Review – 7-11 Transformers Cups and Toys

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Unlike 7-11’s Terminator Salvation cups and toys (review here, these new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen cups and toys don’t directly match up toy with cup. Sure, there’s a Megatron cup and toy, but there’s no Ravage toy to go along with the Ravage cup. But that’s not the most important difference between the promotions for the two different films. No, there’s a much larger difference . . .

The Cups

Obviously there’s someone over in 7-11’s marketing and promotions department that loves lenticular cups, because they’ve released four more lenticular cups (the Terminator Salvation cups also used the lenticular gimmick). I’m not complaining, since I also love the gimmick . . . when it works. I grabbed the two Decepticon cups when I was at 7-11 last weekend — a Ravage cup and a Megatron cup — and of the two the Megatron cup (shown below) works much better.

A significant change from the last Transformers movie is that Megatron now transforms into a tank. I don’t know why — I’ve avoided as many spoilers as possible because I do plan to see the new movie — but I don’t really care why. Megatron’s tank mode — a futuristic, alien design — looks much cooler than the spacecraft mode he had in the first movie.

The second cup, shown above, features the Decepticon Ravage, who was always a favorite cassette and still keeps his animal-like form in the new movie. I’m not completely sure what he transforms into — the cup just shows two different versions of Ravage, one looks more armed/armored than the other — but the Soundwave movie toy comes with a Ravage Missile. I hope they haven’t turned Ravage into a missile since . . . well, what’s the point of turning into something that explodes?

The Toys

I picked up two toys — The Fallen and Megatron — and they clearly show one of the biggest problems with Michael Bay’s vision of Transformers: These two robots look a hell of a lot alike. Where the original series and toys worked hard to make many of the robots look different — completely different shapes, styles, and colors really helped you to immediately tell which character you were looking at — the movies are so focused on the transformation process and alien-nature that a lot of the characters are tough to identify on-screen. Hell, when Jazz was ripped apart in the first film all I could do was say, “Who was that?”

Above (and below) we get a look at The Fallen, the big-bad in the new Transformers movie. Who is The Fallen? This entry at Wikipedia says:

“Although the Fallen’s origins are only suggested in his comic book appearance, they would be fully explained in Dorling Kindersley’s Transformers: The Ultimate Guide. One of the original thirteen Transformers created by Primus, the robot who would become the Fallen betrayed his creator by siding with Primus’s dark twin, the malevolent planet-eater Unicron. In the final battle between Primus and Unicron, the Fallen fell victim to the same fate as his master, sucked through a black hole into another dimension. However, while Unicron emerged in another universe, the Fallen was not so fortunate, finding himself trapped in the “underspace” between dimensions.”

The Fallen toy currently being sold at 7-11 looks pretty good, with a clean sculpt and paint job that shows that someone over at 7-11 wanted to take the time to do the job right. The face, though tiny, shows a lot of detail for its size and even the ridges along the edges of the head are beautifully painted. And at 4-inches tall this isn’t a small toy. There’s no articulation — which isn’t surprising — so its only real use will be as a shelf or desktop toy.

Which is a problem, since The Fallen toy refuses to stand for more than a few seconds. Just to take these photos I had to use a little tacky material to get the toy to stand straight and not topple over. I think the problem is the soft plastic that was used; something more rigid would have a lot more strength and not be as prone to collapsing.

The Megatron toy, thankfully, is able to stand on his own. He’s shorter than The Fallen (about 3.25-inches) but his design is much cooler so the shorter size isn’t a problem. Megatron has either been damaged recently, or is in mid-transformation, because his left arm is a mass of wires and there’s not a hand in sight on either arm. It’s gonna be tough to grab someone and shake them if Megatron doesn’t track down a hand.

Megatron doesn’t have quite as much paint as The Fallen, but the details that are painted are well done. Of the two toys, Megatron is definitely the superior piece of work.

Closing Thoughts

Like the Terminator Salvation cups and toys (reviewed here), these new Transformers cups and toys are inexpensive collectibles that will look best as a set in part of a larger collection. It’s unfortunate that 7-11 didn’t include bases for the toys because without stands, or some tacky stuff, some of these toys are never going to stand.

If you’re a fan of promotional toys then these are a good buy at about $2/each. They’re not fantastic, but the cups look good and the toys were well sculpted and painted. Transformers fans are going to want these but I don’t expect them to ever drastically increase in value or to become hot collectibles. They’re just fun, silly trinkets.

Philip Reed actually likes the cups more than he does the toys. Still, it would have been nice if there had been some real glass glasses for this film.