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Digimon Top 10 List (Second Attempt)

I know I’ve done this before, but it’s been several years, and my perspective has changed a bit. I’ve gotten really into designing Digimon, and my appreciation of certain ones and aspects have shifted. Plus I feel like my last list was very aesthetic heavy.

10. Rockmon

Rockmon’s an odd Digimon. It’s been my icon on multiple sites for ages, but mostly because it’s just… generic? And I suppose that’s part of the reason I like it, but I also think its origins are interesting. It was a roster bolster, being an altered Frigimon wireframe, only appearing in 3 early games before it suddenly appeared again over a decade or two later in Adventure:.

It's also one of those Digimon with weird name shenanigans. Nowadays, Golemon is distinctly Golemon, and this is distinctly Rockmon, but their names got interchanged a bit in the early days. I've had more than one conversation about which is which.

It’s just a neat Digimon that I have a weird, personal connection to.

9. Paildramon/DinoBeemon

This is an interesting pair. Digimon Adventure 02 was the first season where Digimon were designed explicitly to be toys, and Paildramon was one of them. It almost feels like a proto-DigiXros, being ExVeemon using Stingmon as armor. Not only that, but it continues the thread of themes started by Veemon.

Armadillomon and Shakkomon’s bodies are fully covered in armor, Hawkmon and Silphymon blend their elements together, and Veemon wears its additions as armor while exposing itself underneath. (It’s why the three of them primarily grow bigger as they evolve so these themes can be further replicated and evolved.)

And just as Veemon might wear Courage or Miracles as armor, ExVeemon wears Stingmon as armor. Wormmon has also been shown to be willing to sacrifice itself to protect others, so having Stingmon become armor works incredibly well thematically. And being able to rearrange these parts to form a second Digimon is very cool.

Not only a great design, but evolves the themes of its component Digimon very well.

8. Bastemon

I considered putting another lady on this list. I’ve been following more artists who draw more cute and wholesome art of Digimon’s divas, but at the end of the day I have to rep my girl.

I think I glossed over Bastemon a bit last time because it’s a little awkward to explain why you specifically like a female design, y'know? I like the belly dancer aesthetic, she has some of my favorite jokes in Xros Wars, she was quite intimidating in Ghost Game. She also has an interesting origin, being one of the few original Digimon introduced in Digimon World 3, I believe. Also, in a franchise produced in Japan by Japanese people, most humanoid Digimon look Japanese. Or some shade of purple. And it’s nice to have some diversity.

I just think she’s cute.

7. Hackmon/Huckmon

Our 15th anniversary Digimon, Hackmon is the one Digimon to make the jump directly from Digimon to Appmon. And as someone who enjoys the concept of design and redesign, I really enjoy both versions of Hackmon. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both very edgy, try hard, “we want you to like this Digimon” Digimon, but I do enjoy an edgy design now and again. And I also enjoy how different both versions evolve, with Digimon Hackmon becoming a knightly dragon, and Appmon Hackmon leans much more into an eldritch dragon motif with extra mouths and lots of spikes, yet both still feel like natural evolutions of their starting point.

Going back to their first forms, however, something I really like about these two as redesigns, is that apart from the colors being reversed, there isn’t much difference. Appmon Hackmon’s hood has teeth and drawn eyes while Digimon Hackmon’s has goggles. Digimon Hackmon’s limbs are a bit longer and sharper. There’s the App Links. But really? The biggest difference is just that Appmon Hackmon always wears his hood, and just using that subtle change really makes it feel very different.

It’s something that only a franchise like this can do, and I think that’s very cool.

6. Shoutmon X7

On my last list I put both Shoutmon X3 and OmegaShoutmon X on a higher and lower placement than this, but there are just more designs I’ve grown to appreciate since then, and after getting all of the toys, I just appreciate the engineering we didn’t get but was still fully designed to be a toy.

