Angry Birds: Transformers

In late 2014, the next version of Angry Birds was released, this time featuring Transformers. Of course I downloaded the game and played it and then they updated it .. and broke the game. I could still collect the free coins every four hours and the occasional free gems, but playing the missions would result in an instant application crash.

Eventually the issue was sorted and a new version of the game was released allowing playback. Roughly around the same time, the first toy was released in New Zealand: Bumblebee Bird Blast. Checking with Toyworld, they informed me that Hasbro New Zealand didn't have any other Angry Birds: Transformers items planned for release which was slightly annoying as Australia received the single and verses packs along with another playset.

Over the last few months, I have been grinding away by collecting the coins, leaving up and eventually reached level 120. This opened up the world some more and as part of the reveal were two new characters in the game - High Octane Bumblebee Bird and Goldbite Grimlock Bird, each requiring 2500 pigs to unlock. Obtaining 2500 pigs takes a lot of work and then I remembered - the one toy that New Zealand received has those two characters in the box and due to the use of the telepods system you can beam them into the game. An easy way to save more grinding to get 5000 pigs, aside from one problem, the actual cost of the set was $49.99 which was far too expensive for what it was. So it was back to plan A and I began to grind away..

Until today, walking in to Toyworld to ask about the progress of the Greenlight order and also to see if any Mattel (read Hot Wheels) items had come in, I was surprised to see a number of items on sale, including Angry Birds: Transformers Bumblebee Bird Blast for $24.99. So I grabbed it.

As the box yells, there are two ways to play the game, using the Transforming character toys to interact with the mobile game using the Telepods system and then using a launcher to launch one of the small Transformers into a large Bumblebee figure who then converts as well.

Opened up, the box is rather empty and the included play features take up less than half of the remaining space in the box. Two instruction sheets are included, one telling you how to add your character into the game along with transformation instructions and the other showing you how to use the playset features of the set.

Opening the app on the phone, the process to add the character into the game was straight forward enough - hold the Telepod over the front facing camera, and then place the toy on top making sure that the QR code lines up with the small hole and is magnified into the camera. The game will confirm that the character is unlocked and you can then play a special Telepod mission - though it does not seem to add any coins/pigs when completed. The characters do seem to be added to the game as normal, and I was able to start spending coins to level the characters up immediately. However the capsules on the game map allowing you to spend 2500 pigs on unlocking the characters remained, so I am not sure if that is a bug or intended design. EDIT: The characters are only available for 24 hours, after that you need to scan them in again or unlock them by spending pigs.

The toys transformation is simple, press on the head and let the toy flip open (though Grimlock does need to be pulled backwards a bit more) and to convert back to vehicle, just press down to collapse and let everything lock into place.

The play feature is .. "fun"
Press the spring back on the launcher, sit the small vehicle in and aim at the large Bumblebee. Assuming you hit the front bumper, the large Bumblebee will spring open. The trigger on Bumblebee seems to be very sensitive but it did take a few tries for a successful spring and Grimlock is next to useless at activating the gimmick due to his vehicle design.