The ReActivate toys looked interesting to me because the designs are so messy -- they are from a delayed video game where the backstory is that humans have rebuilt the Transformers from their shattered remains. This is represented in the toys as asymmetric details, and black patches of paint, plus a few randomly colored panels. They could have done a bit more, but this is good enough that other flaws that would normally bother me are just part of the deco.

They've also tended to get excellent reviews online, and no one was reporting parts falling off or things not fitting together.

The first set to arrive for me is Bumblebee vs. Starscream.

Bumblebee barely resembles Bumblebee. He has Bumblebee's head, but the robot body and alt-mode are something else and don't really fit the character. They are yellow and black, but that's where the resemblance stops I suppose it is possible that Bumblebee's head is put onto the remains of some Transformer that lost his head.

The alt-mode is possibly a dune buggy, or a subcompact, or an SUV. It's hard to tell, as he has some influences from each, plus a rear engine that harkens back to a 1970's volkswagen Beetle, but exposed. He's either a big SUV, or completely out of scale with every other deluxe car out there, or both. It's not a bad alt-mode, even though it reminds me of ROTF Mudflap and Skids, all teched out in a Mad Max world. The influences are all over the place. He also reminds me of the large Cooper Mini (the Countryman? Maxi?)

I like the wacky teched-out Bumblebee toys we have gotten in the past (DOTM Nitro Bumbler, and Beast Hunters Eagle Bumblebee leap to mind) and the first year of BM Vehicons (the tech greebles on the surface of the vehicle modes were then painted over in entirely different patterns, giving a very weird, messy, not-quite-right effect) so I'm inclined to like this as well.

Robot mode is entirely serviceable, but has more of a "superhero" shape than we would expect from our Bumbling friend. And a big fat face that we would expect.

He has a pair of pistols that are more snub-nosed than snub-nosed pistols should be -- completely missing any hint of barrel to the point where they might be brass knuckles instead. He holds them through standard 5mm pegs, but they attach to his vehicle mode with thinner tabs. It's nice that his robot mode can use other weapons, but disappointing that his vehicle mode cannot. The vehicle mode being as deliberately messy as it is, a few 5mm ports would not have been amiss.

The transformation is silly-stupid. Someone really liked Kingdom Cyclonus's transformation, and thought "what if I did something like that, except with more parts that move simultaneously?" There are several parts that need to be held in the exact right spot to form a hole large enough to flip his head/hood assembly around. There are also steps in transformation that are "hold this part here for three steps, and then fold the grill into place which will lock the front fenders into place, which locks the rear fenders in place, which hopefully lets both doors close and stay closed.

It's a design that is really dependent on precise tolerances and a lot of metal pins, and Hasbro/Takara delivers, so everything pegs tightly together in both modes, it's just all the intermediary steps where you're holding things into place.

It's wacky, and I would hate an entire line to be done like this, but it's a fun puzzle. There were a couple of times I was looking and thinking "if the hub of the wheel faces out, then I guess this has to go here?" and "does this rotate forward or backwards? I don't think there's room either way, but there has to be, or his head will never get hidden." Very non-intuitive. Following the instructions makes it no less of a puzzle.

There are also tiny details like the knee/shin flaps pushing forward as you fold wheels into the backs of the calves. A lot of effort went into making this toy do things like that, and it's appreciated.

My main complaint about this toy is simply that it doesn't look like Bumblebee. With a different head, you wouldn't think there was anything Bumbley about him. I would like to see a light blue and brick red version as Hot Shot, with a new head, and I think that would match his character better.

Starscream looks a bit more traditionally like Starscream. He's an F-15ish plane, transforms into a robot with wings, nipple vents, shoulder thingies and a cockpit for a stomach. Lots of other details are off-G1-model, but there's enough there that he looks and feels like Starscream. Even the colors are mostly reasonable. Concept wise, he's a lot like Energon Energon Starscream -- a recognizable character that was chewed up a bit (plain Energon Starscream has the different color scheme and is less recognizable)

The vehicle mode has one wing mostly black, and a weird blue panel on top, but is otherwise pretty close to the standard G1 seeker with mostly Starscream colors.

Robot mode has the guns on the forearms instead of the biceps, but is otherwise as you would expect.

Transformation is ultimately "robot faceplants, dislocates shoulders and reaches down too far, with a plane on his back", but is made interesting by the number of parts of the plane that need to be rotated to get out of the way of another part being rotated, and then rotated back. It's not the silly-stupid transformation that Bumblebee has, but if you just wanted wings on the back, there were a lot of easier ways to do it -- and, you can mistransform him to do several of those ways, and they look no less like Starscream, just with wings a bit higher, or the backpack not quite as compact. It's inelegant.

I don't think that the toy is particularly better or worse than the Earthrise toy, but he is a bit off-model for G1. Probably a bit worse, but different enough that it doesn't feel disappointing.

The number of metal pins used in this set is kind of amazing. I want to say that there are more metal pins than in the entirety of the Legacy toyline, but that's probably incorrect. But a lot.

Bumblebee is the more surprising toy of the two, because it's attempting more interesting things and succeeding. Starscream is the more fun toy.

Coming soon will be the Optimus and Soundwave pair, where Soundwave has visible hinges on the outside of the vehicle, something that I normally hate, but which might suit these toys (I don't mind the hinges on Siege Ironhide/Ratchet because of how they look... I mind that the hinged flaps pop off).