The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[JB0]

Hooray for easy upgrades!

[M'Kyuun]

Just saw that new Maketoys seeker- very nice, what I would want a MP seeker 2.0 to look like. I saw a gap out of alignment on the back plate in fighter, but given that this is just a prototype, I'm very much looking forward to seeing a final painted version. Gotta agree with with a comment on the face looking too small. Again, prototype, with time for feedback and improvements.

[derex3592]

link?

[technoblue]

32 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

link?

Here are the TFW2005 links again:

Quote

On a related third-party note, have you guys seen the latest images of MakeToys Howling Meteor? I sold off all my MP-11 Seekers a while back hoping that I'd see something like this come out. It looks like patient collectors are in for a treat. 

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/maketoys-mtrm-09-howling-meteor-maketoys-unofficial-starscream.1047088/page-29#post-14556122'

Some more pics. Those poses in bot mode are amazing.

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/maketoys-mtrm-09-howling-meteor-maketoys-unofficial-starscream.1047088/page-41#post-14558825

 

[Firefox]

Not bad at all. Long live the seeker. 

[M'Kyuun]

I know they've been out for awhile, but I got my ToyWorld Constructor boxset and MMC Remix Jaguar yesterday, and WOW for both. Getting Constructor assembled proved to be a little more trying than I thought it'd be (instructions are small and sometimes difficult to make out, and then QC stuff). I had a few QC issues, such as tabs not wanting to stay tabbed, and a misalignment or two, but eventually I got it together, and man, is that a massive figure. It's certainly not perfect (Concrete is the weakest figure IMO, as I could find no way for the section of internal leg assembly below the knee to tab into anything to keep it from moving when posing him-the knee joint is tight and the whole thing moves inside the truck cab part of his leg), but overall, I was pretty impressed with the heft and engineering overall. Even with its flaws, at this scale, it'll be a tough set of figures to beat. A couple negative observations:  I really wish they'd found a better way of securing the combiner joint assembly on Unearth- even with everything tabbed and assembled per instructions, there's still a bit of give to it due both to gravity and torque from rotating the arm- a bit unnerving every time I move Constructor's right arm. On the left arm, Bulldozer has tabs that hang down from the arms in dozer mode which connect to the framework containing the combiner  joint and the robot leg assembly; one of those tabs absolutely would not stay tabbed, and those tabs are necessary to hold the dozer together and provide solidarity , esp given the torque forces applied when the arm is rotated at the shoulder (really strong ratchets on these combiner joints).  I had a few other issues but those two are my main concerns, and I'll be keeping an eye out for stress/breakage so long as I keep them combined. Issues aside, no regrets- this is an amazing Devastator figure- imposing and beautiful!

MMC's Jaguar, for those who don't know, is an upsized Ravage who becomes a normal sized audio cassette, rather than the mini-cassettes which have been the mainstay among the official releases. Before he was released, part of me hoped if a MP Soundwave was attempted, that Takara would upsize him to accommodate full sized cassettes; in hindsight, sticking to the minis was the right call, as Jaguar is nearly 4x larger than his mini-cassette self in both modes, and a scaled Soundwave would have been huge. MMC did some neat engineering with this figure to both give it a nice cat-like profile and to impart a good range of articulation. Looking at him in his jaguar mode, there's no doubt this is G1 Ravage- MMC nailed the aesthetic, even down to his chromed rocket packs on the hind quarters. As others have mentioned, though, the cassette mode suffers from a nearly complete lack of cassette detail, and I think I'll be getting the Toyhax labels for this guy. For fans of Ravage, I highly recommend this toy.

Anyway, just wanted to gush over my new toys. I know these fall into the 'yawn' category for many of you, but both of these sets are dream toys for me, and I'm happy to finally have them and share a few impressions for anyone who may be curious.

Um, Maketoys Seekers.....

[mikeszekely]

Glad you like Constructor, M'Kyuun.  He's impressive, to be sure, but sort of unwieldy.  Definitely happier with Gravity Builder (although I still hate their Bonecrusher), but to each his own.

Some updates on my side, I bought the ToyWorld swords.  It's super obvious that they're for the Dinobot combiner; the box has a big label of the combined mode and a collector's card in the box for "Dinoking".  It's not entirely clear to me why they weren't included with one of the five Dinobots, but if I had to guess I'd say ToyWorld didn't plan to make it in the first place, and did so out of reaction to Shuraking's sword.  In fact, the blades can be removed from the hilts, and they have two grooves on the sides.  The grooves fit onto the sides of the hilt, so you can even recreate Shuraking's stupid sword with two blades.  On the plus side, there are two handles that fit in the combined-mode fists, so you can have the combined-mode dual-wielding.  You can also pop the handle off of one of the hilts and build a double-bladed sword of the proper kind (that is, a blade on either end and not two parallel blades on one end).  If that weren't enough, you can take the handles off entirely, leaving the swords with 5mm pegs that most Transformers and many 3P toys can use.

