Yay, finally! FedEx was rescheduling this package every day for, like, a week. Today's the 10th of the month, and I got a notification saying they had rescheduled it for the 9th! It's good to know they've finally mastered the art of actual time travel. I'm sure that will come in handy.

These sets are also hitting retail as well. As with the other Buzzworthy Bumblebee toys, they're exclusive to Target stores, but I got mine from Hasbro Pulse, since they reserve small quantities of exclusives to sell through the web portal.

Unlike other Buzzworthy multi-packs, the box is completely closed, with no windows to speak of, honeycomb-shaped or otherwise. The package is 19.25" x 7.5" x 2.5" which I think is the same size as the Creatures Collide box. Open it up and you get, from left to right, two sets of accessories wrapped in tissue (the Quintesson Trooper axe head in one and the Quintesson Trooper's tail, alternate head, the rest of the staff, and the fin); the Quintesson Trooper with his creature head flipped up to make more room in the box; another set of accessories in tissue (the Autotrooper gun and extra head); the Autotrooper in vehicle mode; two more sets of parts in tissue (Jhiaxus Trooper swords/guns/head/claw thingy, and then the Seeker guns); and top-to-bottom, the Cybertronian Trooper in a weaponless vehicle form and, below him, the Decepticon Seeker with all his wings tucked in. Obviously there was little or no consideration to how the toys would be presented in the box since you can't see them, but with this in mind, there is way too much air space in this box.

In order that they appear in the instructions:

G2 UNIVERSE CYBERTRONIAN TROOPER

In the TRANSFORMERS: GENERATION 2 comic book by Marvel, we learn that after Megatron and the Decepticons chased the Ark into space all those millions of years ago, the remaining Decepticons grew up, evolved, and moved past their warlike ways. Under the command of Jhiaxus, the Cybertronian empire spread to other planets, leaving small-minded tyrants like Straxus as a token Decepticon presence. Jhiaxus' army was legion, and they were all generic-looking robots, often with skull-shaped faces, and they all shared the same green-and-white color scheme. Not many of them got names, the most notable of them being Rook (the lieutenant to Jhiaxus) and Mindset (a distant relative of Onslaught).

The idea for these troop builders is that you could conceivably get at least a couple of these, and use the alternate head to create two different-looking soldiers for Jhiaxus to lead into battle. It's based on the Legacy Skullgrin mold, with some modifications.

Vehicle mode is about as abstract as Skullgrin, with the guns mounting to the top of the tank as a turret and the swords plugging into either side. There are, of course, other ways you could configure the vehicle if you wanted to differentiate more than one toy from each other. He's sort of a Sixshot green with bright white parts, and a dark grey used for the tank treads and gun barrels and swords. It doesn't look like a real vehicle at all, but all the Cybertronians under Jhiaxus' command transformed into fantasy vehicles, so it's all good!

The default head is white and skull-like, with green eyes and dark grey horns that can be positioned up or down. His alternate head is wearing a green-colored mask with white eyes, a spiked helmet, and white horns that can also be turned upwards or downwards. So, I guess technically you could get four of these figures and each one could have a different helmet design. The suggested robot mode shows the gun turret mounted on his back, but of course you could plug the swords there instead, or put the guns or swords in his hands, or into the peg-holes in his shoulders, forearms, the backs of his legs, etc. Lots of options. There is a single G2 Decepticon badge on his right forearm.

Only the Skullgrin robot head and the chest design have been changed—everything else is the same. By accident or design, the spikes protruding from the shoulders and hips, as well as the skull emblem on the pelvis, really work well for the G2 Cybertronians. Somewhere, I'm sure, there is a fan who ordered like 20 of these sets and has built himself a massive G2 army. But I'm not going to be that guy. I'm already swimming in Sharkticons and Sweeps and I'm pretty happy with those.

Weirdly, you don't just pop the head off the ball joint this time. You slide a good portion of the first head off, leaving a square-shaped brain stem, and slide the new head into place. It reminds me of the way Takara has you swap faces on a lot of the Masterpiece toys.

ANIMATED UNIVERSE AUTOTROOPER

The name is a bit contentious, since the Autoroopers (as Takara originally called them) were actually part of the Kiss Players story and toy line, not Animated. But, they did get an Animated toy as a BotCon 2011 convention exclusive, so I guess technically they are part of that universe as well. And, honestly, the less Hasbro acknowledges Kiss Players, the better.