So while you might not be able to tell from the show alone, Xros Wars seems to be rife with issues and late development based on some of the concept designs we’ve seen, promotional images, differences between designs and toys, etc. Cyberdramon and Tuwarmon have subtle design differences between their artworks and toy releases, OmegaShoutmon and ZeigGreymon were different colors up until their debuts, and if we go back to our topic at hand, Shoutmon X7? Was not originally supposed to include MailBirdramon or ZeigGreymon. Greymon and SkullKnightmon were supposed to DigiXros to become SkullGreymon, and SkullGreymon was supposed to combine with Shoutmon X5 to become Shoutmon X7. It’s just such an interesting history. And while I like what we got, there’s this part of me that really wants to see what could have been as well. Maybe I’ll try my hand at recreating it myself one day…

This design has a tumultuous history, but I still really like it in spite of that.

5. Tyrannomon

Tyrannomon is the first mascot of Digimon, eventually overshadowed by Agumon and Greymon. And even though he still gets some love, I do feel for the guy and wonder what the franchise would be like if they retained that status. But part of the fun of Tyrannomon is its variation game, which is pretty big and feels more diverse than Greymon because they’re willing to take more risks:

We’ve got the classic Tyrannomon from the first VPet, Tyrannomon X (which we’ve also seen the concept designs for, and they are all fire), a dark variant in DarkTyrannomon before Greymon Virus or GeoGreymon ever showed up, a DarkTyrannomon X that borrows from some of those unused Tyrannomon X concepts, a MetalTyrannomon to mimic MetalGreymon, MetalTyrannomon X, the until recently underappreciated MasterTyrannomon who's my usual ace in DDCB, the silly Raremon filled ExTyrannomon, RustTyrannomon who has some silly and crazy cards, and Dinomon who brings in a lot of elements from the original VPet into its design.

Not to mention Tyrannomon also has connections to Mugendramon/Machinedramon, the first Mega, and Chaosdramon, which is a pretty stacked roster of boss characters.

While Tyrannomon doesn’t have as much attention as Greymon, there is definitely a lot of love put into their bevy of designs.

4. Gaioumon Burst Mode/Gaioumon: Itto Mode

Returning to the list at a slightly lower place is Gaioumon Burst Mode. An unofficial design by As’Maria, who designed the original Gaioumon. Gaioumon was originally supposed to be BlackWarGreymon X, but the team liked it so much more than WarGreymon X, and thought fans would too, so they made BlackWarGreymon X a recolor (I think the only one in the X lineup) and made Gaioumon its own Digimon. And then, when we revisited X Antibody Digimon a few years ago, Gaioumon actually did get a Mode Change, bringing this unofficial design to some official capacity as it shares a handful of ideas. Like a few of the Digimon on this list, it’s one with an interesting design story behind it, which seems to be a trend with me.

And even then, it’s just a really interesting pair of designs to compare and contrast. To see what similarities they have and how much they differ. To speculate on what changes were As’Maria’s development as a character designer, which were company mandates, which were recommendations from other designers working on the project, etc. It’s a pair of designs you can just have a lot of fun looking at side-by-side.

A fascinating story of an unofficial design becoming official years later.

3. Zephagamon/Medusamon

It’s probably a little early to put either of these two on a list, but I just want to talk about them, as I find them both to be excellent pastiches of the typical “Hero” Digimon, but in different ways.

Your typical Hero Digimon come in the standard primary colors: red, yellow, and blue, with the majority of them being red or having red in their evolutions. Gammamon is the one exception, but it plays with the concept of color, and has both a red and blue evolution. Additionally, Hero Digimon are always reptilian, with their evolutions being either saurian or draconian in design, and ending off very humanoid. These are the most basic concepts Hero Digimon follow.