I also broke down and bought the Limited Edition GCreation Blade.  No need to do another review; he's basically identical to the version of Blade I already reviewed.  Seriously, the only difference is that the red torso, pelvis, and hip parts on the regular one are blue on the LE version.  Probably not a necessary upgrade for a lot of people (I already have a buyer lined up for the red one), but it makes a huge difference to me.

I did get one other thing in this shipment, but I'll leave it a surprise since I'll surely do a review for it later.

[technoblue]

10 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

MMC's Jaguar, for those who don't know, is an upsized Ravage who becomes a normal sized audio cassette, rather than the mini-cassettes which have been the mainstay among the official releases. Before he was released, part of me hoped if a MP Soundwave was attempted, that Takara would upsize him to accommodate full sized cassettes; in hindsight, sticking to the minis was the right call, as Jaguar is nearly 4x larger than his mini-cassette self in both modes, and a scaled Soundwave would have been huge. MMC did some neat engineering with this figure to both give it a nice cat-like profile and to impart a good range of articulation. Looking at him in his jaguar mode, there's no doubt this is G1 Ravage- MMC nailed the aesthetic, even down to his chromed rocket packs on the hind quarters. As others have mentioned, though, the cassette mode suffers from a nearly complete lack of cassette detail, and I think I'll be getting the Toyhax labels for this guy. For fans of Ravage, I highly recommend this toy.

Welcome to the club!  I agree that MMC's Jaguar is very, very nice. I like how I can pair the figure with MP Ravage and mimic the blatant mass-shifting from old G1 episodes. It makes for a fun display, and the articulation (as you say) has a good range that improves on the official MP cassette. I was hoping that a Howlback repaint would be out by now too, but it looks like MMC has reorganized the schedule of their cassette tapes and I'm not really clear on what they plan to release next.

Given what has been teased at places like tfw2005, I'm interested in seeing how frenzy/rumble will turn out. 

Edited May 7, 2017 by technoblue

[mikeszekely]

It's intermission, so here's the other guy I got. This is Unique Toys' Soundmixer, their not-Blaster.

In hand, he seems kind of smallish.  Maybe because the G1 toy was so big?  Indeed, he's a little smaller than the Generations Blaster from a few years ago, but his head height is actually about the same size as an MP car.  Of course, that means that he's not likely to wind up on anyone's MP shelf, but I'd say he works out to a nice Voyager-size for a CHUG Blaster.

Aesthetically, he's a lot closer to G1 than a FOC Soundwave repaint.  He's got the speaker shins, and some silver paint on his knees mimics some sticker detail on the G1 toy.  He's lacking the red dots above his feet, but UT still worked some red in.  Likewise, he doesn't have the funky hips of the G1 toy or cartoon, but he's still got some red-painted lines on them.  The head is G1 cartoon, but with the toy's yellow eyes.  Blue-painted details on his shoulders ape the original toy's stickers, and he naturally has a large yellow tape door dominating his chest, although the faux buttons under it are far too small.

UT didn't just stop at the front, mind you.  Silver paint helps highlight molded details on his back, and the sides of his legs sport all sorts of molded details in black, silver, and yellow paint.

Soundmixer comes with a couple of accessories, and the bulk of them leave me scratching my head.  There's a megaphone, which is ok, and a tape which is actually really cool... as well as chest armor, shoulder armor, and a visor.  If anyone has any idea where UT might have gotten the inspiration for that at, please let me know.

His head is on a ball joint with ok-but-not-great up, down, and lateral tilt.  His shoulders are hinged his his chest and can move 90 degrees laterally, but he's got the old Warbotron problem of having the rotation on the other side of the joint so he can't really raise his arm while moving it laterally.  His biceps swivel just above his elbows, which can bend 90 degrees.  He doesn't have any wrist swivels, but his fingers are on a hinge at the base knuckle so he can open and close his hands like an MP car.  He has a ratcheted waist swivel.  His hip armor is on a hinge, but his hips are still limited to about 45 degrees forward and less than that backward, but he's got the full range laterally.  He has a thigh swivel, and another swivel at the knee that's really for transformation.  His knees can bend 90 degrees.  His feet are on swivels so he can get about 45 degrees of ankle tilt, and due to his transformation he can tilt his feet up as well.

So the all the armor fits on him.  The chest piece is a little loose, but I'm not complaining because UT designed it to kind of wrap around the molding on Soundmixer's body, leaving him wonderfully free of any tabs and slots.  To be honest, I think it looks stupid on him, and after taking this photo it'll all go back in the box, never to be seen again.

His chest does open, and you can store the tape inside.  As I mentioned earlier, the tape is cool because it transforms into a rifle.  Honestly, with the stock and the scope and what not, it's actually kind of reminiscent of his G1 gun.  Sure, it's a little blockier because it turns into a tape, but I think it's a much better gimmick for a toy this size than trying to make some crappy Rewind/Eject/Steeljaw/Ramhorn out of it.

