These World’s Smallest toys, by a company called “Super Impulse,” seem to be everywhere these days, and by everywhere, I mean “non-traditional toy-selling venues that carry little knicknacks.” Transformers aren’t the only thing they do, I’ve seen Worlds Smallests of GI Joe, Masters of the Universe, and miniature games and comics, among other things. But no matter what, it seems they inevitably end up at the dollar store, so if you know where to look, they can be had for fairly cheap. I’ve got the whole first wave of Transformers ones (Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Starscream), thanks to friends who gave them as “just because” gifts, giving me a chance to crack into something I wouldn’t usually look at for myself.
Protip: They’re not these ones.
A quick note: Annoyingly, there was an entirely unrelated Smallest Transforming Transformers toyline in the 2000s, by Takara, which were also very small Transformers, and which, despite it not being their actual name, are commonly called World’s Smallest Transformers by fans. The big difference is that those ones actually transformed, while these are just static action figures. It’s only annoying in the sense that now that these new ones exist, you have to clarify which ones you mean, as there’s a pretty big difference between them, namely the “Transforming” bit. But I won’t judge these ones for what they aren’t. Instead, let’s see how they are.
Packaging
You’ve absolutely seen these hanging somewhere.
I feel like they want you to keep these guys mint in box, based on the work they put into this packaging. So, they’re on these big plastic clamshells, with a smaller card inside of that clamshell, and the figure on a tiny blister. It’s a neat idea, and some of these (like the Masters of the Universe ones) replicate the retro-packaging specifically. These three are kind of faking it though, with an identical picture of Optimus Prime’s G1 packaging art on the front, and a little bit of the old 1984 back-of-the-box-painting on the back. The funniest thing, though, is how the back of each card blatantly lies, since the back of all three say “Transforms from Robot, to Car and Back!” which is not true for any of them, but really, really not true for Starscream.
“Man, that is flagrant false advertising!”
I’ve also heard that some editions of these come with mini-comics, but this isn’t the case here. As another aside, these clamshells are really tough to open. Bring a sharp knife, and try not to cut yourself on the plastic.
That’s one layer down, and no sliced fingers.
I’m not a packaging guy, but I do have to admit that the tinier cards, once I got them out, are a little bit impressive. For one thing, they’re made of hard plastic, not paper, so they’re meant to be durable. And the “doors” on the back of them can open and shut in a way that lets you stash the figure back on the card at any point. Basically, these have photo-taking potential as in-universe toys on cards, which I can appreciate.
Peter’s on his way to give it to a needy kid. The Bugle will say he stole it.
But I’m not a mint-on-card guy, so out they come!
The Sculpts
These Transformers do be small.
Once out of the box, all three of these figures are about the size of Titan Masters. Titan Masters are blocky things, though, whereas these three are all skinnier, giving them the edge in the “being small” category.
“Good to see you, Hot Rod and Kup. Have you been working out?”
In terms of what they represent, these are 100 percent G1 cartoon designs, rather than, say, the “evergreen” looks, or toy-style designs (which would have maybe made a bit more sense, in my opinion). And, in person, the sculpts are pretty crisp and detailed for the scale! Optimus in particular has a lot of tiny molded details on him, including his truck-grill abs, ridges on his feet, patterns on his arm, it’s pretty neat.
A remarkable likeness!
And I guess at this scale, no one cares that the equally-detailed Bumblebee has VW parts on his feet.
To be fair, Origin Bee got to pull that off, too.
I think Starscream’s got the short end of the stick by default, here.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and still can’t get a good action figure.
He’s got a lot of nice detailing, too, like his jet cockpit, shoulder pylons, and wings, but his headsculpt wound up mushier than the other two, and his extremely thin null-rays kind of resemble scraps of plastic more than sculpted parts in places. That’s a shame, because Bee and Optimus have surprisingly detailed heads for the scale. And all three opt to go with open hands, with millimeter-thin fingers, instead of closed fists, another daring move I can respect.
The Colors
“Come back here, Starscream!”
This is where things get a little mixed, because all three share the same upside and downside: There’s a lot of color on them, but the paint is all sloppily applied. And I have multiple copies of these figures, so I opened the best-looking ones!
He’s pointing to the enemy he’s about to eviscerate. You can tell by his flaming eye.
Optimus is the most colorful of the bunch, and looks to have been cast in medium blue, with his red all being painted on, same with different shades of grey, lighter blue, and yellow. They also made an interesting choice to color his feet black, I wonder where that came from. Most impressively, there’s a tiny silver Autobrand tampo’d onto his arm. But he’s also the worst in terms of paint problems, he’s got red slopping onto one of his hands, and his left eye’s light blue seems to be exploding out onto his head, though I can maybe pass it off as that cool thing anime and game characters sometimes do where their eyes light up with flames.
