Transformers: Platinum Edition Liokaiser

 

 

The Platinum Edition series of Transformers toys is a loosely organized series of collector-focused, collector-grade, mostly reissued figures. In spirit, it finds its origins in the beloved G1 book-style reissue figures that first began appearing in 2004/2005 area. Those were, and would largely continue to be, Toys R Us exclusives, and were the first domestically available presentations of G1 figures like Ultra Magnus and Starscream and Grapple since the 1980’s. This line, then titled the Commemorative Series, would eventually provide reissues of Soundwave, Perceptor and the original three Insecticons before morphing into the Platinum Edition line, which would spread its label over a vaster array of toys: G1 reissues like the Predacons; special editions or packagings of existent and current figures like Fall of Cybertron Grimlock and the Combaticons; and even new, otherwise unattainable figures like the Weaponizer class Ultra Magnus from Transformers: Prime. G1 reissues would continue, including another Perceptor as well as Coneheads and Trypticon, along with random Bliztwing and Astrotrain recolors. Platinum Edition essentially means toys with a gussied-up paint job and manufactured exclusivity, kind of a retail-level Botcon piece, I suppose.

A Combiner Wars Liokaiser was first hinted at in boxart at the same time as the Computron box art surfaced, and was a real in-limbo release for well over a year. Combiner Wars Computron was a month or two (or more) into its release when the Liokaiser set was finally finding distribution as an Entertainment Earth exclusive, although we had seen blurry cross sell images of the set since the last Botcon in 2016. A shared condition of life as a Platinum Edition release is apparently that, after being announced and possibly even shown in a physical setting, one must then languish for some indeterminate period of time in a nether realm of uncertainty, lacking a release date or even solid information such as availability or even confirmation of actual release intent. Platinum Edition sets seem to appear to some degree of fanfare and then vanish into the ether and then one day at random and to little or no reception reappear as a preorder or a random sighting in a store, limited to like one or two in number. Entertainment Earth tried, admirably, on Twitter to tease this release via silhouettes of the individual figures accompanied by taglines of “who could this be?” and “what evil force is coming?”, but by then, everyone who would have had even the slightest interest knew who and what this was. Part of that is caused by the pretty distinct Sky Lynx mold, and so if one had seen the leaked box art there would have been no question as to who and what this set was going to be.

Liokaiser comes as a “six” figure set packaged in the same kind of box that the G2 editions of Menasor, Superion and Bruticus, as well as Computron and Victorion came in. This is cool because it provides some kind of unity of packaging across the releases, if that is something you look for. A noble effort, but one that has always lagged terribly behind the boxes from Takara’s Unite Warriors line. The figures include Dezarus, a repainted and slightly remolded Sky Lynx; Gaihawk and Fellbat, repaints of the Aerialbots Skydive and Air Raid with new heads; Ironbison and Drillhorn, both Brawl repaints with new heads and, for Drillhorn, a new accessory, the Ramhorn/Nosecone drill bit; and Ion Scythe, an Arms Micron weapon/Targetmaster type figure. Fellbat and Ironbison are the new, friendly names for Hellbat and Killbison respectively, names which apparently would have haunted children so terribly they’d probably never recover.

I guess, for the sake of expediency, let’s just talk about Ion Scythe real quick so we can move on to the real figures. The Arms Micron line was the Japanese version of Transformers: Prime, and figures included Targetmaster-esque partner figures that turned into weapons and were model kits that you had to build. That is the extent of my knowledge here. Ion Scythe comes preassembled, so there’s nothing to worry about, and has a robot mode that is supposed to be a bird of some type but is reminiscent of Prime Soundwave’s drone alt mode. It’s pretty cool in concept but is a Minicon-sized figure, and is thus limited in execution. The alt mode is some kind of weapon, some kind of bladed or pincer weapon, and really is not successful. It’s a decent try, but is not the kind of thing that works with a combiner. It’s like a failed attempt at the Legends class “team members” that generally worked so well with the Combiner Wars main line; but Ion Scythe falls pretty short. Missing from the actual Liokaiser team is a Jallguar, and talk online is that, had there been any way to integrate it, the Combiner Wars Blackjack would have been used in place of this thing. Would have been so much better, but the Sky Lynx mold doesn’t have any way to incorporate it. Too bad. As some kind of consolation, Ion Scythes' tiny and unstable feet can be positioned to have him precariously balance on the shoulder of one of the four limb figures. It's more fun as an idea than it is in practice though.

By now, the ins and outs of Combiners Wars figures are well known, so rather than talk about each one specifically, let’s talk about Liokaiser as a whole and pay attention to the new details of the individual robots. Each of the five, including Dezarus, has a new head. The differences are subtle, as the shuttle windows part of Sky Lynx has been swapped out for a different, more eye like set of windows and a different fin at the rear of the head to give Dezarus a more menacing look. At first, I honestly hadn’t even noticed this change, but it honestly does change the overall look of the head. Dezarus pulls double duty color scheme wise, as this figure has to invoke both Leozack and Jallguar visually, and so in torso mode, the lower portion of the torso is painted black and the upper portion is mainly that Leozack teal. The torso works about the same as the basic Sky Lynx version, but displays a new combiner head meant to look more like Liokaiser than the lynx half of Sky Lynx. On Dezarus, I did not flip the rear robot mode feet around as I did with Sky Lynx, mainly because I don’t anticipate taking the combined mode apart for display all that often.