And then we get to Pteromon, who is green. And that may be a very basic take, but when you consider that red is the most popular Hero color, and that green is red’s opposite, it is an important choice. Yet they still have that bit of red in their design as well. Furthermore, Pteromon is a bird. Reptiles and birds are intrinsically linked through their ancient origins, putting Pteromon on a separate but parallel path to a lot of the Hero Digimon. Quite a few birds are also famously known for their mimicry, so having a bird Digimon mimicking the motifs of the shows’ reptile protagonists is very on point. And then we get to its evolutions, which perfectly follow the typical routes, starting with getting bigger, then becoming armored and more masculine, and ending up very humanoid and knightly. It’s just such a well thought out design for a spinoff protagonist.

Then there’s Elizamon, who takes a path both similar yet opposite to Pteromon. Elizamon is, and importantly continues to be, a reptile, keeping true to its trope’s origins, yet also avoiding the saurian route of its predecessors while also keeping on that parallel path to Pteromon. (Dimetrodons, while they lived at the same time, were not dinosaurs but giant reptiles.) Elizamon also sticks to the color themes of the Hero Digimon, being redish. The thing that makes Elizamon stand out the most is that its designs are inherently feminine, while everyone who has come before has been very masculine. And then as it evolves it deviates slightly from the norms. It’s supposed to signify that their owner, the rival character, is the true protagonist, only to have the rug pulled out from under us, and is done expertly.

They’re just two very well thought out and thematic designs.

2. DarkKnightmon

DarkKnightmon was not on my original list, yet has risen to second place, superseding Shoutmon even. And I think this is in large part to me finally getting the toy and experiencing the engineering first hand. It’s just such a well done design. DeadlyAxemon isn’t much to look at at first, but being able to turn into a giant axe and fill out SkullKnightmon’s proportions both go to show how well thought out it was. It’s the reason I undertook trying to make a new partner for SkullKnightmon myself with PiercingBowmon, just to see if I could even come close to this level of design. And while SkullKnightmon requires a bit of parts forming, almost every removed part reveals a new element that’s incorporated into DarkKnightmon. The united color scheme, and being in some of my favorite colors also give it a few points. It’s also a popular design, being the only of the Xros Partners to appear in multiple seasons, with DarkKnightmon appearing as an evolution of Gatomon in Adventure: and as a one-off in Ghost Game.

There really isn’t much else to say about this design; it speaks for itself.

1. MetalGreymon/WarGreymon

MetalGreymon topped my list last time, and my love of this design hasn’t changed. It’s actually quite similar to DarkKnightmon in a lot of ways, but with a few key differences that make it stand above. First is that Greymon doesn’t need to transform to combine with MailBirdramon, while SkullKnightmon does require a bit of partsforming. And second is that this is a redesign, which it may be apparent that I enjoy those quite a bit.

That all being said, I’ve also tested my hand at more partners for this design, designing several, but most importantly being WaruMonzaemon and WarGreymon. I spent literal years trying to find both figures so I could have a full understanding of how the design worked before wanting to commit to it, and all that mental attention has made me consider WarGreymon my de facto choice of partner, despite all the original Digimon I’ve designed.

It’s a design I already liked, and through thinking about it and reiterating on it, it ended up cementing itself as first place.

And that is the end of our updated list. There’s some pretty significant change-ups, with only 4 of the original list still being here, but this feels… better to current me. It’s much more design based, many more interesting stories attached to them, and more personal connections to quite a few. But I think writing this list also helped me get a perspective on what it is I like as a designer, what I can focus on, what I want to achieve, that sort of thing. In a way it was mostly for me, but it wouldn’t be fun if I didn’t also share it with you.

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I'm on vacation this week! (As if I don't draw some of these things weeks in advance...) So let's talk about something fun!

I made another playset of custom cards, this time for myself. EblkttysWorkshop over on Etsy did the cards for me again (big thanks to them), but Gerookie (@/gero_rivera elsewhere) did the art for me this time. I actually want to give them a big thanks because they went back after they were finished and fixed the eyes on WarGreymon for me, which I greatly appreciate.

This is part of the Neo Blue Flare deck I've been designing. As you may be able to tell, by this one convoluted Option Card, it might be a bit much? But you'll see just how much as more cards get finished. I've got 5 more artworks in the commission process, so we'll probably see a few more cards by year's end.