A big advantage that Soundmixer has over the Generations Voyager Blaster is that he actually turns into a boombox.  I don't have him to compare, but I'd feel comfortable saying that he's a more Blastery boombox than the newer Titans Return Blaster.  UT uses some careful arrangement of fold-out panels on Soundmixer's arms to blend them in with his waist, and larger panels fold out to cover his thighs and hips.

Not too sure about the silver circles, though.

The tape door still opens in this mode, so you can naturally store the gun inside.  None of the other accessories belong anywhere in boombox mode, though.

As good as he looks from the front, the back isn't as hot.  The fold-out panels are only for the front, I guess, so from behind he's got gaps that clearly show his thighs, knees, waist, and even a little of his fingers poking out.

Another thing I'd note about Soundmixer, something that's not clear from pictures, his that some of his joints are kind of loose.  I don't know when UT made Soundmixer, so I don't know if he's from the "UT sucks" period or the "UT is improving" period.  I'm pretty happy with him, though.  While there are some noticeable exceptions like MMC's Reformatted line and Maketoys' Cross Dimension line, the 3P scene seems to cater to a portion of the fandom that's basically "MP or GTFO".  But after seeing some recent MP-style toys like Eligos and even Takara's own MP-36 Soundmixer is a refreshing reminder of why I was interested in 3P in the first place... he's a quality Voyager-sized toy with better-than-Hasbro articulation and paint, an intuitive, fun transformation, and a great CHUG-style representation of Blaster.  He's just fun, while so many toys being released these days are just tedious.  So yeah, he's a little loose, and given the quality of newer 3P toys I might not recommend him at $80-$100, but I snagged him from TFSource for $50 and that that price I think he's an excellent Voyager-sized Blaster.

Now if I could just get KBB to do a downsized MP Soundwave for him to fight with...

[M'Kyuun]

16 hours ago, technoblue said:

Welcome to the club!  I agree that MMC's Jaguar is very, very nice. I like how I can pair the figure with MP Ravage and mimic the blatant mass-shifting from old G1 episodes. It makes for a fun display, and the articulation (as you say) has a good range that improves on the official MP cassette. I was hoping that a Howlback repaint would be out by now too, but it looks like MMC has reorganized the schedule of their cassette tapes and I'm not really clear on what they plan to release next.

Given what has been teased at places like tfw2005, I'm interested in seeing how frenzy/rumble will turn out. 

Thanks, Technoblue! I sat on the fence for this figure for quite some time, but really, I fell in love with it back when it was first revealed, and moreso with reviews. I've always loved Ravage, and every other cassette version has fallen short. I had high hopes for the MP version, especially after seeing how excellent the Laserbeak mold turned out. But again, it disappointed. So, it was a matter of when, not if, I eventually got him. I finally committed, as I was afraid I'd wait too long, and he'd be out of production. So glad I did- prob the best G1 Ravage we'll ever get, as there's really not a whole lot of room for improvement (maybe in the neck and head area, which are limited by virtue of design). It'd be interesting to see someone shrink it down to minicassette form, although it'd prob be extremely fragile at that size. Still, to have something this faithful that could tuck away in Soundwave.... 

I've seen MMC's condor cassette design, which looks alright (maybe too slavish with those feet), but I haven't seen their Frenzy/Rumble mold. Guess I'll be Googling. 'Preciate the heads up.

[M'Kyuun]

18 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Glad you like Constructor, M'Kyuun.  He's impressive, to be sure, but sort of unwieldy.  Definitely happier with Gravity Builder (although I still hate their Bonecrusher), but to each his own.

 

Thanks, Mike. He's an impressive figure, esp given the scale. Unwieldy is a good word to describe him, indeed. There's a lot of weight there, but I'm impressed by how well the thing balances, and holds a pose. I think Concrete could have used a little more heel to help stabilize him in combined mode, but it's pretty true to the toon and toy, and that's what TW were going for, so I won't fault them.

I like what GC did with their construction vehicle alts- the modern look initially had my attention, but the liberties taken on the bot modes just alienated me. Plus, I was pretty much sold on TW the moment I saw those rolling treads on Unearth and Bulldozer. They're a little sticky at times, but so incredibly cool when they work as advertised. I'm a sucker for moving treads- I blame my German heritage.

Soundmixer looks good, but he's a bit small for my taste. I'm guessing that he can fit the official mini-cassettes in his chest. The gun cassette is pretty clever, and makes for nice stowage in his alt mode. I like my Takara Legends Blaster (I forget the Japanese name), but how hard would it have been for them to make him and the Soundwave molds hold a cassette in their chests( in the normal upright position), while still maintaining the device storage capability? Kind of a missed opportunty for dual functionality, IMHO. I still wish they'd make updated mini-cassettes. Thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy, the cassettes of old are getting some exposure to the digital storage generation, so at least there'd be some familiarity. Hoping that a MP Blaster and his cassettes are somewhere in Takara's, and thusly my, future.

[mikeszekely]

You guys catching any of the drama with TW?

