My toy organization method requires that I use retail shipping boxes to store a large percentage of my collection, and it works out nicely because the manufacturer always prints what's on the box. So, my box of Evolution toys, for example, is in a Hasbro box that says TRA GEN LEGACY EV DELUXE AST and it's super easy to identify on sight. It's a system and it works well for me.

The only time this trips me up is when I buy something that doesn't fit into an existing collection, like these silly Jada Metalfigs. I don't have a proper box for them. I know I am storing them in a box somewhere, but it's probably with some other toys and I have no idea where. My point is that I kind of wanted to compare the latest batch to the previous releases, but I can't do that because I have no idea where I put the ruddy things!

I saw the latest batch show up at Walmart some months ago, but I wasn't super excited about spendign another twenty bucks on a bunch of little figurines I already had. But it went on clearance down to nine dollars recently, which I found to be eminently more affordable (that makes them only fifty cents per figurine). This set has seven Autobot figures, six Decepticon figures, four Maximals, and one Predacon.

Optimus Prime is the same figure released during series 2, with the axe replacing his right hand. The colors and paint apps are identical. But, it makes sense to include a popular and well-known character as a draw for casual consumers.

Bumblebee is the same figure from series 1, and again, is the same color scheme, right down to the missing window paint. They updated the copyright stamp on the recycled figures, so the ones from series 3 are marked "©2023 Hasbro" instead of 2022.

Alpha Trion is a new figure, and he's in a weird battle-ready stance that doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the character. This guy is not going to engage in fisticuffs against the Decepticons any time soon. He's purple and maroon with white paint on the upper legs and fists and face, with a purple base. He would make a good player piece for a chess set.

Megatron is the same figure from series 1. In my review of the first set, I said that he had no red paint on his abdomen, so either my original one was missing paint, or they actually changed and updated the paint deco for this release. He has red paint on the right side of his abdomen now, but not his left. What a weird decision to make.

The blue Decepticon jet is Bitstream, and he's the same sculpt as the Skywarp figure from series 1 that is rocketing off in mid-flight. He's a medium blue, like Hasbro toy Thundercracker blue, with silver upper legs and air intakes, a yellow cockpit. He's distinct and different from Thundercracker in that his gauntlets and feet are blue instead of black. Unlike previous Seekers, the back of his head is actually painted black this time.

Galvatron is a new figure, and he's colored a lavendar purple (like the Takara anime G1 reissue) with silver upper legs and boots, and an arm cannon that has a barrel and mount that are both orange. He's very small, though, just a hair over 1.25" in height. Even the Bumblebee figure is taller than that!

Optimus Primal is a re-release of the figure from series 2. Same color scheme, same everything. So is Rhinox, and so is Airazor.

Tigatron is a new figure and he's in a different pose than Cheetor from series 2, even though I imagine they probably could have gotten away with reusing the same figure sculpt. He's standing straight up with one hand on his hip and toting his quasar cannon. He's painted white with teal accent parts for the shoulders and pelvis and lower legs, and he gets some tiger stripe deco on the tiger head on his chest.

Arcee is a recycled version of the series 1 figure, compete with derpy face. Ultra Magnus is also recycled from series 1, so nothing new there.

Waspinator is a new figure, and he's almost entirely a metallic green with purple bug-eyes on his chest and head, light grey wings, and yellow stripes on his bug abdomen and robot legs. The wings were made ridiculously thick with respect to the size of the figure, but would have been fragile if they hadn't done so. He could have used some yellow-and-black stripes on his upper legs as well, but he doesn't look awful.

Prowl is recycled from series 1, and includes the same minimalist paint operations. There's absolutely no reason that they couldn't have sold him as Bluestreak this time and at least have given us a different character. Even the molded police car lights on his back could have been forgiven if it meant there was a new character to display. Oh, well.

Starscream and Soundwave are both recycled from series 1, and have the same paint operations as before. They already did Soundblaster, so there wasn't much else they could do with Soundwave. Starscream could have been used to represent any number of other Decepticon jets, though.

The final two releases are all-gold versions of Optimus Prime and Soundwave, and I assume they're meant to represent the characters covered in electrum from the Sunbow "Golden Lagoon" episode. Prime is the first version of the character from series 1 (without the axe) but Soundwave is the same figure as before, only gold.

So that means this series only includes five brand-new figures out of the 18 figures in the set, which is not a good average. I know that producing these things can be somewhat expensive, and so there's a strong emphasis on reusing the production molds as often as possible, but they also need to give consumers a reason to actually buy these sets. If they had done, say, Lifeline and Bluestreak and Slaughterhouse and Delta Magnus, at least that would have made nine new figures and only nine that had been offered previously. Or, they could have also thrown in, say, T-Wrecks and Black Zarak and Slicer and Diaclone Red Mirage (whatever his official name ends up being) and that would have brought the new figure count up to 13 out of 18, still using all existing molds. As it stands, there's basically no reason to buy this set at all, which makes it less likely they'll produce a series 4 if this latest batch didn't sell well.

Zob (found my Series 2 figures in my box with the G1 Decoys, but still no idea where my Series 1 figures ended up)