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DX Tega June

So, not the happiest about the Tega June backstory. "Ultimate Generative AI" is very buzzword, and if Tega June is not an irredeemable villain then I'm going to have some negative thoughts on Toei going forward...

But, as a toy, this is pretty exciting. Because this is the first female Megazord! (Or at least the first one to get a toy.) That's super cool! It also has surprisingly more new sculpt than you'd expect, with a new blade for the arm, new legs and toes, in addition to the obvious stuff.

And while she doesn't have exclusive noises for all the old forms, the colors do line up, which is a nice touch. Haven't bought Dark Wolf Decalibur yet, but I might eventually, I dunno.

Anyway, it's a cool toy, a good remold. Maybe not a cool character, but we're gonna have to wait to see how that pans out. I will definitely have things to say when the series is over.

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And here we have our Fusion Spirit. Aldamon, AncientGreymon, Beowolfmon, and AncientGarurumon have a few elements that feel intended for crossover, but as I knew I wanted to do that going in, I made sure more elements felt specific to it, like the way the wings split, or the head without the hat. I feel like everything's pretty straight forward? The one thing I did you might miss is I swapped the thighs to the femurs so their colors matched. And here's it's accompanying card details:

Kamakirimon (8) (Evolve Lv4 Green for 3) 8000 DP Lv5 Green Hybrid Variable Insectoid/LIBERATOR <Blocker><Retreat>(When this Digimon would be deleted, it may move to your empty breeding area instead.) [All Turns][Once Per Turn] When this Digimon suspends, suspend 1 of your opponent's Digimon. [All Turns] When this Digimon moves to the breeding area, you may play 1 green Tamer from this Digimon's digivolution cards without paying the cost. [[DigiXros -2] 2 Lv.4 Green Digimon w/[Hybrid] trait and different names] [[Rule] Trait: Has [Vegitation] Type.] ([Opponent's Turn][Breeding] If your opponent hatches a Digi-Egg or moves a Digimon from their breeding area to the battle area, you may move this Digimon to the battle area.)

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MDX-SRZ Gundam Rozeit

This one's been a long time coming. I've had the 3 kits necessary for this one lying around for forever, and I finally got around to building it. And I did have more plans for this one? Not the kit specifically, but I wanted to turn the Dilanza and Darilbalde into Beetle Bits akin to what I did for my Aerial Custom, but I couldn't get them to look how I wanted. Main suit turned out great, though.

The Details: There wasn't much when it comes to alterations on this one. All I really did was cut and shape the horns, which does give it a different feel from the original.

For colors, I wanted to go with pink, partly because I like the shade, but also because it felt like it fit Guel, and I do like Guel. Other than that I went with my standard black and gold, with a dash of silver to help break things up since I was relegating the pink to just the right side of the body for aesthetic reasons.

As for general customization, I had 3 of these on hand, so I took the swords from two of them and used them for weapons, and I used the bits from 3 of them for the backpack. The two on the back are the general wing formation for the Schwarzette, but with four of the same orientation of Bits per side. On the hips, I changed up the formation slightly just to have everything line up better.

Overall, this was the last planned custom I had for the stuff from G-Witch, and while it wasn't my most ambitious, it did turn out nice. I have a few other customs planned, all of which have a bit more ambition to them, but I'm missing at least 1 kit for each, so I'll have to wait until I get to those. In the meantime, I guess it's back to straight builds for a bit.

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And here we have the Beast Spirit companion to Bokkenmon, Origamimon. I know it's not made of paper, but I felt like it kind of fit the idea of a wooden crane. I find wings to be extremely difficult to draw, so even though I used a pose reference, I'm surprised my wings actually look like wings.

