 |
| "Look, he's trying to be hardcore. Aww." (x) |
It seems I have rekindled my love of giant robots. I clearly wasn’t willing to let Sentai destroy something that has been a part of my life for the entire duration of my conscious memories. We are here primarily because I was gifted a Blu-ray copy of the movie. I was incredibly trepidatious about getting back into collecting, because the fragile clips of Go-Busters and Kyoryuger’s toylines instilled in me a fear equal only to the guilt born of their fiction.
(Not actually a) SPOILER ALERT: I did ultimately end up jumping off of that particular cliff.
However, I can’t be too upset about initially considering settling for these cards. I fucking love cards, and these are wonderful. Not perfect, but undeniably wonderful. I heard about them a number of years ago, listening as I did to Vange1us’s pack opening livestreams, but at the time I wasn’t in the market for alternate physical representations of Transformers characters.
As usual, here are the salient points:
1.) The first important piece of information to relate is that the character cards are double-sized. Fear not, both BCW and Ultra-Pro have you covered with 3.5’’x5’’ (8.89cm x 12.7cm) sleeves and toploaders. There are no screwdown or magnetic frames that I’ve been able to find, but you can’t have everything. BCW also sells appropriately sized 4-pocket card sheets for 3-ring binders. Shit, they even have Toploaders for the Titan-sized characters! Fortress Maximus, Metroplex, Trypticon, and Omega Supreme are the four that I’m aware of, measuring in at 5 5/8″ x 7 7/8″ (14.29cm x 20cm).
This page is a great resource in ordering these particular protectives. Though, it does claim that the regular character card sleeves won’t fit into the Toploaders. I have a fistful of double-armored cards that claim otherwise!
2.) Regular Transformers have their robot mode on one side of their card, with their alt-mode on the other. This is so you can conveniently flip them while playing the game. The robot side is holo-foil. To my knowledge, every character card is holo-foil, unlike in the Final Fantasy TCG. This honestly makes them a bit hard to display, on that side, if your lighting conditions are as abysmal as mine.
Members of Combiner crews are a bit different. One side is divided into two regular-sized card printings, which depict their robot and individual alt-modes. As such, these cards are gently factory creased to facilitate you folding them, should you choose. I absolutely do not choose! The opposite side is part of a large mural of the Gestalt. For these cards, the Combiner side is holo-foil, not the side with the character's individual modes.
The same set-up is true for folks like Dreadwind and Darkwing, who combine into Dreadwing. A similar one is used for the Duocon Skytread (which, is a better name than Flywheels). Triplechangers use one side for both alt-modes, and the other for a large piece of art showing their robot mode. Please see above.
3.) You need to be aware of the fact that sometimes the art of a bot’s robot mode might not necessarily match the art used for their alt-mode. This actually worked out in my favor, as Combiner Wars Motormaster is paired with his G1 truck mode (please see above). Gotta have that trailer, baby!
4.) It’s going to be an absolute deal-killer for some people, but the new members of the Combiner teams are used across the board. Further, the most default combination schemes for Menasor and Superion are not used. Again, for me, this worked out incredibly well: I REALLY like Alpha Bravo and I ADORE Offroad. Plus, the logic of using Drag Strip and him as Menasor’s legs is undeniable to me, given their specific strengths and abilities. Look, when I reacquire the Stunticons’ G1 toys, I will be using the classic arrangement (because Wildrider will be present), but I am equally respectful of, and enamored with the Combiner Wars variation, depicted here. As a sub-set, these cards ROCK and make up for my sadness over the toys being so freakin’ unstable when using the aesthetically-pleasing fan-mode transformation of Motormaster’s legs. I'm still getting a new Offroad, because by himself he is sublime.
 |
| Who the hell did you lose the copyright for Stylor to, Hasbro?!? |
6. The nuts-and-bolts ability and resource cards used to actually play the game (which are normal-sized) have even provided me with joy, when kindly tossed-in for free by sellers. Grimlock’s cards are ridiculously expensive, but wouldn’t you know, when I was gifted three of the (seemingly) Fall of Cybertron Dinobots, I got an ability card of Grimlock! Guess I have to grab a Sludge!! Cliffjumper also made an appearance in my life this way, and even, of all people, my favorite Micromaster, Detour!
Wild~
Ultimately, I’m insanely taken with these cards, even if they don’t display as well as I’d prefer. I think they made a number of sound decisions when it came to choosing (and mixing) the art for these cards. In general, they’re pretty much as equally pricey as the Final Fantasy cards, but at least they’re twice as big!
If you aren’t going to play the game, I’d say just go for your absolute favorites...assuming they were made. Only 5 waves were released before they threw in the towel.
That said, at least this artwork made it out:
Trying to review things in an objective manner, even when sometimes allowing a little (or a lot) of subjectivity to get in, has really done a number on my mental health. Ergo, no more numbers. Pithy closers, however, that I can still do~
Sometimes the Best Way to Find Yourself Again, Really Is To Just Come Back Home out of 5.