For those that haven't followed, TW was working on a Constructor-sized Bruticus. All the sudden, they dumped their entire design team after implying that they're "robbers," and the first two TW Bruticus figures are up for preorder from a new company called Zeta Toys.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Yeah, it makes me question the quality of Zeta's product.

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Yeah, it makes me question the quality of Zeta's product.

They could cheap out on plastic or materials, but AFAIK the designs were done and the molds were ready to go, and it's still basically what ToyWorld would have put out. I'm guessing that they're so cheap because Zeta doesn't need to recoup the money TW already sunk into them.

And since they are so cheap, I think I'll check them out. If the other three turn it to be vaporware, no biggie. It'd be too big to replace Warbo Bruticus in my combiner display anyway.

[mikeszekely]

I picked up another figure, totally on a whim.  He doesn't really fit in my collection, but here he is anyway.  This is Planet-X's Jupiter, their take on Fall of Cybertron Optimus Prime.

He's an interesting figure.  It's obvious that Planet-X wanted to bring out more detail than the little Hasbro Deluxe, like the bits at the top of his shoulders and tons of pink-painted detail throughout.  His forearms lack the Hasbro hollowness.  He's got the game-accurate tires and thrusters on his back (although I was kind of surprised to see thrusters and faux tires molded but unpainted on the Hasbro toy, it's a little detail I'd never noticed before.  I also think, although I'm not sure how well it shows up in photos, that the metallic-colored red and blue plastics used by Planet-X look much nicer than the plastics used by Hasbro.  For all the greater emphasis on detail, though, I was sort of surprised to see that there are a number of things that are actually more accurate on the little Hasbro Deluxe, including the black paint on the windows, the silver under the windows, the gray hands, the silver vents on his cheeks, and the silver smokestack-things.  I find it a little odd that Planet-X put the effort into making a FoC Prime that looks much better than the Hasbro but gets so many little details wrong.  I also think that, for all the engineering that went into this toy, Planet-X could have put more effort into stowing the bumper than having it chill very obviously on his back.

In case you're wondering, here's how he stacks up against other Voyager-ish 3P Primes... a tad shorter, and a lot bulkier.

Jupiter comes with three accessories.  There's a gun that's a fairly game-accurate Path Blaster, an axe, and a sword.  It's been a long time since I played FoC, but I feel like the axe is about right.  I don't really recall him using a sword, though.

Jupiter's head is on a ball joint, and he's got decent up/down and lateral tilt as well as a swivel.  His shoulders rotate and there's a hinge for lateral movement.  His shoulder armor kind of gets in the way, but it's on some separate joints so you can finagle it out of the way and get nearly 90 degrees of lateral bend.  He has bicep swivels, hinged elbows that'll get just a hair over 90 degrees, wrist swivels, and MP carbot-style hands with fixed thumbs and the fingers molded as a single piece hinged at the base knuckle.  He has a thigh swivel, but unless you start undoing pegs for transformation a hinge on the small of his back will rub into his pelvis.  While this does limit his waist articulation, I think the range he has is fairly natural.  He has universal hips that, due to the shape of his thighs and the fixed nature of his pelvis, limits him to a little less than 90 degrees forward or backward and just about 45 degrees laterally.  He has thigh swivels built into his hips that, again, are limited due to the shape of his thighs but again have a mostly-natural range.  His knees can bend a little shy of 90 degrees.  His ankles have a few hinges for transformation that can give him a little up/down tilt and a dedicated swivel for good inward ankle tilt.  All-in-all, I think his articulation is adequate, but below what you'd expect from a modern $100 Voyager-sized 3P toy.  In fact, the little Hasbro Deluxe version has better range in his neck, elbows, hips, and knees, plus it has an ab crunch and ankle rotation, and all he's losing are the opening hands.

He holds his axe fine, and the Path blaster can be fit over his forearm to give Jupiter the gun-hand style of the game.  It's just held on with friction, and not particularly well.

Alternatively, you can fold the underside back and reveal a flip-down 5mm peg so you can have him hold it in his hands, if you prefer.  He can also hold the sword just fine.  Peg holes on his forarms will also allow you to mount the gun to his arm like Fusion Cannon, or mount the sword onto his forearm in a psuedo-TF Prime/Bayverse manner.

One nice little detail that Planet-X included is that Jupiter's chest can open up and reveal a Matrix inside.  The Matrix is removable, and seems to be made of blue translucent plastic with gold paint.  While we've almost come to expect Matrices on larger Prime figures it's a detail I think PX could have gotten away without.  So it's nice that they put the effort not just into including it, but in the molded detail behind it and the gray paint inside his chest.

Jupiter's alt mode is, again, good but not perfect.  Once again, I appreciate the little extra paint details, as well as the fact that they tried to give the rear end a bit more finished appearance than the Hasbro version.  The problem is that the filling bits, including the quartet of exhaust pipes, are not game-accurate.  The the thrusters that should be in that spot are sitting up too high, pegged onto his shins in a way that's eager to pop back out.  Getting from robot to vehicle mode is also kind of a pain, especially his over-engineered legs.