Not as many weird extra things to say about this one. Gonna work on their Fusion Spirit next. And here're the details for Origamimon's card:

Origamimon (6) (Evolve Lv3 Green for 3)(Evolve Green Tamer for 3) 6000 DP Lv4 Green Hybrid Variable Giant Bird/LIBERATOR ([Digivolve] Lv4 green w/[Hybrid] trait: Cost 1) <Piercing><Retreat> (When this Digimon would be deleted, it may move to your empty breeding area instead.) [Your Turn][Once Per Turn] When this Digimon suspends, delete 1 of your opponent's suspended Digimon with DP less than or equal to this Digimon's DP. [[Rule] Trait: Has [Vegitation] Type.] ([All Turns] When this Digimon moves from the breeding area to the battle area, it gets +3000 DP and <Piercing> until the end of your opponent's turn.)

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MODEROID Miniature Combining & Transforming Getter-1

This is so cute. A fun, quick experience. Actually got to do a little painting, which I've only really been doing for customs lately. It's a fun little toy, completely self contained...

It that just the review? I don't really have anything bad to say about this little thing. I guess I should probably add that, for The Details, I did full panel lining to bring out as many details as possible, and the metallic green and metallic blue are paint. I did use the red stickers on the lower cape portions, as well.

Overall, super fun build and kit. Pick one up if you see it.

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I made this observation before, but when I went about drawing this guy I posed a desk figure in a similar pose to what I wanted so I had an anatomical reference. It was specifically helpful when it came to the shoulders, so I hope I remember to do that again in the future.

I changed the Spirit Form a bit from my initial sketches, closing it off so it formed a complete shape, which I think is a neat effect. A lot of the Spirits try and do something interesting like that, like Dusmon, Blitzmon, and Loweemon looking more like creatures, or Chakkmon looking like a snowman. And if you're curious, here are its associated cards:

C.P. (3) Tamer Green LIBERATOR If you have no cards in your Digi-Egg deck, you may play this card from your hand to an empty space in your breeding area without paying the cost. [Security] Play this card without paying the cost. [Your Turn] When this card would digivolve into a Digimon with the [Hybrid] trait, reduce the digivolution cost by 1. ([Breeding][When Digivolving] If you have 0 or less memory, move this card to the battle area.)

Bokkenmon (5) (Evolve Lv3 Green for 2)(Evolve Green Tamer for 2) 5000 DP Lv4 Green Hybrid Variable Warrior/LIBERATOR ([Digivolve] Lv4 green w/[Hybrid] trait: Cost 1) <Blocker><Retreat> (When this Digimon would be deleted, it may move to your empty breeding area instead.) [All Turns][Once Per Turn] When this Digimon suspends, suspend 1 of your opponent's Digimon with DP less than or equal to this Digimon's DP. [[Rule] Trait: Has [Vegitation] Type.] ([All Turns] When this Digimon moves from the breeding area to the battle area, it gets +3000 DP and <Blocker> until the end of your opponent's turn.)

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Realize Model Geno Saurer

When it comes to bang for your buck, this one feels like it deserves it more than Blade Liger. Blade Liger is good, but Geno Saurer has a lot more moving parts, more interesting gimmicks, and is bigger. That being said, I had more issues with Geno Saurer than I did with Blade Liger, so let's get to discussing those.

The Good: As I said, the Geno Saurer has a lot more moving parts than the Blade Liger, and is therefore a bit more posable. You have to work the joints a bit more, but it has good range in most places, an actually posable tail, plenty of opening vents, heel spurs, leg thrusters, backpack cannons, etc. While the Blade Liger has better flow, Geno has more options.

Like the Blade Liger, the Geno Saurer also has its fair share of gimmicks. It has its choice of pilot, forehead cannons, and mouth guns, as well as having all the opening vents along the body and an effect part so you can recreate it using it's signature attack, along with some for the back cannons.

The Bad: Like I said before, you really have to work the Geno Saurer more to get it into a good pose whereas the Blade Liger is very easy to get to look good.