So, this is a redeco of the tired old Siege Ironhide/Ratchet mold, mostly white with black fists, feet, and black paint for the pelvis and shoulders. His default head is one with black goggles on the head and a blue-colored eyes, but you can swap it for a differently-designed head with red eyes that looks more like the head on the Binaltech Autorooper toy. Same deal with swapping the head—you slide most of the head onto a square-shaped peg.

He comes with an all-black version of the gun/hammer packaged with Ironhide, Crosshairs, etc.

I have zero interest in this guy. I would not have bought him on his own.

DECEPTICON SEEKER

In the G1 cartoon pilot, there were only nine Decepticon characters on Earth, so perhaps as a way of bolstering their forces and making them seem like more of a threat to the Autobots, multiple generic troops were shown on-screen who did not have a Hasbro toy equivalent. They all promptly vanished after the pilot episode, and for years they were dismissed by most of the fandom as "animation mistakes," but in recent years they've been gaining legitimacy, some of them getting new toys and even names!

This guy hasn't been named as such. He straddles the lines between blue and purple in a decidedly Galvatron-like way, and I would describe him as cornflower in color. There are various generic Decepticon troops appearing in assorted shades of blue and purple, but there's a purple guy who pops up a lot. He's the only generic troop present in "More Than Meets the Eye" part 1 when Megatron first attacks Sparkplug and Spike's oil rig, and there's a guy with his color scheme in "More Than Meets the Eye" part 2 when Rumble goes underwater to make earthquakes. He could be one of the Decepticons who harassed Sideswipe and Sunstreak in jet mode, too.

His paint and colors are similar to Earthrise Thundercracker—mostly blue-purple with a silver-painted upper body and pelvis, black gauntlets and feet, black Studio Ox fans inside his chest, and the same red/white stripe configuration as Thundercracker. He uses the neutral head sculpt, not the snarky one. It looks like they gave him the same paint masks and all the same paint operations, with the biggest difference being on Thundercracker and the other Earthrise jets, the knee vents and chest fans are gunmetal, but they're glossy black on the Decepticon Seeker.

I didn't run into any issues with parts popping off or not fitting together correctly. The mold is showing its age well.

Well, this guy is the main reason I wanted a couple of these troop builder packs. I'm a huge fan of the generic Decepticon jets, and I love that Hasbro sold us a Voyager-class version. We've come a long way from the days when the only toy you could get was either a CHMS knockoff, or a tiny little PVC figure of the Air Warrior as part of a BotCon figure pack.

QUINTESSON TROOPER

This is kind of an embarrassing do-over for Hasbro. They originally included the Quintesson Bailiff as part of the Pit of Judgment figure set, but they got his color scheme wrong because they had been relying on a badly-colored fan image that was allowed on the Transformers wiki for some reason. (The wiki editors actually had the gall to call out Hasbro for getting the colors wrong, even though they themselves were to blame.) So, this is a corrected version that actually gets the color scheme right.

But, it's not *just* the Quintesson Bailiff, because he's got an alternate head so he can double as a Quintesson Guard, aka an Allicon, if you want. The new Allicon head has some different paint operations than the Earthrise release, with some metallic blue deco on the cheek guards. I guess you could even put the new Allicon head on the old Allicon toy, if you really wanted to.

But as a Bailiff, this toy is a significant improvement. It actually reads as something that appeared in The Transformers: the Movie to my eyes, rather than that badly-colored brownish-greenish mess that they included in the Pit of Judgment. They also changed the color used for the vinyl parts so that the fists, pelvis, and upper arms are a purple color this time, which I really like. It's not super often that we get do-overs for existing toys with better colors (like Kupworthy Kup or Cliffworthy Cliffjumper) but I always love it when they do.

Hasbro Pulse sold this set for $77.99, and if you break down the current price of one Voyager-class toy ($34.99) and three Deluxe-class toys ($24.99) you're saving about $32, or very nearly buying the Deluxes and getting the Voyager for free. That's a hell of a deal, especially considering that most of the other multi-packs have been priced at pretty much exactly what you would have paid for the toys separately.

On Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at 7:10:17 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> Yay, finally! FedEx was rescheduling this package every day for, like, a week. Today's the 10th of the month, and I got a notification saying they had rescheduled it for the 9th! It's good to know they've finally mastered the art of actual time travel. I'm sure that will come in handy.
>
> These sets are also hitting retail as well. As with the other Buzzworthy Bumblebee toys, they're exclusive to Target stores, but I got mine from Hasbro Pulse, since they reserve small quantities of exclusives to sell through the web portal.
>
> Unlike other Buzzworthy multi-packs, the box is completely closed, with no windows to speak of, honeycomb-shaped or otherwise. The package is 19.25" x 7.5" x 2.5" which I think is the same size as the Creatures Collide box. Open it up and you get, from left to right, two sets of accessories wrapped in tissue (the Quintesson Trooper axe head in one and the Quintesson Trooper's tail, alternate head, the rest of the staff, and the fin); the Quintesson Trooper with his creature head flipped up to make more room in the box; another set of accessories in tissue (the Autotrooper gun and extra head); the Autotrooper in vehicle mode; two more sets of parts in tissue (Jhiaxus Trooper swords/guns/head/claw thingy, and then the Seeker guns); and top-to-bottom, the Cybertronian Trooper in a weaponless vehicle form and, below him, the Decepticon Seeker with all his wings tucked in. Obviously there was little or no consideration to how the toys would be presented in the box since you can't see them, but with this in mind, there is way too much air space in this box.
>
> In order that they appear in the instructions:
>
> G2 UNIVERSE CYBERTRONIAN TROOPER
>
> In the TRANSFORMERS: GENERATION 2 comic book by Marvel, we learn that after Megatron and the Decepticons chased the Ark into space all those millions of years ago, the remaining Decepticons grew up, evolved, and moved past their warlike ways. Under the command of Jhiaxus, the Cybertronian empire spread to other planets, leaving small-minded tyrants like Straxus as a token Decepticon presence. Jhiaxus' army was legion, and they were all generic-looking robots, often with skull-shaped faces, and they all shared the same green-and-white color scheme. Not many of them got names, the most notable of them being Rook (the lieutenant to Jhiaxus) and Mindset (a distant relative of Onslaught).
>
> The idea for these troop builders is that you could conceivably get at least a couple of these, and use the alternate head to create two different-looking soldiers for Jhiaxus to lead into battle. It's based on the Legacy Skullgrin mold, with some modifications.
>
> Vehicle mode is about as abstract as Skullgrin, with the guns mounting to the top of the tank as a turret and the swords plugging into either side. There are, of course, other ways you could configure the vehicle if you wanted to differentiate more than one toy from each other. He's sort of a Sixshot green with bright white parts, and a dark grey used for the tank treads and gun barrels and swords. It doesn't look like a real vehicle at all, but all the Cybertronians under Jhiaxus' command transformed into fantasy vehicles, so it's all good!
>
> The default head is white and skull-like, with green eyes and dark grey horns that can be positioned up or down. His alternate head is wearing a green-colored mask with white eyes, a spiked helmet, and white horns that can also be turned upwards or downwards. So, I guess technically you could get four of these figures and each one could have a different helmet design. The suggested robot mode shows the gun turret mounted on his back, but of course you could plug the swords there instead, or put the guns or swords in his hands, or into the peg-holes in his shoulders, forearms, the backs of his legs, etc. Lots of options. There is a single G2 Decepticon badge on his right forearm.
>
> Only the Skullgrin robot head and the chest design have been changed—everything else is the same. By accident or design, the spikes protruding from the shoulders and hips, as well as the skull emblem on the pelvis, really work well for the G2 Cybertronians. Somewhere, I'm sure, there is a fan who ordered like 20 of these sets and has built himself a massive G2 army. But I'm not going to be that guy. I'm already swimming in Sharkticons and Sweeps and I'm pretty happy with those.
>
> Weirdly, you don't just pop the head off the ball joint this time. You slide a good portion of the first head off, leaving a square-shaped brain stem, and slide the new head into place. It reminds me of the way Takara has you swap faces on a lot of the Masterpiece toys.
>
> ANIMATED UNIVERSE AUTOTROOPER
>
> The name is a bit contentious, since the Autoroopers (as Takara originally called them) were actually part of the Kiss Players story and toy line, not Animated. But, they did get an Animated toy as a BotCon 2011 convention exclusive, so I guess technically they are part of that universe as well. And, honestly, the less Hasbro acknowledges Kiss Players, the better.
>