Another comparison pic with other 3P Voyager-ish Prime's.  He's a beefy boy, I'll give him that.

Jupiter's gun can peg onto his roof using two small tabs.  On the plus side, it's centered up there, unlike the Hasbro toy.  On the minus side, it's again not the most secure connection.  A bummer here is that there really isn't much in the way of storage for his melee weapons.  You can use the random pegholes on his gun to mount the sword or the hilt of the axe, but the axe won't fit with the blades on.

You guys, I kind of don't know about this one.  I hear a lot of great things about Planet-X, so maybe my expectations were too high, but Jupiter is kind of a pain to transform and he's got worse articulation than a $10 Deluxe.  He's a hefty, good-looking figure with lots of detail, though.  I want to say that if you're a FoC fan or a Planet-X fan, then Jupiter looks and scales better with a lot of the other WfC/FoC toys released by either Hasbro or Planet-X.  But I also want to say that I'm not seeing anything here that's convincing me that Planet-X is deserving of the same sort of acclaim that companies like Maketoys or MMC get, and if all you're looking for is a Voyager-sized Optimus I think your money is better spent on the KBB MP10v or Maketoys Striker Manus.

[technoblue]

I rank Planet X right up there with MMC and Maketoys. Yeah, they only have a couple releases that I would consider as having good articulation and none of the releases match Maketoys on the hyper-articulation "Iron Man" scale. Of course, I love the Cybertronian look and if some future figure appears that can look the part and pose like a super hero, then I won't complain at all. The downside is the pre-order price. I find myself waiting for Planet X sales these days.

Of the ones that I own now, Jupiter is a favorite. Vulcan is also up there, as is Quirinus. I don't have any issues transforming these guys back and forth or getting the accessories to fit together where they should, but I have run into my fair share of fiddly Planet X figures so I understand that complaint. For me, Asclepius and Summanus are two fiddly pieces that stand out. A fiddly transformation isn't a deal breaker for me, though.

Edited May 24, 2017 by technoblue

[M'Kyuun]

Didn't see it posted earlier, so I thought I'd mention Fans Toy's take on MP scaled Arcee. http://news.tfw2005.com/2017/05/23/new-prototype-images-fans-toys-ft-24-rouge-masterpiece-styled-arcee-339387#images

Little drama over on the TFW boards over the sexualization of the figure. In truth, it's pretty conservative, and FT are including a second screen accurate chest piece for her in the event that the slight suggestion of cleavage offends. For what it's worth, the engineering looks rather clever, as they took a novel approach by making the fenders of her car mode collapse into each other, and it's the rear fenders that you actually see on her back. It's much cleaner and more screen accurate than the Generations version, and well, pretty much any toy version I've seen of G1 Arcee. Arcee has to be one of the most challenging bots to do b/c so much of her car mode just magically disappears in animation, leaving a svelte fembot with two little pods on her back. Thus far, I believe only renders have been shown of her alt mode, so it remains to be seen how well all that folding actually works in plastic, but FT have impressed me with their Dinos to maintain a strong interest in this toy.  Thought I'd share.

[technoblue]

3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Didn't see it posted earlier, so I thought I'd mention Fans Toy's take on MP scaled Arcee. http://news.tfw2005.com/2017/05/23/new-prototype-images-fans-toys-ft-24-rouge-masterpiece-styled-arcee-339387#images

Fan Toy's version of Arcee looks very smart to me. I've been avoiding the kerfuffle over her on tfw, though. It speaks a lot to overthinking the small stuff. Would it be nice to have Fans Toys make more parts on the toy square and robotic? Perhaps. I do think the look they went with, where it is predominantly G1, is also mixing in a modern look, and that's okay. Personally, I'm more interested in seeing if there is a waist swivel that works, and how well the toy will stand with those folded up car parts in bot mode.

[M'Kyuun]

My first thought after looking at the various pics was that it's a shame they couldn't make her chest become the front of the car- it's a fake chest, from what I can tell, hence the ability to swap it between almost-there cleavage and animation accurate flat panel (my preference, actually, but the suggestion of breasts is so understated that it probably wouldn't have made that much of a difference). There's much ado about this and the suggestion of buttocks on her upper legs over on TFW. I've seen the offending buttocks, and, came away unoffended. When I look at the overall design, the conservative suggestion of femininity in a fembot doesn't really bother me. Now, if they'd given her double-d's and a flagrantly large ass, well then that would compromise the look of Arcee as we know her, and then I'd be bummed. But, that's not the case, and this figure looks very good to me thus far, certainly proportionate to the Movie and toon appearance. Playing Devil's Advocate, robots most likely don't copulate to reproduce, and so human physical sexual traits aren't really required; but let's face it, human males respond to those things, no matter how subtle, and that's really who she's been made to appeal to- not her plastic male counterparts.  As I've said, I think FT have shown restraint in the design by giving the merest suggestion of feminine human body shaping in a tactful manner that doesn't detract from the overall look of the figure. Some folks get their feathers ruffled quite easily, and some just like to have a reason to get their feathers ruffled. I'm neither, and I have faith that the conversation won't devolve here. TFW is great for news, but boy do they like their drama.