The biggest issue I had with the Geno Saurer, however, was parts fragility. I had two or three breakages on parts for the head, mostly the cannons on it. It's been a bit, but I think the smaller cannon I didn't use just straight broke, and one of the fins on the bigger one bent, which was not an issue I had with the Blade Liger. Just saying, be careful when cutting and handling parts, especially the light grey sprew.

The Details: For the most part I just panel lined this guy. Because a lot of it was black I didn't even have to do that much? One thing I did do, however, was I painted the interior of the beam effect metallic blue. It was clear before, and I think the color adds a lot.

Overall, it's a pretty good kit, but seems to have some fragility issues to look out for. That being said, it's pretty cool. I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually got a Geno Breaker based on this guy. Not sure I'm gonna get it, but if you don't like this one then wait for it in red.

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Concepts for purified versions of Arbormon and Petaldramon. My idea for them, as a character, is it's an NPC in Liberator that gains some sentience and this is how their deck evolves as it happens. There's also a Fusion Spirit you can make by combining the parts, but I'll get to drawing that when I do. I also have plans for a Unified Spirit, but I have no idea on what that one's gonna look like yet.

This design came to me surprisingly easy. Maybe it's because there isn't any parts limit or transformation? Anyway, pretty happy with this one. I think I might move straight on to final art.

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Someone asked for pictures of The Wall, so I am here to share~

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DX Wolf Decalibur

Not a lot to say about the Wolf Decalibur. It makes noises when you push the trigger and when you plug it in. The new combined form is pretty cool. But getting this one also made me realize that these toys don't wow me like previous seasons. I totally get what they're going for, and I think it's a neat idea, but the execution leaves something to be desired. I've stopped preordering these instantly, and am waiting for images before I commit. That's not to say I don't like it, and you won't like it, but I just want more information before committing to any more.

This also came with my first standard ring, and these are surprisingly cool. I don't think I need more than one, but I do like that I eventually got one. The spinning image gimmick is pretty cool.

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I made a silly~

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(Dude, I drew this weeks ago, and it's scheduled to be posted the day after the Tactical Outfit is revealed? Bad luck me, I guess.)

Haven't brought it up in a while, but I did mention these designs were VTuber inspired, and I suppose the orcat's out of the bag on this one. That being said, this was a very frustrating design to work on. VTubers are already very Digimon coded, so when I was trying to work out this Bio-Merge it just felt like I was designing a winter outfit for the longest time. I decided to scrap the first design, started sketching something a bit more bestial, put a helmet on it, thought about putting the helmet on the first design, and... that's where we are now.

I'm...not...completely happy with it? But I'm much happier than I was with the first pass I did. Probably not going to do a final art for this one quite yet; think I'm gonna move onto my next project and return to this one at a later date.

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Gundam Citadel

Got the Super Gundam World Gundam Fortress team, and decided to customize their combined form. It's a pretty interesting combination, and not too unwieldy, being capable of a few good poses. It's really only held back by its ankles and front skirt.

The Details: So I started by assembling them to get a feel for the combined mode. I usually don't do this? I either build a fresh one and customize a second, or go in blind and paint as I go. I also wanted to see what I could remove to streamline the design, ultimately getting rid of the backpack heads, some of the floating arms and legs, etc.

I really didn't have many pieces lying around to add onto it to replace everything I took off, but I did ultimately decide to use a set of Magnum Bits on the back. It felt like I needed something back there.

I also chose to go with a bit more traditional Gundam colors, swapping white for silver, mostly because I've been enjoying that particular paint lately.

I probably would have used some more blue if I wasn't running low on it, and my hobby shop was out of the particular Imperial Blue I was using. Ultimately, I used silver, red, blue, gold, and metallic green. And while you can't really see it, I used the Qan[t] head's eye stickers inside the chest.

Overall, I'm happy with how this turned out. It was just a fun, goofy thing I wanted to do. Not sure what custom I plan on doing next, but hopefully it's just as fun as this one.