1:1 scale to a real Bumblebee.
Bee’s a bit less colorful, but wound up with the best-applied paint apps. They cast him in yellow, and added accents of black, grey, silver, a red Autobrand, and blue. I’m impressed they colored the tires and wheel rims on his feet! And his paint’s probably the best-applied, his issues are the black paint either going too far or not far enough in places.
Starscream stormed out of the studio after seeing how much paint he was missing.
Starscream’s highlight is the two Decepticon symbols on his rear wings, and his lowlight is the lack of paint on his face (solid white with red eyes), and the general milkiness of the white he’s cast in, washing out his details. He’s got red, light blue, black, and yellow on him, but a lot less than the other two. I wonder why he got the short end of the stick? At least his missaplied paint is all on his back end. Speaking of that, there’s an awful lot of effort put into the backs of these figures for the kind of toy you might want to leave mint in a box.
Build Quality and Accessories
Not quite on the same level as his mainline mini-peers.
So, all three of these guys are cast in rigid, semi-flexible plastic, less solid than Titan Masters, or other minifigures in this scale, but just right for figures with this level of small, sculpted detail that might otherwise break, which it doesn’t feel like any of these guys are about to do. Instead, all their pointy bits flex a little. Starscream is, again, the one that loses out a bit, either his materials are even softer, or the amount of thin stuff on him makes him way more bendable. More critically, though, he can’t stand unassisted, because his legs came out of the box a bit warped, looking like he’s slowly walking forward. Optimus’s legs are also a bit warped, with his feet being a bit diagonal, but he manages to stand on his own, and Bee’s huge stompers make him the most sturdy.
John Barber’s Transformers.
Luckily, all three of them don’t have to worry about stability, because they come with figure stands.
While we’re at this angle, I’m not sure what’s up with the wheels on the back of Prime’s legs, that’s not a standard detail.
Bizarrely, Bumblebee came with two, one behind him on his blister card, and one at the bottom of the outer packaging, like the others. They’re little clear bases, with a single peg that goes into a hole on each figure’s foot, and they’re worryingly tight connections. I had to struggle to get the bases on, though I think I’ve got them broken in at this point. I tend to just leave Bee’s stand off anyway, he doesn’t need the help.
Articulation
Daniel Warren Johnson’s Transformers.
Here’s where I found myself extremely disappointed for a really basic reason: These figures don’t have any leg articulation at all, they’re completely immobile beneath the shoulders. I expected they’d be at least 5POA, Star Wars style, but they’re not. See, these guys are small enough that, if their legs could move, I’d be able to sit them in the cockpits of Titans Return figures, and G1 figures with Diaclone seats, and that would have added so much value.
That’s not how you drive a car!
I kind of managed to get a mecha mode out of Retro Starscream.
But they can’t, all they can do is stand up, and bend at the shoulders and neck. There is something to be said for the open hands they’re all sculpted with, and how the arm articulation combines with it to give them vague gesturing potential. Heck, Optimus looks menacing when his arms are straight forwards. Oh, and I hit another QC problem when it came to their poseability: Bee’s neck was paint-locked when I pulled him out, I had to really struggle to get it moving.
I got it eventually, though, just in time for him to ghostride the bug.
Overall
There’s an interesting idea here, but the execution on these guys just can’t pull it off, especially thanks to the generally dodgy quality control. They’re riddled with a million little problems, from the odd molding on Starscream, to the sloppy paint, to the warped legs on two of them, to Bee’s initially locked joint. And the fact that they don’t have any leg articulation really just kills a good chunk of their potential use and value. There’s something to the packaging and presentation of them, granted, but I’m not the type of collector to typically care about that.
Christmas on the Lost Light.
That being said, they’re not complete flops. One thing that strikes me is that I haven’t collected the right sort of mainline figures to really get much use out of these guys: I don’t have any Titans, or Earthrise Modulators, or anyone else that transforms into a base, or city, or any other large structure. If I had any of those, there’s an immediate use for these minifigures as a population for those structures. As it stands, I mostly get use out of them as in-universe toys for my larger toys.
“One of those Transformers from America I’ve heard so much about!”
So, if you’re a Basebot Haver, you might get a kick out of these guys. But I’ll say one thing: Do not pay a ton of cash for them, wait until they hit dollar stores, if anything, because these are not premium products. Also, just to be clear, I appreciate my friends that got me these! I had fun messing around with them, and wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise!! Thank you!!!
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