MTMTE and Robots In Disguise, which are also designed as jumping on points for the third 'era' (these two ran at the same time).

If you want all the things, pick up the collections starting at volume one of Phase One. (amazon link to make it easy to tell which book I mean)

All Hail Megatron starts with volume 5 of the 'Phase One' collections (amazon link). Aside from being a soft reboot, the main variation is that Furman's line focused more on the 'in disguise' content and presented Earth as just one front among many, with an overplot involving the 'Dead Universe'. All Hail Megatron has the Decepticons conquer Earth and kind of brings things back to an Earth-centric focus.

If what you're looking for is the post-war stuff, the content most people talk about when they say IDW, that's helpfully noted in the collections as Phase Two. Pick up volume one of that (amazon link) and start from there.

It's worth noting that the read order with these collections can be a little jumpy, especially in Phase Two where the intended chronological read order means it has to juggle two largely unconnected ongoings and also the various miniseries. It's still perfectly readable and everything and is far from a major issue, you'll just go from the adventures of these guys to those guys to these other guys and back again a lot.

There was a shrapnel (called Skrapnel) earlier in generations. He should be pretty cheap.

Best I can find is an amazon link but he's pretty pricey there.

https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Generations-Legends-Skrapnel-Reflector/dp/B00E4FNWTI

And if I may make a suggestion at this point: Roadbuster and Whirl are relatively large, pretty sturdy, and not as difficult to transform as some of the smaller Deluxes.

I own them both and think a five year old could handle Roadbuster pretty well.

Pledge Floor polish is the best option for tightening most joints as well as ports. Takes a bit to dry, but it doesn't damage the plastic, it's reversible and one bottle is enough for the rest of your life.

This video explains how to apply it properly (he uses it for a port around the 5:30 mark, but I recommend watching the whole thing).

Yeah it's got some weird name like "helipad mode". No joke I'm pretty sure that's what it's called

Edit: https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Generations-Anniversary-Voyager-Autobot/dp/B00E4FNW7K

Check the product description. It is infact called helipad mode

I was going to buy it, but their crap shipping takes it up to $112 with unpredictable delivery. I will be flying to the US and need to be confident about delivery dates..

$119 in amazon with Prime and feel much safer.
https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Generations-Fortress-Maximus-Action/dp/B01EMW4Q9W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1479784245&sr=8-2&keywords=fortress+maximus

So obviously the dude is biased. Watch everything for what they are. I recommend to start from the start: G1 Seasons 1 and 2 then 1986 movie. And then move on from there chronologically. If you’re not liking something, then skip to the next. On comics, you can also start with the Marvel G1, or you can go ahead and start reading the IDW Collections .

Amazon UK is selling Movie Masterpiece Megatron for less than £100!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Transformers-E3490E49-Movie-Masterpiece-Multicolour/dp/B07KMP2G6H/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=transformers&psr=EY17&qid=1574960540&s=black-friday&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&sr=1-3

Here is a Quickshadow figure from the Rescue Bot series. She is a stealthy spy. https://www.amazon.com/Playskool-Heroes-Transformers-Rescue-Rescan/dp/B011KD5KG4/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1538753452&sr=8-20&keywords=rescue+bots

I also picked up this Boulder figure for my son that I plan to give him at Christmas. It's not the regular bulldozer but it does come with a lot of cool extras. https://www.amazon.com/Playskool-Heroes-Transformers-Rescue-Boulder/dp/B01KA6WY6G/ref=sr_1_41?ie=UTF8&qid=1538753502&sr=8-41&keywords=rescue+bots

Looks great!