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Final art of YukiGrizzmon. I feel like I was a bit ambitious with the pose, but it turned out ok. Would have helped if I'd taken one of my 50+ in-range figures and posed one for reference. But he's also got stubby bear legs, and that's gonna be trouble no matter what for someone of my skill level.

Anyway, I'm gonna try and do this line's level 6, Arcticmon, but it's gonna be very humanoid so I'm not confident. I'll at least do the concepting phase, though.

[reversemoon255]

Transformers HasLab RID 2001 Omega Prime

Personally, this is my first HasLab piece, and I know people who've gotten them, and I've heard quite a few people talk about them, and the one thing that I kept hearing them described as (apart from Unicron, but it's also Unicron) is that they're very playable. Like, that they have that high quality feel, but you're not worried about them shattering or falling to pieces or anything as you're transforming them. And that's kind of my experience. There's one or two scary parts, but for the vast majority of this toy I had a lot of fun. Going through the instructions the first time was a little confusing, but I was easily able to figure everything out on every subsequent transformation without them. I don't know how easy it'll be to get one on the aftermarket, but it's a really fun piece. And as this is several separate toys, let's go through them one at a time.

Optimus Prime: You could have sold this figure alone. The truck is very solid, the robot is solid and easy to get in all manner of poses, the super mode parts are pretty intuitive, and said combined mode is the cherry on top. Like, there's tabs for almost everything, tons of extra joints to get things just right, it's very fun.

There are a few downsides, though. There are a couple of places that have specific order-of-operations, like with the knees. The ratchet joint on the ladder when moving it down feels very scary with how loud and rough it is. For all the locking points, the combined head just kind of sits there and rattles around. And the thighs are a little weird? Like, there's a thigh joint as well as transformation cut right at the knee, and they don't always like working in tandem together.

The only thing I'm concerned about is the ladder over time, but every other thing is just a small thing to look out for. (EDIT: I know about the wide-spread waist issues. I got one of the lucky copies where everything slides normally. If you get one, check it immediately.)

Ultra Magnus: A bit more complicated a figure than Optimus, but he has a lot more to do. Like with Optimus, when everything is together it is very solid. The car carrier mode can fit a small car inside it, if you want, which is neat. The robot also has a decent bit of posability to it; not as good as Optimus, but enough to get some good poses in, especially with the included stand.

His transformation is probably his one downside. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easily to replicate, but there are a lot of weird steps to it, like with his backpack. There are also a number of notable gaps, like around the collar and in the legs, but that's a necessity of the ultimate combination.

Omega Prime: Optimus has the same configuration as Omega Prime as he does in his Super Mode, so you don't need to do anything extra when switching. And like with Super Mode, it's a very solid combination. I'm not at all worried about it falling apart. It's also very posable.

There are tabs on the sides of the chest that have trouble locking at points, but they aren't required, luckily. That's really it, though. There's also supposed to be a canon full combined mode that uses every part from both Ultra Magnus and the Super Mode armor, but I haven't figured it out yet.

Bluebolts: It's cool they turned Ultra Magnus' giant weapon into a Weaponizer. Like any Weaponizer, Bluebolts is capable of many different configurations, three of which are canon. Bluebolts can form Ultra Magnus' usual giant cannon as well as rifles for him or be separated into pieces to fill out some of Magnus' holes. It's just a neat little addition to the package.

Cerebros: is here. The seats on Prime's ladders are both fitted for him, which means they should also be fitted for any Head/Power Master. Not needed, but it's cool he's here.

The Sword: Just briefly wanted to mention the sword. It's a bit unwieldy; you're really just supposed to have him hold it planted (I'm surprised they didn't add a specific bottom piece for just that). If you two hand it, you can get a few poses out of it, but not a lot, and you need to pull the handle apart and put it back together to get it in the right position for the hands to work with it.

Overall, I think this is a great toy. Four different figures of varying size, multiple combinations, lots of play value. It's a fantastic set of figures and a lot of fun. It's a shame how so many people have been affected by serious QC issues, as it's definitely negatively impacted people's opinions on this toy.