[David Hingtgen]

eBay flashsale, same as usual:  PREMEMDAY15.   Go snag something!

I just got "CG-04", which I was unaware existed until I was browsing Bababobo's store---apparently it just released this week.  It's pretty much what I've been wanting for years---the MP-11 seeker mold, in Thundercracker's deep G1 toy blue.  They put the MP-07 scheme on the MP-11 mold.  Not perfectly G1, but "the best combo of mold/paint yet" for me, as a G1 TC toy fan.  Will take some repainting to make it "more G1", but I've done it before to an MP seeker, I'll do it again.   Just really hope Reprolabels will up-size their sticker sheets for these guys.  It should be REALLY simple for them to do.  

[Chronocidal]

Thanks for mentioning those, I just looked the CG-04 series up, and read through the entire thread about the Oversized Seekers on TFW.  I'm half tempted to pick up the oversized Greenscream, but not sure I want one that big, since these are much closer to 1/48 scale.

Will admit, I don't care for how the MP-11 mold bulked up the lower legs compared with the MP-03, since it breaks the cleaner lines of the back end of the plane, but it does help the bot mode a lot.  The add-on packs with the tanks and missiles actually looks like it would cover that somewhat anyway, and I'm actually thinking it would be easy to mod some actual 1/48 F-15 weapons to fit.

Urg, I don't need one more series of transforming jets to buy, I'd been doing fine with just Macross.

Edit: Went ahead and grabbed one off Ebay, but sadly the flash sale code was expired.  Still slightly cheaper than TF Direct though.  I've had the Walmart Skywarp for a few years, and still enjoy fiddling with it, but I've wanted an actual Starscream ever since Christmas of 93, when my parents couldn't find one, and got me a Ramjet instead (the G2 one in Skywarp-ish colors even..   ).

Edited May 25, 2017 by Chronocidal

[mikeszekely]

I didn't buy a OS Seeker, but I did buy something else that also doesn't quite fit with my collection.  On a whim, I decided to grab me a copy of Maketoys' Despotron, their take on a Masterpiece Megatron.

Aesthetics tend to be extremely subjective, and I think the various attempts at an MP Megatron illustrate that fantastically.  A lot of people seem to really like DX9's Mightron's head, and have criticized Despotron for being "too stylized".  Yet the panels and marks on his forehead aren't simply Maketoys' doing their stylizing thing, and they're not without precedent.  MP-05 had them.  CW Megatron had them.  Andrew Griffith, Joe Ng, Alex Milne, and Don Figueroa have all included details like Despotron's on their Megatron artwork.

The fact that I named a couple of artists who have worked on Transformers might have tipped you off on a crucial fact: I'm a fan of Transformers comic books.  I read the Marvel comics.  I read the Dreamwave comics.  I read the Devil's Due G.I. Joe crossovers.  I have read and continue to read IDW.  I say this fact is crucial because it means that while the G1 cartoon is certainly part of my concept of Megatron, it's not my only impression of him.  I think someone who only knows Megatron from the G1 cartoon can dismiss Despotron as being too stylized with legs that are far too thick.  Meanwhile, I think that the animation in the G1 cartoon was ranged from ok to awful, and while I'll gladly concede that MP-36 is definitely the most animation-accurate rendition of Megatron I'm not sure that the gray color, high waist, and skinnier proportions of the animation model really fit with my mental picture of Megatron.

Something else to consider is that Takara has been moving in a direction that has become increasingly slavish to the G1 animation models.  Now, I'll leave that up to you guys to decide for yourselves if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I think it's fair to say that MP-36 looks like the animation in three dimensions, while MP-10 looked more like a model of an actual robot whose design would be simplified for animation.  So, for me at least, Despotron has two things going for him.  First, his beefier proportions make him look like a bot who could actually stand up against MP-10's Optimus Prime, and second, the overall design and detail on Despotron seem like a better aesthetic match for MP-10 than MP-36.

One other thing I want to point out about Despotron's design and aesthetics, and that's the fact that Despotron is probably the cleanest Megatron figure you can buy.  His back is tidier much tidier than Mightron and a little better than MP-36, and while Apollyon probably has the cleanest back he's really just shifting a lot of kibble to his legs, where Despotron is still pretty tidy.  Now, I don't think a little kibble on the back is a deal breaker in a figure, and I'm not automatically saying something like Mightron sucks because he has a backpack.  I'm just really impressed at how well Despotron cleans up.

