With Wave 1 of Power of the Primes hitting store shelves at the time of this writing, I figured it was time to get off my butt and wrap up our Titans Return reviews! So, here we are with the very late in the coming review of the last combined wave of deluxes…Wave 5, plus Slugslinger.

Twin Twist: As you’d expect, he’s a remold of Topspin from Wave 4. Given how good that mold was, I certainly can’t complain about seeing it again so soon. That, and to be honest, for whatever reason I’m just happy to finally have updated Jumpstarters! Okay, I loved them as a kid even though mine always broke…and calling them ‘Transformers’ was a stretch but still, if we’re aiming for completion of the ’84 and ’85 classic lines within Generations, then yes, Jumpstarters need to be included. Like with Topspin, the guns can be merged to form a four-barreled shotgun [Any Phantasm fans in the house? – Ed.] and it just feels better on Twin Twist than it does on his mold-mate. All in all, a solid remold. If you’ve got Topspin, you kinda need to complete the set…so pick him up. If you missed Topspin, well, it’s still a damn good mold…so, you know, pick him up.

Misfire: So, yeah, it looks like the bulk of this wave is going to be remolds…with Misfire being based on the Triggerhappy mold. Now, there’s been a bit more of a modification to this remold as compared to Twin Twist…as there’s actually a little bit of difference in the transformation between Misfire and his parent mold. I wish I could say it was an improvement. That probably sounds a bit more negative than I mean it, but Triggerhappy felt more…well…fun. He was a bit more complicated, but not overtly so whereas Misfire is simpler and, at least in my eyes, suffers a little for it. Still, if you’re going for a complete set of the old Targetmaster Jets, then Misfire’s a must. If you have to choose between him or Triggerhappy though…go for Triggerhappy.

Windblade: Our only original mold in the wave [Scratch that, turns out she’s an extensive remold of Scourge/Highbrow. – Ed.]…and she makes a similar mistake to Misfire in that she just feels a little too easy in her Transformation. However, Windblade does pose us with a bit of a quandary: if her Titan Master is male…would this make for a transgender Cybertronian? We’re not really given any info on Scorchfire…so sure, it could be female, but looking at the sculpt…well, it looks like all the other Titan Masters, which all look male. [Okay, yeah, you could ask the same thing about Nautica too…but we didn’t think of it back then. – Ed.] Or are Titan Masters genderless…taking on the traits of whomever they bond with? [Here’s an idea, how about talking about the toy instead of trying to get us into trouble? – Ed.] The other strike against Windblade (not the gender thing, I’m all for Cybertronian diversity…I meant the other strike being her simple transformation) is that for both a jet and a feminine Transformer, she seems…ahem…bulky. To be blunt, man she’s got some thighs on her. Say what you will about the earlier Generations mold, she had a sleek, feminine design. This mold? Less so. Maybe she’s a bigger girl? [Okay, this section needs to end now! They’re coming for us…I just know it. But I don’t know who, given how many groups you’ve likely pissed off with just one paragraph. I think that’s a new record. Now shut up and move on to Slugslinger before some sort of SJW internet hit squad shows up! – Ed.] Okay, really quick, the figure is okay…nothing great…worth picking up if you can’t find the Generations 30th anniversary version of the mold.

Slugslinger: Two remolds of the same mold in the same wave is kinda pushing it…and that’s something Slugslinger makes apparent. His transformation follows more Misfire’s lead as opposed to Triggerhappy, which is kind of a bummer. But between the two, Slugslinger ends up a little bit worse…mainly due to his wings seemingly always getting in the way. Still, if you do get the set of all three Targetmaster Jets, there’s actually a kind of charm that they all have the same transformation scheme…just like the classic Seekers from days of yore…and every other time since then they’ve made Seekers. So as far as recommendations go, if you’ve only got to pick one, I still say go with Triggerhappy. But if you’ve got Triggerhappy and Misfire, well, you’re pretty much locked in for a Slugslinger, aren’t you? I mean, who are you to break up the band?

Sure, this wave and a half-ish is remold heavy, especially with the Triggerhappy mold...but all in all there's some good stuff here. If you're a completist, then there's no shame in hunting this wave down. If you're a fan of the characters contained herein, then ditto. But if you tend to cherry pick your Transformers, then this might be a solid pass as there's nothing here you haven't already seen.

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