>>11685761On to the actual figures. Oxtimus and Tenguscream are overall an improvement over their previous Hearts of Steel releases - the plastic feels to be of higher quality, the colors look brighter (especially on Prime), and both actually have moving wrists (on balljoints) -and, in Starscream's case, a rotating waist - this time around!
Oxtimus is modeled on a traditional samurai, with a neat looking helmet, some really big shoulder pauldrons, and plated armor on his chest instead of a windshield. He's armed with a Naginata - a polearm similar to a halberd or bardiche. The Naginata's blade detaches so you can thread the handle through his hands (or just use the handle as a staff), and the blade itself has a hole on either side that allows it to be mounted to either shoulder pauldron or to a pair of pegs on Optimus' back when not in use.
Starscream's robot mode is modeled on a Tengu, specifically of the Karasu (birdman) variety. His 'helmet' is designed to look like a screaming crow's face, and he swaps his usual jet wings for some articulated bird ones. His chestplate takes inspiration from Japanese Mountain Priests' attire, complete with his chest intakes resembling the string of pompoms on either side, and his feet are modeled to look like he's wearing sandals, which are fairly large (presumably so you can put him in the various standing-on-one-leg poses you usually see Tengu depicted in). For weapons, he's armed with a pair of flintlock rifles (which I'm in love with) that he can hold in either hand or mount to his shoulders in place of his Null Rays, as well as a war fan designed to look like a Hauchiwa Fan, used in folklore by Tengu to create powerful gusts of wind and storms. Starscream's transformation scheme also gives him an ab crunch, which is neat, and his fan has a peg hole so you can plug a pose stand into it when he's in Beast mode this time around.
