Autobot Springer Good, Improved Enough to be Infuriating when you Realize you Skipped It Transformers Studio Series Leader Class Toy Item No.: Asst. E0703 No. F8774 Manufacturer: Hasbro Includes: Sword, helicopter sword, 2 blasters from before, new blaster, Wreckers hammer, missile, backdrop Action Feature: Transforms from Robot to Helicopter to Car Retail: $54.99 Availability: July 2024 Other: Biggest, therefore best official Springer toy
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When I saw Autobot Springer was getting another toy in Studio Series I initially skipped the pre-order. I skipped the Amazon redeco because I had the perfectly fine (and more colorful) Siege Springer [FOTD #2,113], and at a distance all three toys seem pretty much the same. The legs are the same on all three, and they are basically all green triple-changers - so why would I want to pay $55 for a toy I got for $30 because he has a rocket and some new swords?

He has two new swords, a giant blaster, a hammer, the bomb, two old blasters from the previous toy, a new (admittedly not very impressive) flip-out wrist rocket, new hands with jointed fingers, new arms, new shoulders, new thighs, a new chest, a new head, new wheels, a new back, and lots of new slots to connect his new gear. At every turn, Hasbro did something to try to improve over the original - at a glance you might just think they left off the silvery "damage" paint, but there are so many new parts and pieces that it's almost a whole new toy, complete with new head. If you never got the previous ones, it might be worth your while to skip them in favor of this guy - he's as good as they are, with a couple of third-party upgrade set's worth of goodies in the box. If the idea of losing the 3mm pegs for the blast effects, and a few 5mm holes on his person, is also delightful? There's a lot to like here.

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It is bizarre to praise a toy that identical to a perfectly good toy I own and had no intention to replace. I picked this up because I was super curious about the gear, and I was not anticipating neatly everything from the waist up - including chunks of the waist, and thighs - would be new. The upper legs and arms are now more roundered. His feet have painted black soles at the toes. The chest is new, the head is new, the colors more closely match the cartoon version, and the Siege pegs are almost entirely gone. Articulation is pretty much the same as last time, but you can tilt his shoulder armor and open his fingers for surprisingly sensible reasons. This new figure is, more or less, a massive cosmetic upgrade of a toy you already may own with an added wrist blaster that isn't worth the price of admission (but a ton of accessories that pretty much are.)

The accessories are largely excellent. The pistols from last time are welcome, but unnecessary - you've got so much to play with here. The figure has now slots on him to store this stuff, which includes a sword, a sword/rotor, a rocket, a new blaster, and a hammer. He can hole anything with a grip as well as one may expect, but what really surprised me was how the hands were engineered to work with the rocket. The fingers have a very subtle tab on the tips, and these can fit in the 5mm hole on the back of the accessory with little difficulty. He can support it with his other hand so it looks realistic, and it works fabulously. He looks great with the swords and blasters too, but the paint on the sword came a little pre-scuffed and on a $55 toy, I don't appreciate that. I assume people are going to be singing the praises of his gear for years and it would not surprise me to see him "parted out" and people making a few bucks for a spare Wreckers Hammer or sword some day.

The hammer is one of the weirdest pieces of gear. The accessory is cast in a very pale green, like his hands and thighs, so you'll probably mistake it for glow-in-the-dark at first glance. It has a Wrecker faction symbol indentation on it, but no deco - so you'll need to dig up a sticker somewhere since Hasbro forgot to print it, or ran out of budget. Maybe we can get a sticker sheet in the future that just happens to fit this guy. The hammer itself seems modeled after the build-a-cardboard-hammer from Amazon's exclusive collection a few years ago, and thankfully, is not cardboard - but is also not in the movie, making Maccadam's not-silver hammer is a goofy (but welcome) new addition to the figure.

Getting this sucker into car mode took some massaging - I got it to work, but parts would pop out from time to time. The gray tail fins on the back aren't as exaggerated as they were on TV, but they're present along with the boosters you fold down just a tiny bit. To get it right, it's clear I will have to hang on to instructions or reference photos. Like this web site! The wheels look nice, and it generally looks like the last one - just slightly more like the cartoon. Hasbro put a lot of work into this, especially given most fans will open the box, transform him a couple of times, and then leave him on a shelf in a straight pose until it's time to move, or upgrade to a new model. For all I know, I'll never see this car mode in person again - but I can say they did a nice job with it, especially given the limits of what the laws of physics allow for multiple things existing in a single space. Pats on the back all around.

The chopper mode is also something of a puzzle, and I will do my best to not lose the manual. Lots of stuff unfolds and re-tucks to get a decent enough helicopter mode, but I found the little wings to be vexing. Getting the panels aligned right and the peg in the fist is tough, and the winglets just sort of rest there - I am not sure if what I am doing is "correct" or "close enough," but it's pretty sturdy overall. The new wing word spins nicely, but some fans have pointed out the blades were assembled upside-down so you don't quite see all the sculpted detail as intended. It doesn't hurt functionality, and I would likely never have noticed on my own, so you can call me a bad fan. The green parts are all new enough that I imagine Hasbro would be hesitant to redo this one again for a while, as it has been five years and all we got was a partial (heavy) retool.)

A funny aside, back in 2019 I wrote this about Siege Springer:
"I assume this is going to be the last Springer toy you ever need to buy, but the snake does have a habit of eating its own tail every few years before excreting a new toy that I look at and can't help but marvel at how far we've come since the 1980s."

I would say that prediction came pretty close to coming true, as this new toy tweaks Springer just enough - even in the head - to say "this is a cartoon version" as opposed to "this seems more like a toy version" that it impressed. But, there's always room to try again later and that's getting a little tiresome, and the hammer gets an "Incomplete" despite being a great nod to a concept from the aforementioned Amazon exclusive.

If you want the best possible cartoon mode Springer money can buy, so far, this is it. But if you just leave your Siege one in your display, it's doubtful anyone is going to notice a major difference - but you'll know. Oh, you'll know. Comparing his gear to what you got with Astrotrain (a useless cart) or Blitzwing (Hulk Hands), Springer comes out on top. Maybe they'll come up with a new twist and do a simpler Springer that's easier to transform, or maybe they'll repaint this mold as Drift someday. But at this point I don't think I'll want to re-rebuy this design again, as I have two very good toys already and I have to do some thinking about letting Siege Springer go.

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