Dezarus

"Iron"bison

Drillhorn

All of the paintjobs are gorgeous, and that’s pretty much the only thing the duo of Drillhorn and Ironbison have going for them. Using the poor Brawl mold (used here as both an indicator of affection and quality), these two figures are functional. They feel better in hand than the original Brawl does, which is odd, since both the retail version and G2 box member are loose and floppy. These two aren’t a whole lot better, but they are more stable and do tab together marginally better which, to be honest, is quite the improvement. Each has a new head, and they look like the characters in the cartoon do. Ironbison is unchanged, but Drill horn comes with the drillbit part for the third time now, and it’s ok. When it was first shown as an accessory to Botcon ’16 General Ramhorn, certain corners of the fandom, predictably enough over an offishill release, lost their collective minds at how extraordinary this piece was. But, as this is my first experience with the part, and thus the overall effect of turning a tank into a drilltank, I’ve got to say that next to Unite Warriors Nosecone and the work done to make that figure, this Hasbro effort is extremely laughable.It's not a total loss, as it is what it is, and that's reasonably fine, but next to the Unite Warriors version, there is no contest. The non-swiveling turret on the Brawl mold is a real hindrance to the drillbit.

  

The best it can do, I guess.

Gaihawk

"Fell"bat

The other two figures, Gaihawk and Fellbat, also sport new heads and in Gaihawks’ case, a bright and vibrant paintjob. Both are well detailed and, as a general comment on this entire set, were not spared paint apps. The G2 sets, for as fun as they are, are kind of cheap looking, be that a result of the colors and paints or some lack of finish. But Liokaiser, as a Platinum Edition release, is really well covered paint-wise. I think these two figures are my favorite ones from the set, but that may be due in part to their being the two figures from the set that are not Brawl. If there was something to pick at with Gaihawk and Fellbat, it would be that they are to two Aerialbot figures that work the worst as arm, and yet they are the designated arms for Liokaiser.

Combined, Liokaiser is pretty gorgeous. The paint is crisp and bold, and he is a lot to look at. It seems rather balanced in terms of color as well, with the gold of Ironbison being complimented by similar spots of the color on the torso, and the red on Dezarus working with the strong pink of Gaihawk. Ion Scythe turns into some kind of weapon but looks real small in Liokaisers’ hand, and the pair of white-ish double barreled cannons fit a little awkwardly in hand. The box depicts Liokaiser with some giant melee weapon, but there’s not even a hint of that in the actual set. Something that I find pretty strange is that the new actual hands and feet were not included in this set, as they were with both Combiner Wars Computron and Victorion. They were recently included with Unite Warriors Megatronia and will be included with the forthcoming Baldigus, so they are in circulation. But why not include them with this “collector focused” release? That, I don’t understand. Seems like this would have been a perfect opportunity to present those parts, and honestly, I think Liokaiser would have been improved just a little for them.

This is presumably the official final release for Combiner Wars, and one that isn’t really even a part of that line. But it looks like Hasbro is done for now at least, and any other combiner figures will probably come in the form of this: a strange team or group, released under some away from the mainline line such as Platinum. With 2017 being a movie year, Titans Return running on all cylinders, and even Unite Warriors closing down the shop, we have come to a point where it truly is hard to believe that another combiner team is over the horizon, or at least that the Combiner Wars blueprint for them is at its end. Liokaiser is not a bad way to go out, but one that hasn’t been met with the degree of fanfare the fandom has been displaying over the years for another chance at the character. Always high on the list of desired reissues, or near the top of the list of characters we want updates of, Platinum Edition Liokaiser is totally a victim of Combiner Wars fatigue and likely disinterest. Offering nothing new, Liokaiser is a purchase of love no matter what or why or how one loves. You buy this either for the love of the character, or the love of the Combiner Wars line, or the love of the Victory cartoon, or the love of collecting, or something. I was real disappointed with the Unite Warriors use of Sky Lynx as just Sky Lynx and more Autobots, and would have been much happier had they done something with the set like Liokaiser here. Platinum Edition Liokaiser scratches my itches for something weird. But the fact that this is an Entertainment Earth exclusive means that a lot of other etailers likely passed on it. As much interest as I had in the set, I decided to buy it in no small part to Entertainment Earth having it for a discount and free shipping on Singles Day (November 11^th). So I got it for $100, not the $130 it is listed at right now. For $100, five (technically six) exclusive figures is a pretty solid deal, and they really are beautiful figures. Barring an all-new Liokaiser in the future, this seems to be the best chance to score an updated Liokaiser for cheap, and by now, you know whether or not another Combiner Wars purchase is worthwhile to you. As much as I hate to say this, this set is very much an “it is what it is” release, as in, you know what it is, what you’re getting, and whether it’s worth it to you. It hits many of the right notes for me and my collection: more combiners, more Decepticons, a ‘special edition’ something, gorgeous presentation in terms of the paint and the strong as hell colors, and update of a G1 something that was (bonus!) only available in Japan originally. Something about this set takes me back to like 2006 or 2007, when my collecting was focused on figures like the Liokaiser team, which I never acquired, but at that time I had been on a quest to acquire as many things as I could that were unusual or rare; exclusives, I would later know them to be called. A tangled web of personal things are causing me a whole, whole lot of odd nostalgia these days, and those days are ones that contain feelings I keep returning to, and, not trying to make this some personal psychobabble, but this Liokaiser is taking me back to that, then and those.

Anyway, I think Platinum Edition Liokaiser is an absolute win all around. As with most Entertainment Earth exclusives, if the price works for you, grab it; and if not, wait around a bit and it’ll probably be discounted to a more tolerable level. I feel like I say this all the time, but: for $100, this is a good buy; for more than that, like the $130 it is currently up for, I don’t think so. But regardless, if this is finally the end for mainline, domestically available Combiner Wars, it is a fitting and quality end.