Transformers: Cyberverse Tiny Turbo Changers Series 2 (Acid Storm, Jazz, Silverbolt, Sideswipe)

Hasbro is doing more almost unpainted Tiny Turbo Changers. It’s very exciting. (That was sarcasm, it’s not exciting at all.) A lot of these toys are nicely designed, but the paintjobs are appalling, though there are a few that are just barely sufficient, so that’s a nice change. I’d be happy to pay $4 each for these instead of $3 if they were correctly painted. This series is basically a joke. It’s the same molds as series 1, with four of them being repainted. This is the most lazy, pointless, stupid, and half assed thing Hasbro has ever done. Usually I would list these in alphabetical order, but I had to save Sideswipe for last.

Acid Storm

Previous Mold Use: Cyberverse Tiny Turbo Changers Starscream

So, having Starscream repainted as one of the other jets is as certain as death and taxes, just far less unwelcome. Personally, I’d have rather have had Thundercracker or Skywarp, but Acid Storm is fine. I like that he has paint on his wings, which Starscream regrettably lacked, but not painting his chest in robot mode just sucks. Had his chest been painted yellow this would have been a much better looking toy. Still this is an acceptable repaint.

Jazz

Previous Mold Use: Cyberverse Tiny Turbo Changers Drift

And now things get slightly less acceptable. Drift’s vehicle mode looks a lot in it’s design like G1 Jazz. Seems to be this vehicle mode was almost designed to be a hybrid of the two, so okay, I can accept that. It is in robot mode where this falls apart. Drift’s head sculpt looks nothing like Jazz. It’s not even close. Painting his face black (you would think after M.A.G.A. Jazz they would be more careful) and giving him blue eyes does not in any way make him look like Jazz. Without his visor eyes he just isn’t Jazz. However, with the vehicle mode acceptable, and these being just Tiny Turbo Changers and not more meaningful toys, I can roll my eyes and move on. It’s stupid, but not offensively so.

Previous Mold Use: Cyberverse Tiny Turbo Changers Jetfire

Speaking of stupid, but not offensively so, we have Jetfire repainted as Silverbolt. Jet mode isn’t even close, however, we haven’t seen Silverbolt in Cyberverse, so I suppose we can’t say it’s wrong. The are both jets, and I’m not expecting to see Silverbolt in Cyberverse, so I would again call this stupid, but not offensively so. He actually looks pretty good in robot mode, he just needed some more paint apps in jet mode.

Sideswipe

Previous Mold Use: Cyberverse Tiny Turbo Changers Hot Rod

This is what I call offensively stupid. Are you fucking kidding me, Hasbro? Hot Rod and Sideswipe are not even vaguely close in vehicle mode. You may as well have painted a helicopter red and called it Sideswipe for as much sense as this makes. It almost makes it worse that they painted his window blue, because they didn’t bother paint Hot Rod’s window at all, which was also fucking stupid.

Overall: I have a theory, two theories actually. Someone thought Series 1 was going to be the only series of Cyberverse Tiny Turbo Changers, so they didn’t bother plan Series 2. Then someone decided there would be a Series 2, but it wouldn’t be ready in time, so they came up with this half assed Series 2 as filler and pushed Series 2 to Series 3. However, looking ahead to Series 3, that includes eight new toys, six new molds and two repaints. This makes me think that the four repaints from Series 2 plus the new molds and repaints from Series 3 were meant to be Series 2, and Hasbro got greedy and split it into two so they could ship another wave and move a bunch more of the series 1 toys. Frankly, it doesn’t matter which is right, or if neither is. Hasbro is just phoning it in. These could be really cool toys. All they needed was a little effort and a lot of paint. (See what I did there? If not, see below.) What makes it worse is that I have yet to see a single Cyberverse Tiny Turbo Changer in a store. I’ve had to buy them all on eBay above retail, and the only thing that makes these terribly painted toys barely palatable is that they are cheap, which they are not when you can’t find them in stores and have to resort to eBay. Anyway, Series 2 literally sucks donkey balls. This is some Fun Pub level incompetence. For completists only.

And just in case you didn’t get my earlier reference…

“All we need is a little energon and a lot of luck.” – Optimus Prime, Transformers: The Movie

Thanks for reading!