Anyway, moving on to accessories... Despotron naturally comes with his Fusion Canon.  Does that even really count as an accessory, or a part of Megatron's body?  He should come with an Energon mace.  I say should, because mine didn't have one in the box.  Don't worry, I contacted the seller and the mace is on it's way, but I got no pictures for you.  What I do have are pictures of the four faces Maketoys included.  The teeth-gritted, angry face is fine.  The laughing face is, I think, a little over the top for me (although it seems based on a cover by Guido Guidi for IDW's All Hail Megatron, a cover that was in turn inspired by Brian Bolland's work on Batman: The Killing Joke, so good job, I guess?).  Honestly, I was prepared to say stoic face is the way to go, but that sneering smirk face has just the perfect amount of emotion I want to see on my Megatron.  Whichever face you prefer, swapping faces is as easy as popping his helmet off, pulling the face off the tab, slotting a new face onto the tab, and popping his top back on.

Despotron's articulation is pretty good.  His head is on a ball joint, with adequate upward range and more than enough lateral tilt, and he can look down until his chin touches his chest.  His shoulders are ratcheted for rotation and a hinge for lateral movement.  With the faux hammers on his shoulders extended they'll limit his lateral movement a tad, but if you fold them back in he can get a full 90 degrees of lateral movement.  He has bicep swivels, and although his elbows are only a single hinge he can bend them well beyond 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel.  His hands are close to MP-10's, with a fixed thumb, an individual pointer finger with a hinge at the base knuckle and one additional hinge for pointing, and the other three fingers molded as a single piece hinged at the base knuckle.  Interestingly, they have the same grooves molded into the palms that Maketoys' Cross Dimension figures do, so while they look kind of tiny in his fists the weapons that come with them fit securely in them even with his fingers open (the only other Re:Mastered figure I have is Gundog, and he uses the more traditional tabs on the handle into a slot on the palm).  One thing I was delighted to discover is that he has a ratcheted ab crunch.  It's not huge, but you can get about two clicks worth.  His waist and thighs swivel, but the friction is pretty tight.  The various bits of hip armor can move out of the way of his hips, which ratchet forward and backward just a hair shy of 90 degrees.  He also has ratchets for his lateral movement; he can get a little further from 90 degrees than his front/back motion, but he does at least have enough clicks that you can get him in a variety of poses without going from stock straight to wide A-stance.  His knees are double-jointed, both ratchets, and can get about as deep a bend as his elbows.  His ankles have a little upward tilt on a hinge due to his transformation, nothing downward, and another hinge provides about 45 degrees of ankle tilt.  The two biggest problem areas are his ankle and his knee.  The tilt for transformation is just a friction hinge, and some more extreme poses make him want to tip forward.  As for the knee, there are sliders in the leg for transformation.  It's possibly an "individual results may vary" sort of thing, because on my copy the right leg is fine, but the left leg doesn't stay locked in the fully extended position as well as I'd like.  All-in-all, though, I think you should be able to get most of the poses you want as long as you're careful.

This being a G1 Megatron, and not a modernized G1 Megatron like the Combiner Wars toy, Despotron turns into a Walther P.38.  I'll be honest, I think Apollyon and Mightron have better gun-mode proportions.  Despotron looks kind of stretch out, like he's longer and the grip is thicker front-to-back than it should be.  If that's a trade off, though, I can live with it.  MP-05 are notorious for having transformations that many owners go from robot to gun to robot then swear to never transform them again (this is the case for my MP-05, which is why it's not in the above picture).  Mightron doesn't seem to bad from what I've seen, but Maketoys has delivered a Megatron with a simple, clever, and intuitive transformation that's actually fun to mess with, and I'll remind you again that it does so with very little in the way of kibble on the robot mode.  As for the gun mode, he's certainly got his share of panel lines, a few screw holes that I really wish Maketoys would have included covers for, and from this side a particularly noticeable groove on the barrel, but there's plenty of detail as well, right down to the P.38 etched onto the side.

Despotron looks a little better from the other side, although there's still a number of panel lines, some gray plastic hinges, and some red plastic peaking through on the grip.  Sadly, the safety is molded in place and doesn't move.  It's a bit of a disappointment that Maketoys didn't include the stock and silencer that Megatron always had in the cartoon.  Here's the thing, though... I don't know a lot of people who are going to buy a Megatron to display in gun mode.  Indeed, I think a lot of people are open to newer versions of Megatron being a tank because if you're going to have a robot as big as Megatron mass-shifting into a gun to be used by his troops, you might as well have a really good robot toy and a separate, non-transforming gun-mode representation for other toys to hold.  We've got that representation numerous times with numerous MP figures.  When you have a robot mode as good as Despotron's, with a transformation as nice as Despotron's, I'm prepared to say that Despotron's alt mode is good enough.

