I just got the two chase figures from the first wave of Auldey non-transforming figures (still waiting on ShowZ to get the full wave in-stock)... Sunstorm and Prime (toy version).
I thought the Prime was merely a premium metallic deco until I realized he came with G1 toy stickers, has yellow eyes, and wheels on the sides of his legs (unlike the regular toon release). So he's distinctly the 1984 toy version, which is pretty cool. Sunstorm comes in two-tone orange and yellow transparent plastic with metal flake molded in, with white accents. It's meant to evoke how he looks when using his sunstorm powers. It's a pretty neat deco I haven't seen in any other line.
Of course, neither transforms, but they have a ton of articulation and character. Head swivels only, but the lower neck connection is a ball joint, so you can get plenty of up/down and attitude. Knees and elbows are single-jointed, but the joint pins are very far forward, so you can get easily 135-deg of movement, as much or more than some double-jointed figures I own. Double-ball ankles, bicep swivels, wrist swivels, three pair of extra hands, waist swivel, chest ball-joint ab crunch. Shoulders are on a ball, with a clever butterfly that pivots right at the front of the sides of the chest, so it's hidden normally and 100% doesn't break the sculpt of the chest. The joints really are well thought out and implemented to get maximum movement with minimal fuss and not a bunch of distracting breaks in the aesthetic.
Prime measures roughly 13cm to the crown of the head, while Sunstorm comes in at 12.3 at the top of his head (13.1 to the top of the intakes). The nice part about this line compared to some of the others is that it still cares about bot scale, so carbots will come to the bottom of Prime's chest windows, minibots to the top of his thighs. They're not going the RED-line route of making Bumblebee and Prime the same height just so they can charge the same for both.
Wave two just got fully announced last week, so I'm anxious to get that on PO whenever it pops up. Chase figs on that one are toy deco Megatron and Goldbug+Bugbite (the minibots are packaged 2x per SKU to get your money's worth). I also like that the chase figures are not essential characters/deco and more aimed at recolors and more deep cuts, so you don't feel compelled to shell out extra for them if they don't blow your skirt up. Plus, it seems like main releases are aimed at G1 toon characters, mostly from season 1, but a couple from S2 and S3. The only outlier is Nemesis Prime, only because they need to reuse that Prime mold as much as possible, no doubt.
The figures really remind me of the old Revoltech line I loved so much... that only got about a half-dozen figures deep. Of course, a 3P garage company made a bunch more that I collected, and I did a few customs, but these Auldey figs could truly eclipse those in fun-factor, being more durable, and a definitely far less expensive.
Overall, this is going to be a fun line to collect. It won't be for everyone, especially the haters of non-transforming TFs, but the mostly-toon aesthetic, smaller size, proper scale, and high articulation in figures with a $13 MSRP makes the whole endeavor seem pretty awesome. As the line takes off, I suspect the chase figures will be harder to obtain for a reasonable markup, but again, they're not making those essential. Very pleased with these guys on first impressions.