> So, this is a redeco of the tired old Siege Ironhide/Ratchet mold, mostly white with black fists, feet, and black paint for the pelvis and shoulders.. His default head is one with black goggles on the head and a blue-colored eyes, but you can swap it for a differently-designed head with red eyes that looks more like the head on the Binaltech Autorooper toy. Same deal with swapping the head—you slide most of the head onto a square-shaped peg.
>
> He comes with an all-black version of the gun/hammer packaged with Ironhide, Crosshairs, etc.
>
> I have zero interest in this guy. I would not have bought him on his own.
>
> DECEPTICON SEEKER
>
> In the G1 cartoon pilot, there were only nine Decepticon characters on Earth, so perhaps as a way of bolstering their forces and making them seem like more of a threat to the Autobots, multiple generic troops were shown on-screen who did not have a Hasbro toy equivalent. They all promptly vanished after the pilot episode, and for years they were dismissed by most of the fandom as "animation mistakes," but in recent years they've been gaining legitimacy, some of them getting new toys and even names!
>
> This guy hasn't been named as such. He straddles the lines between blue and purple in a decidedly Galvatron-like way, and I would describe him as cornflower in color. There are various generic Decepticon troops appearing in assorted shades of blue and purple, but there's a purple guy who pops up a lot. He's the only generic troop present in "More Than Meets the Eye" part 1 when Megatron first attacks Sparkplug and Spike's oil rig, and there's a guy with his color scheme in "More Than Meets the Eye" part 2 when Rumble goes underwater to make earthquakes. He could be one of the Decepticons who harassed Sideswipe and Sunstreak in jet mode, too.
>
> His paint and colors are similar to Earthrise Thundercracker—mostly blue-purple with a silver-painted upper body and pelvis, black gauntlets and feet, black Studio Ox fans inside his chest, and the same red/white stripe configuration as Thundercracker. He uses the neutral head sculpt, not the snarky one. It looks like they gave him the same paint masks and all the same paint operations, with the biggest difference being on Thundercracker and the other Earthrise jets, the knee vents and chest fans are gunmetal, but they're glossy black on the Decepticon Seeker.
>
> I didn't run into any issues with parts popping off or not fitting together correctly. The mold is showing its age well.
>
> Well, this guy is the main reason I wanted a couple of these troop builder packs. I'm a huge fan of the generic Decepticon jets, and I love that Hasbro sold us a Voyager-class version. We've come a long way from the days when the only toy you could get was either a CHMS knockoff, or a tiny little PVC figure of the Air Warrior as part of a BotCon figure pack.
>
> QUINTESSON TROOPER
>
> This is kind of an embarrassing do-over for Hasbro. They originally included the Quintesson Bailiff as part of the Pit of Judgment figure set, but they got his color scheme wrong because they had been relying on a badly-colored fan image that was allowed on the Transformers wiki for some reason. (The wiki editors actually had the gall to call out Hasbro for getting the colors wrong, even though they themselves were to blame.) So, this is a corrected version that actually gets the color scheme right.
>
> But, it's not *just* the Quintesson Bailiff, because he's got an alternate head so he can double as a Quintesson Guard, aka an Allicon, if you want. The new Allicon head has some different paint operations than the Earthrise release, with some metallic blue deco on the cheek guards. I guess you could even put the new Allicon head on the old Allicon toy, if you really wanted to.
>
> But as a Bailiff, this toy is a significant improvement. It actually reads as something that appeared in The Transformers: the Movie to my eyes, rather than that badly-colored brownish-greenish mess that they included in the Pit of Judgment. They also changed the color used for the vinyl parts so that the fists, pelvis, and upper arms are a purple color this time, which I really like. It's not super often that we get do-overs for existing toys with better colors (like Kupworthy Kup or Cliffworthy Cliffjumper) but I always love it when they do.
>
> Hasbro Pulse sold this set for $77.99, and if you break down the current price of one Voyager-class toy ($34.99) and three Deluxe-class toys ($24.99) you're saving about $32, or very nearly buying the Deluxes and getting the Voyager for free. That's a hell of a deal, especially considering that most of the other multi-packs have been priced at pretty much exactly what you would have paid for the toys separately.
>
> I ended up getting two of the multipacks, because I really liked the idea of having two generic Decepticon jets, two correctly-colored Bailiffs, and two G2 troopers so they could guard Jhiaxus, one on each side. Again, I have no use for the Autotrooper. I'm honestly not opposed to the idea of gobbling up a few more of the G2 troopers, but I wonder how many people out there have zero interest in the G2 comic book and are parting out their sets? Surely the number of people doing this is not zero?
>
>
> Zob (might have to do some prestigious eBaying a bit later)

On Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at 7:46:52 AM UTC-6, William A. Rendfeld wrote:

> I managed to snag two online from Target, and got my third yesterday at a brick and mortar location. I think that three is my limit.
> Now I just wish that I could free them from their cardboard prisons and properly display them.

Okay, you have mentioned this enough times now that I am very curious. Why is it that you can't display your toys?

Zob (would probably have a lot more room for Transformers if I put away some Ninja Turtles, but...)

On Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at 5:39:19 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> On Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at 7:46:52 AM UTC-6, William A. Rendfeld wrote:
>
> > I managed to snag two online from Target, and got my third yesterday at a brick and mortar location. I think that three is my limit.
> > Now I just wish that I could free them from their cardboard prisons and properly display them.
> Okay, you have mentioned this enough times now that I am very curious. Why is it that you can't display your toys?
>
>
> Zob (would probably have a lot more room for Transformers if I put away some Ninja Turtles, but...)

Because I currently don't have the means to display them. Earlier this year, I was forced to vacate the place that I was renting - the new landlord wanted to renovate the property, and damage to the plumbing incurred during a freeze in the winter gave them enough justification to force me out. I had to pack up everything and disassemble the shelving units that I had constructed. Fortunately, I was able to move back in with my folks. Unfortunately, due to the demands of my job and a lack of funds, I've been unable to find a new place despite my best efforts. Not fun.

On Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 6:20:53 AM UTC-6, William A. Rendfeld wrote:

> Because I currently don't have the means to display them. Earlier this year, I was forced to vacate the place that I was renting - the new landlord wanted to renovate the property, and damage to the plumbing incurred during a freeze in the winter gave them enough justification to force me out. I had to pack up everything and disassemble the shelving units that I had constructed. Fortunately, I was able to move back in with my folks. Unfortunately, due to the demands of my job and a lack of funds, I've been unable to find a new place despite my best efforts. Not fun.

Sorry that happened to you, my friend. At least your parents were willing to take you in. We all hit rough patches, but I'm confident things will turn around for you eventually. Take some pictures when you find a new place and get your collection set up properly!

Zob

On Friday, October 13, 2023 at 9:54:31 AM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> On Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 6:20:53 AM UTC-6, William A. Rendfeld wrote:
>
> > Because I currently don't have the means to display them. Earlier this year, I was forced to vacate the place that I was renting - the new landlord wanted to renovate the property, and damage to the plumbing incurred during a freeze in the winter gave them enough justification to force me out. I had to pack up everything and disassemble the shelving units that I had constructed. Fortunately, I was able to move back in with my folks. Unfortunately, due to the demands of my job and a lack of funds, I've been unable to find a new place despite my best efforts. Not fun.
> Sorry that happened to you, my friend. At least your parents were willing to take you in. We all hit rough patches, but I'm confident things will turn around for you eventually. Take some pictures when you find a new place and get your collection set up properly!
>
>
> Zob

Thanks. I hope you're right.

On Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 6:09:40 PM UTC+1, William A. Rendfeld wrote:
> Thanks. I hope you're right.

I had to move in with my parents a few years back... thankfully just for a few months, but it's such a hard thing to do. Also seems to be getting increasingly common. Hang in there... hope a new place shows up for you soon.

Velvet Glove

On Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 3:37:30 PM UTC-4, Velvet Glove wrote:
> On Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 6:09:40 PM UTC+1, William A. Rendfeld wrote:
> > Thanks. I hope you're right.
> I had to move in with my parents a few years back... thankfully just for a few months, but it's such a hard thing to do. Also seems to be getting increasingly common. Hang in there... hope a new place shows up for you soon.
>
> Velvet Glove

I have been 'hanging in there', unfortunately, since the pandemic started, and unfortunately, it just feels like my grip is becoming less and less secure. I do appreciate the sentiment, however, so thank you.