Until Apollyon came along, MP-05 was the best we could get in a Mastepiece Megatron.  Today, in the first half of 2017, we're blessed to have not just Apollyon as an alternative to go with our MP-10s but three other attempts.  Four options, each with their own pros and cons, each with their own slightly different aesthetics.  For a change, I don't feel like telling you that I do or don't recommend Despotron, I feel like telling you that you win regardless of which toy you chose to represent Megatron in your collection, so get the one that you personally find the most appealing.  What I will tell you is that, for me, that's Despotron, and that's because Despotron has the strong proportions I want, the right amount of detail, solid articulation, excellent transformation, and he's silver instead of gray.  If that's what you want, then sure, I highly recommend him, but if you already have and are happy with Apollyon, you think Mightron's less exaggerated proportions are more aesthetically pleasing, or you really prefer the animation accuracy of MP-36, that's fine too.

Edited May 28, 2017 by mikeszekely

[Lorindor]

Hi 3P TF fans!

I got some noob questions on Masterpiece-like 3P toys, specifically Jazz KOs. I understand that a real MP Jazz will probably never happen due to licensing issues, so I've been looking into my 3P alternatives.

Alt-mode look and scale is kind-of unimportant to me, but bot mode should scale very close to the real MP line and overall look like it fits right in. And cartoon accuracy is very important to me. From my research, it seems Maketoys Downbeat is my best fit, but I wanted to ask here what people around here think first. Are there better alternatives out there or on the way?

Which is the best and cheapest online store to buy 3P toys?

I've also heard of stickers of the Autobot logo that you can put on your 3P toys. Where could I get one that would fit the chest area of Downbeat?

Thanks in advance!

[mikeszekely]

Your only choices right now are Downbeat and GT's J4ZZ. J4ZZ won't do it for you, though, as he's IDW-inspired and not cartoon accurate.

ToyWorld is coming it with a version, Coolsville. Coolsville will be slightly too tall, though, and more Studio OX/G1 toy.

There was a group, I forget their name, who announced a figure called Hova. It's been a long time, though, and most of us think Hova is vaporware.

So yeah, Downbeat is what you want.

As for stickers, Toyhax has a set that will have an Autobot symbol just the right size, as well as some other details including the Martini Racing livery. If that's too much detail, they sell sheets of just Autobot symbols. For Downbeat, I'd suggest the white outline ones.

[Lorindor]

Thanks mikeszekely! Just the info I needed.

[M'Kyuun]

Downbeat looks to be a really good figure, based on pics and vid reviews I've watched; however, Coolsville just does it for me with his more toy accurate look and cleaner car mode. I've been waiting for previews, but AFAIK, there are none as yet. With Downbeat already out there, I'd have thought TW would be trying to get a proto into reviewer circulation to build hype, but seemingly that's not the case. Hopefully soon.

[Lorindor]

So what's the best place to buy 3P toys? What places should I avoid?

[M'Kyuun]

I've used TFSource.com, BBTS.com (Big Bad Toy Store), and Chosen Prime, all of which have good selection, customer service, and fair pricing. Of course, they all have mark-ups, but some stores offer free shipping once a price threshold has been met, which softens the blow a little, as 3P tend to be spendy investments. I personally don't have any experience outside of these retailers, so I'm not knowledgeable of any to avoid. Hope this helps.

[Lorindor]

Is anyone of them based outside USA? I have used BBTS for other toys, but the shipping from the US is just ridiculously high.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Lorindor said:

Is anyone of them based outside USA? I have used BBTS for other toys, but the shipping from the US is just ridiculously high.

Robot Kingdom, Action Robo, and TF-Direct are in Asia.

[M'Kyuun]

Somehow, Mike, I knew you'd come to the rescue. I've used RK before, and they generally have good prices, but their shipping prices to the US are high. I don't know how it would compare with European shipping, but I guess, theoretically, it could go ground all the way (hooray for trains).

Captured Prey is a US based store that I've used, and they offer discounted shipping out of the US. One caveat, they generally do not allow order cancellations.

[mikeszekely]

I try. 

Anyways... From what I've heard, it's generally cheaper to ship to Europe from Asia than the US.

If you're in the UK, you might try Kapow toys or TF-Express.

[M'Kyuun]

According to his Avatar, Lorinder hails from Sweden. But yeah, Europe and China share a continent, so rail freight is probably the most efficient means, aside from air freight. While living in the US certainly has its many perks, there are times when it'd be nice to live a little closer to China and Japan, if only to more easily score some goodies and take in a bit of the culture.

[Lorindor]

It is kinda strange that it's so cheap from countries almost on the opposite side of the world, but so expensive from the much closer USA. And I usually choose air freight when I order from Japan. 

Yes, I'm in Sweden, but from UK is often a good choice since it's within EU (well, you know, for now) and there's no import tax.

I will look up all these stores. Thanks all!

[mikeszekely]

6 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

According to his Avatar, Lorinder hails from Sweden.

That kind of stuff doesn't show on the mobile site, and I'm on my phone most of the day since I stay home with our toddler.

But yeah, generally speaking it's cheaper for people in the EU to order from within the EU or from China than it is for them to order from America.  And for Americans, it's usually cheaper to order from US stores than from Europe.  Ordering from China can be a wash; I've bought stuff that was a lot cheaper, but I've had orders where the shipping cost more than the good being shipped.