Playing with Legends

Over the last few years, an interesting change has taken place within the Transformers collector community. Where once it was Masterpiece-scale toys that were prized possessions, now it seems that a small revolution is brewing. Both Hasbro and 3rd party companies have seen the sense in downscaling their offerings, saving collectors space and creating a myriad of options for hungry fans.

This is the scale known as Legends.

These little 3-inch, fully transformable Transformer toys usually feature simple transformations and fewer details than their larger counterparts, but over the last few years, with Masterpiece toys in particular simplifying their aesthetic to better match the cartoon, the little bots are now often not only more detailed, but richer in accessories and covered in painted detail. Small wonder that collectors are enamoured.

Many third party companies have entered this small market, including Iron Factory, famed for their Cybertron-styled figures, often based on the stylised designs of Don Figueroa, and more recently Alex Milne. Quality on these toys is very high, with excellent plastics, translucent parts and a bevy of accessories included with each figure. They also do "packs" when the need arises, leading to a 3-pack of figures known as the Datsun Brothers (Prowl, Bluestreak and Smokescreen), a Dinobot collection and even Sideswipe and Sunstreaker types known as "Racing Bros". Where Iron Factory always win for me is with their fembot series. So far, Arcee, Elita-1, Windblade and Slipstream have received dedicated toys, all of which are insanely cute and not a little bit deadly.

Some larger figures have also emerged - their takes on Jetfire, Scorponok, Overlord and Ginrai have all been in scale and suitably large and menacing when compared to other releases in the same line. Honestly you could only buy Iron Factory toys and you'd be set for a lot of popular characters. Even the DJD, the infamous Decepticon kill-squad for rogue Decepticon soldiers, is getting a release. If only we could get a Nautica and a Megatronia set too!

But let's not dwell on Iron Factory. Master-Made have released several very stylish City boys (such as Diabolus Rex, or Trypticon, who features in the gallery below) - these are great centrepieces for a Legends collection. If your tastes are more staunchly G1, then Mech Planet has created an excellent Soundwave, Ratchet, Ironhide and mini-bot collection of figures. DX9 have released dinobots and other popular G1 characters like the 3 conehead plane warriors. Likewise, Magic Square have created terrific little renditions of the fire truck Inferno, Lamborghini Sideswipe and even a little Beachcomber and Seaspray.

As you can hopefully see from the gallery, these little toys are a ton of fun to pose and fiddle with - if you're interested in starting your own collection, Kapow Toys and TFS-Express are both excellent sources in the UK.

Gallery