FOC Ravage & Rumble Data Discs

Meh…Broadside….I’m getting to him.

Anyways, I thought I’d get these guys in first seems I’ve got them quite a bit early, and no one likes be Johnny First more than me (but I know, there’s already some reviews out there).   So, on to Ravage and Rumble!  YAY!

As with the rest of the Fall of Cybertron Generations line, Ravage and Rumble’s box feature awesome artwork featuring great CGI renditions of the characters in slightly (okay, totally in Rumble’s case) toy in-accurate depictions.   Like their predecessors, the Data Discs come in two-packs, which I LOVE:

Oh Man…so awesome.  As I mentioned before, this was my favorite aspect of the old G1 cassettes because you’re basically getting two toys for the price of one!  The back of the box features the combined bio of both characters and their tech specs, though I can’t get the Asian Label off Rumble’s without really damaging the box…

So let’s take a look at these two, out of the box:

Apparently, Hasbro is a firm believer in RIBFIR, seems PRIME Rumble is also blue.   Transformed into disc-mode, and out side of their cool purple containers, they look like this:

I do think they look quite cool in disc mode.  Ravage especially with his silver and black.   Let’s take a look at each guy and get into some of the finer points of these new “cassettes” (which I still refer to them as).

Starting with Rumble:

So……here’s the thing.  I am OBLIGATED to love these guys.  They’re little, they transform into media and fit in Soundwave’s chest.  That all equals unrequited love on my part (especially Ravage!).  But…I have a feeling people are going to have issues with these guys.  The problem is the “Auto-convert” gimmick.  I feel they should have left it out and just had them manually transform.  Rumble and Frenzy, despite their appearance, actually do have some leg articulation.  The problem is, they are filled with springs to make them transform on impact (more on that later) and thus, the springs keep their legs and body in a static position.  If you think about it though, the cassettes have always been “static” figures:

So in a way, there’ nothing new here.  Without the springs, I think we would have gotten a pretty intriguing update on the originals, but as it stands now, they really just have “up and down” arm action.  Also, the blue is a bit too dark for me, but that’s fine.  I guess I’d also point out that his character art shows him with the pile drivers, which, obviously, he does not have.

We see a good size comparison with G1 Encore Enemy here (I actually don’t have Rumble and Frenzy anymore, which is distressing).  In alt-mode, Rumble’s disc mode is quite a bit more compact:

Ravage is a bit more of a complex case – for one thing – I LOVE Ravage, that’s been established.  Classics Ravage is my favorite, and he retains that title even with FOC Ravage in hand.  Of course that’s not saying FOC Ravage is bad:

In fact, he’s pretty cool! But again, the auto-change gimmick causes some issues.  His back doesn’t peg in or anything it just sits on top of his body.  It doesn’t flop around, but it feels incomplete to me.  On the other hand, his colors and details are outstanding and look at that face of his!:

GRRR!  Let’s take a look at how he measures up with the other Ravages:

Again, its not like the cassette Ravages ever had any real “articulation” other than their legs which FOC Ravage also has.  So to me, Ravage fairs a bit better and I really do like him a lot.  Here he is in disc mode, compared to the others:

I do love how his disc mode looks.  And the purple storage cases are so awesome, though in all honesty, I have a little trouble getting Ravage to fit 100% perfectly in his.  Because of how he transformers, he’s a touch thicker in disc mode which keeps the door to the case open a tiny amount, which is only an issue for anal-retentive like myself.  I mean, its a TINY bit open.

 

I’ve also figured out an alternate transformation for Ravage, which resembles his War Within look a bit more, as he doesn’t have a tail, but he also tends to look a bit like the Gozer dogs from Ghostbusters (which is actually kind of awesome)

Basically, you fold his back section back up, with his legs and head out.  Of course, like a dummy, I forgot to adjust his legs for the picture, generally I keep the rear legs level so those panels sit parallel with his back.  It also fills in his body a bit better.   I like both versions, but I tend to keep Ravage like this.  I’ll probably keep Steeljaw in normal mode.

Now for something new – I’m far from being a Youtube reviewer (Though I’ve thought about it), but I wanted to show the “autochange” gimmick in action, and the only way to do that, is with video, so let’s take a look: (also, I have a bit of a cold)

Rumble:

And Ravage:

So there we have it.  If you like little guys who can store in Soundwave’s chest, these are going to be well worth it.  If you don’t, I think you’ll find them a bit disappointing given the emphasis on the gimmick and lack of any kind of weapons.   Ratbat and Frenzy are on the way as well so I’ll post on them too, seems I’ll be interested to see how the Laserbeak mold works (which is what they used for Ratbat).

More to come, Stay tuned!