I just ordered him from Amazon.jp this week in the sale they had. Roughly $160 shipped. Still available.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AB%E3%83%A9%E3%83%88%E3%83%9F%E3%83%BC-TAKARA-TOMY-%E3%83%88%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9%E3%83%95%E3%82%A9%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC-%E3%83%A6%E3%83%8A%E3%82%A4%E3%83%88%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A9%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A2%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA/dp/B0116GRPCM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&keywords=devestator&language=en_US&qid=1550280142&sr=8-1

I believe its going by "Pledge Floor Gloss" now. Pledge 11182 Revive It Floor Gloss, 27 Ounce, Clear Transparent Liquid https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ARPH4C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_mdqtDbTEVY54R

Use the link below to donate .5% of your purchase to charity.
Amazon Smile URL: https://smile.amazon.com/Transformers-Generations-Combiner-Deluxe-Protectobot/dp/B01DLZUVYA/ref=sr_1_1

This bot is still in test phase. Please PM me for suggestions, complaints or questions.

Alright, thanks will look up their prices

Hello there

https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Movie-30th-Anniversary-Blu-ray/dp/B01GU82O9U/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=transformers+blu+ray&qid=1567549218&s=gateway&sr=8-2

Transformers Series Voyager Hero https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JHSMMKX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_NuhACbXFMVQWA

Finally ordered That Optimus prime from amazon

Its real and official

Stay safe solider its coming

https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Movie-30th-Anniversary-Blu-ray/dp/B01GU82O9U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480202030&sr=8-1&keywords=transformers+the+movie

I have this version, it includes bonus features. It also comes with a digital version you can download.

Not sure if that answers your question.

$39?! At Walmart?! WHAT! Voyagers are supposed to retail for $29.99. You could have just got him off Amazon ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D5QRVSS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_an2zCbAZTHY5Z ), also what Walmart do you shop at? SS38 Bumblebee movie OP isn't due out until late March/early April.

Comes out in September in the US and Amazon have a limited edition steelbook if you are into that sort of thing.
Otherwise you might be able to find an international release on ebay. I know it has been out on blu ray for a few years in Australia and it should be region free.
https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Movie-30th-Anniversary-Blu-ray/dp/B01GU82O9U/ref=tmm_blu_title_1?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

https://www.amazon.com.au/Transformers-Idw-Collection-Phase-Two/dp/1631400401/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Transformers+IDW+Collection+Phase+Two+1&qid=1571967457&s=books&sr=1-2 - Seems like it's out?

Thanks! I want more of the Siege line, but also this Optimus:

https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Studio-Voyager-Bumblebee-Optimus/dp/B07JHSMMKX/ref=sr_1_2?crid=UL9TUMC9R0YE&keywords=optimus+prime+transformer&qid=1559185204&s=gateway&sprefix=optimus+%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-2

And this Megatron:

https://www.amazon.com/WEIJIANG-Transformer-Megatron-Mcgaden-Pistol/dp/B07QYDDSTM/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=megatron+gun+toy&qid=1559185257&s=gateway&sr=8-1

The cover art and description on Amazon says, "Blu-ray + Digital Copy" so I'm going to say yes.

I have a cool TWO dozen. I figured I should let some one else have him. Btw both Amazon and Walmart have Gnaw in stock for slightly below retail.

It's taking a lot of self-control not to buy 6 more... Isn't 30 a much nicer number than 24?

Not sure but it's on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Studio-Voyager-Bumblebee-Optimus/dp/B07JHSMMKX

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JHSMMKX/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also Studio Series Bumblebee Prime, https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Studio-Voyager-Bumblebee-Optimus/dp/B07JHSMMKX

It's Generations Shrapnel. He's named Skrapnel though for some reason, but whatever.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E4FNWTI?keywords=Transformers%20Generations%20Skrapnel&qid=1449701894&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Bout a week or so too late

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1600106676/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1421690015&sr=8-1

This one.

Also, Whirl is available for $19.90 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E4FNW7K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_oTh8BbRR7HPFX

Here is where I got mine.

start off with more than meets the eyes and robots in disguise you can get collected issues with both on amazon

There was an post a few weeks back about that, I just picked up the hardcover IDW Vol1, and I'm about half way through that. There's 9 volumes right now, and each run $30-40. It's going to make my wallet cry, but I can't find the CW figures right now anyway, so... there's that.