From Newsgroup: alt.toys.transformers

Dave's Transformers Studio Series Rant: MtMtE Collection

Autobot Perceptor (cel-flattened redeco of
Ramhorn (cassette/rhino)
Ratbat (redeco of Siege Ratbat)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Studio/Perceptor

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Studio/Deluxe15 - Perceptor mold
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/SpyPatrol3 - Review of Wingthing
and Skar (I never did get the Ratbat/Rumble set)

On the one hand, there's only one small mold I didn't already have, plus some new accessories. On the other, I never DID get the Ratbat mold AS
Ratbat, so that's two things. And Perceptor's a decent mold, so I was
willing to give it another shot
This set is part of Target's new exclusive line, the MtMtE Collection, which apparently will take the place of Buzzworth after a year of exclusives with no particular packaging differences.


CAPSULE

$35 (not unreasonable for a Deluxe and two Micromasters given inflation)

Perceptor: Original mold at the low end of recommended. They did some retooling that improves the mold, but totally gave up on the clear plastic
and the illusion of being a working microscope. I'd call it a slight overall improvement.

Ramhorn: This doesn't really use the Siege or Legacy design styles, but remains compatible with Siege-era chest compartments. Still, a nice way to wrap up the movie cassettebots.

Ratbat: I never reviewed this mold just on its own, probably mildly recommended. (Nor have I yet opened the space pirate version, so technically this is only my third version at the moment.) This ons is actually pretty close to animation colors, and is the first one with the backpack, so finally done correctly.

Set Overall: A completely new small mold, a version of an old mold that was very hard to find, and a significant retool of a recent mold. Definitely worth getting if you never got the Perceptor the first time around, otherwise...not too bad a value.


RANTS

Packaging: Standard trade dress for 2025 Studio Series, but with a lot
of diagonal red streaks on the black background. The art of the characters
on the front is done in just grayscale and red, as suits a Target exclusive, and there's a small "MTMTE COLLECTION" above the names. The right side just has an Autobot symbol, no scenery, while the left side repeats the gray and black Perceptor art. The top of the box back shows the bit from the 1986
movie whre Ratbat beats up on Perceptor, the big nerd, while Ramhorn leaps to his rescue (and Perceptor is missing his microscope barrel due to an
animation error). The set is assortment G1371.
http://www.dvandom.com/images/MTMTEPerceptor.JPG is as close as I could get to reproducing the scene from the box using the toys and an old
Buzzworthy backdrop I kept for situations like this.


AUTOBOT: PERCEPTOR
Altmode: Microscope, Tank
Transformation Difficulty: 17 steps (oddly the original had 20)
Previous Name Use: G1, Classics, RotF/RtS, Armada, Energon, Classics,
Cybertron, Gen:TR, Studio
Previous Mold Use: Studio
Movie: TFtM
Scene: Battle of Autobot City

Perceptor tells Blaster to radio for reinforcements during the Battle of Autobot City.

Packaging: Five plastic ties hold the robot in the center of the inner tray, with the microscope barrel stuck through the back of the tray. His pistol is held down by one tie at the right edge of the tray, next to his
left hand.

Color Swaps: The somewhat desaturated red is now bolder, the slightly duller red (joints, biceps) is a slightly darker shade that is very orange under UV, the light blue is a little darker, the almost-black is more of a
dark gray now (aka animation black), and the clear plastic is now the same
dark gray. As bad as the original was at being a microscope, this is a lot worse.

Paint Apps: Most of the torso is painted mold red in a good match to the plastic. The chestplate is totally coated in dull silver and then red paint
on the part that used to be left clear and on the structure around the fake mirror. The various knobs are also dull silver. The face is painted gloss light gray with bright blue eyes and an amber helmet crest front. The tops
of the shoulders are painted dark gray in a good match to the plastic.
There's a white outline Autobot symbol in the center of the chest, and when
you fold down the chestplate there's another white outline symbol on the
upper abdomen (not lined up with the outer one). Note, the paint on the
chest panel does make it harder to open up, due to paint thickening on the slots.
They really should've painted the optics since they're no longer clear plastic. I might do that myself.

Mold Changes and Other Notes: At first glance it seems about the same,
but an entirely new torso has been created for this version, 6mm wider than
the original and maybe a millimeter taller. Where the original's back is
just open to let the head swing back, they added a door that folds down to
open the back for transformation. The new torso is the same brown as
Ramhorn, and the door in back is the same red plastic as the stuff that glows orange under UV.
These alterations do not change the microscope transformation aside from adding the "open/close the panel on back" steps. Thus, it technically has
two more steps than the original version, despite being claimed as having
three fewer. I guess they just combined some steps. The instructions do not say where to store the pistol, but the shoulder sockets are really the only viable option.
The wider torso does prevent the tank mode from happening, the boots
can't wrap far enough to connect to the pegs on the forearms. The
instructions also left out the tank mode. Of course, the original tank mode wasn't great either (The Titanmaster version was much better), so I figure my "fan mode" is almost as good here. Not as stable, but official altmodes have been worse.
http://www.dvandom.com/images/MTMTEPerceptorTank.JPG

Overall: If the original mold had actually worked as a crappy microscope (like the Titans Return one), I'd be more annoyed at the removal of the clear plastic, but it's not like there was any functionality to impact. The new torso, particularly with the back panel addition, is an improvement.

Kitbash: Okay, I was annoyed enough at the removal of the clear plastic
to just drill out the ends of the microscope barrel so I could put 5mm pegs into either end, and made a "gem on a stick" piece to put in front.
https://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/MTMTEPerceptorMod1.JPG
https://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/MTMTEPerceptorMod2.JPG


AUTOBOT: RAMHORN
Altmode: Rhino, Cassette
Transformation Difficulty: 7 steps
Previous Name Use: G1, FoC (BW used Ram Horn)
Previous Mold Use: None
Movie: TFtM
Scene: Battle of Autobot City

Packaging: The cassette mode is held in the upper left of the tray by
two ties, and one tie holds his weapon pack on the left side, below
Perceptor's right hand.

Note, it's pretty clear from things like the lack of a fold-out peg that this is not a leftover Siege design, although it might've been created as a Core Class figure to go along with Steeljaw before getting folded into this
set when Core Class got axed.

Cassette Mode: This is compatible with the Siege/Earthrise chest compartments, but the spool wheels are significantly above the centerline and it's not really trying to look like an actual cassette in this mode. It has the spool bits because the animation design of Ramhorn's robot mode has 'em, that's all.
Standard tape size of 42mm by 28mm by 9mm, all cast in medium brown plastic, although a check with UV light shows there's two different types.
I'll distinguish them in beast mode, it's easier to describe locations
there. There's light gray paint on the tape spool details, and a small red Autobot symbol (no outline) center-wards of each spool.
Unlike Siege cassettes, there is not a fold-out peg, and this cannot attach as armor to anything.

Gun Mode: The standard triple-missile pods from Ramhorn are attached to
a sort of T-shaped handle piece that has a short 5mm peg on the underside. They're turned inside-out and upside down, and while they inner faces are mostly painted there's a few bits unpainted.
Not quite 1.75" (42mm) long in brown and light gold. All the plastic is the two kinds of brown plastic used on the cassette. Most of each rocket box is painted light gold.

Transformation: They sort of cheat here, because not only are the rocket pods separate from the main toy in the way of all G1 cassettebot weapons, but the tail and belly are also part of the gun. I suppose you could think of
this as a weird combiner, where a cassette and a gun merge to form a rhino, like those recent "two unrelated things combine into a weird beast or robot" toys (UniTrobon).
First fold the head out from under the middle, and fold the horn out
from it. Then pull the forelegs out from the sides, which frees up the hind legs. Fold the sides down, resulting in a kinda hollow rhino with no tail. Next insert the handle of the gun upside down on the underside and fold the missile boxes around to tab onto the sides. The tail is revealed by folding the weapons out.

Beast Mode: A chonky robot rhino with rocket box panniers. The tape spools end up on the front hips, with Autobot symbols above each. Rather
wider than most cassette beasts, it's wider than it is tall.
2.25" (6cm) long and mostly brown and gold. One of the browns is a tiny bit warmer than the other, and under UV this version glows more reddish.
This is used for the flanks, the head (but not the horn), and the hinges that hold the rocket boxes. The only new paint in this mode is silver on the
eyes.
The head can look up and down on the transformation hinge, and each leg can move forwards and backwards on their transformation hinges, giving a reasonable amount of articulation for a rhino.

Overall: It took a while, and having one of them be a solo Core Class figure, but all of the original Autobot cassettes have gotten new versions,
and this is a decent one to end on.


DECEPTICON: RATBAT
Altmode: Bat, Cassette
Transformation Difficulty: 4 steps
Previous Name Use: G1, Uni2, TFA, FoC, RiD15, Siege
Previous Mold Use: Siege, Legacy
Movie: TFtM
Scene: Battle of Autobot City

Packaging: The cassette is held to the upper right corner of the tray by two ties, the booster backpack is in the lower right of the tray held by one tie.

Color Swaps: All the plastic on the main toy is magneta (reddish
purple), but the back peg and inside the chest are a slightly different shade that glows more strongly under UV. Assuming the color balance on TFWiki is good on my screen, this makes for a darker and redder plastic then the original. The new color is closer to the G1 package art. (I do have an original G1 Ratbat somewhere, but it's probably got some discoloration since
I bought a loose cheap copy.)

Paint Apps: The chest is the same gloss dark gray used on Perceptor.
The fronts of the ears, the center of the forehead, the muzzle, and the feet are painted gloss light purple. The nose is dark brown and the eyes are red. No paint on the wings, unlike the original Siege version of the mold. These colors are pretty close to the animation design, through.

Mold Changes and Other Notes: Where previous versions made do with a little molded thrusters on the back, this set gives him a backpack based on
the G1 accessories, rocket thrusters with a sort of radar dish on top of
each. There's a red core piece that has a central 5mm hole through it and
5mm pegs on either sides for attaching the thrusters, and then another 5mm
peg making it a T-shape that is the grip when being used by Perceptor as a
gun. The thrusters are made of brown plastic but painted over in light gold except for the interiors of the sockets. Each thruster is 32mm long, and the assembled thing is 23mm wide. While designed to be used as a gun, it does
not fit well on Perceptor, it really needs a figure where the top of the fist is nearly flush with the top of the forearm. It'd also take a pretty
specific shape of back to let this be worn as a jetpack by a larger robot. Still, it's fine just being Ratbat's accessory, it feels wrong for Perceptor
to be tearing a Decepticon apart to use as weaponry. The booster pack can be left attached to the tape to keep them together in storage.

Overall: It's not the strongest of the cassette molds, but this one is
now the right colors and has his backpack. Even if I'd managed to find the super-shortpacked version in Siege, I'd be satisfied with having picked this version up.


Set Overall: At first glance, it's one small toy and a bunch of
redecos. However, another of the tapes was never easy to find, and this
isn't just a color tweak of the Perceptor mold, it's a significant retool
that improves aesthetics while negatively impacting function. Worth picking
up even if you're not just being a cassette completist.


Dave Van Domelen, will probably take Ramhorn to work to put next to Steeljaw and his spare Blaster.

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