The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[M'Kyuun]

36 minutes ago, Convectuoso said:

@M'Kyuun I don't know if there's a site showing this. I get my updates from this Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/321017341931140/?ref=share

Much obliged, good sir.

[anime52k8]

Now, do I want to spend $600~800 on a giant dinobot combiner? absolutely not. But do I really want ZoidGundam dinosaur robots? heck yeah I do.

 

[JB0]

58 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

honestly I feel the same way about shogun Grimlock.

Same. Meant to comment on that too, but...

[Scyla]

13 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

Now, do I want to spend $600~800 on a giant dinobot combiner? absolutely not. But do I really want ZoidGundam dinosaur robots? heck yeah I do.

 

If the Grimlock turns out halfway decent I will buy him. Love the little T-Rex hands that become the robot arms.

Regarding the Legends releases. It is sad that the last couple of releases I bought from IronFactory had such non-transformations. They look great in robot mode and are good action figures but the transformation and resulting alt-modes are lacking. 
I’m talking about their Lio Convoy, Cyclonus and Galvatron. 

[M'Kyuun]

6 hours ago, Scyla said:

If the Grimlock turns out halfway decent I will buy him. Love the little T-Rex hands that become the robot arms.

Regarding the Legends releases. It is sad that the last couple of releases I bought from IronFactory had such non-transformations. They look great in robot mode and are good action figures but the transformation and resulting alt-modes are lacking. 
I’m talking about their Lio Convoy, Cyclonus and Galvatron. 

Of those I only own the Eva Unit 1 colored Lio Convoy, but the lion mode isn't the best. I skipped the other two you mentioned precisely for the reason you cited- the alt modes are way too abstract. I did recently get their Powerglide, and that's a neat little fig that has IF's usual artistic license, but is still recognizably Powerglide, at least in bot mode, with a nice-looking sci-fi jet alt.  I've also got their Huffer, Beachcomber and Seaspray POed, as they all have nice looking alts. I feel a morsel of regret for not picking up some of their earlier G1 figs, especially Jazz, Sideswipe/Sunstreaker, Mirage, Hound, Wheeljack, Cliffjumper, Warpath, as well as their adorable Windblade, and their Bruticus.  All of these hewed pretty close to the G1 alts and looked good. But at that time, I wasn't really into legends, focusing mostly on Hasbro's main line and some MP.

Incedently, I was at a local vintage toy show/market a couple years ago, and a guy there had Titan class Metroplex and IF's Windblade. I wasn't interested in Metro, but I wanted that little WB; he wanted something like $75 for her, so I passed. He said he wanted to sell them as a pair anyway, given her role as City Speaker.  But, I'm still a little regretful that I didn't pick her up back when she was first released. 

 

[Convectuoso]

Some people have already gotten their hands on Magic Square's Devastator:

I'm glad I prefered this one over New Age's

[mark-1s]

Mixmaster's toe looks weird. Other than that, he looks great.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, mark-1s said:

Mixmaster's toe looks weird.

Blame Sunbow.  It's cartoon accurate.

I don't feel like messing with mine, because Mixmaster's the one figure in this set I'd describe as frustrating, but I think it's possible to leave the toe flipped in.

2 hours ago, Convectuoso said:

Some people have already gotten their hands on Magic Square's Devastator:

Domestic shipping is bad enough this time of year, so I'm waiting for The Chosen Prime to get the third set it.  When they do, though, I'll be picking them up for sure.

[Convectuoso]

8 hours ago, mark-1s said:

Mixmaster's toe looks weird. Other than that, he looks great.

That seems to be optional

[Convectuoso]

NewAge's Hound is up for pre-order

[Kuma Style]

Full written review and gallery up: https://kumastyledesigns.com/banana-force-orion-predator-review/

The article goes in depth but overall I gave it a 6.5/10. It just doesn't hit me like Red Sharpshooter did and overall comes off like a release that truly has no purpose and detracts from the direction that the line was originally advertised as going in.

Here are some pics from the gallery portion:

[Kuma Style]

 

[Scyla]

I’m still sad they never made the black Devine Shooter a general release.

[Kuma Style]

50 minutes ago, Scyla said:

I’m still sad they never made the black Devine Shooter a general release.

I'm sad that you didn't read the text on the picture.

[derex3592]

In case anyone missed out or didn't wanna pay an ever creeping up price over the last year or so, my personal favorite Optimus is back down in price with free shipping! Highly recommended!

 

https://tf-direct.com/transform-element-te-01-op-p2616.html

[Scyla]

3 hours ago, Kuma Style said:

I'm sad that you didn't read the text on the picture.

Ohhhhh

[Convectuoso]

More Devastator pics

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, derex3592 said:

In case anyone missed out or didn't wanna pay an ever creeping up price over the last year or so, my personal favorite Optimus is back down in price with free shipping! Highly recommended!

 

https://tf-direct.com/transform-element-te-01-op-p2616.html

I'm in the camp that prefers Magic Square's, but I own both and can definitely recommend TE-01 as a very worthy alternative.

[Dobber]

The latest China-former Sci-figure Industry CS-02 is finally about to bE released.

 

 

 

 

Chris

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by Dobber

[mikeszekely]

I thought I was done doing reviews until after the holidays, but this guy managed to sneak in while I was taking pictures for my look at the 1986 movie toys so I got him photographed before taking down my review space (as it's in my guest room, and I'm having my parents over for Christmas).  It's Planet X's Cacus, their take on an MP-style IDW Grimlock.

Cacus seems to be most-heavily influenced by Nick Roche's art in IDW's Maximum Dinobots.  The biggest deviation from Roche's art is that he's got gunmetal-colored hands intead of red.  While he would later get dark-colored hands when Alex Milne and Jack Lawrence drew him in More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light, respectively, they made his entire upper torso gold, gave him red thighs, and did away with the black on the bottoms of his feet.  Roche's artwork also has the tail on the outside of his legs, like the G1 toy.  It's not how he comes, as there's storage inside his legs for his tail, but leaving the tail outside is an option. 

Almost everything on him is painted, save for his hands and some of the red plastic parts.  It's a premium look that helps sell you on the premium price (this guy retails for around $200).  Unfortunately, the QC doesn't quite match.  My copy has issues with some parts falling off, namely some screw hole covers near his wrists, the flaps on his butt, and a panel on top of his dino head, plus I've got a few paint blemishes on his pad and the back of his thigh.  Others have reported missing pieces, usually parts of the dino mode throat or those bits of armor on the outsides of his thighs, and more than a few have had theirs arrive with a busted shoulder- almost always his right.

Size-wise, he's just a little shorter than Gigapower's Grimlock, which is my preferred height for an MP Grimlock.  Although I don't have him, I do expect that'd make him roughly around the same height as Fans Toys'.

Cacus comes with a sword that similar to, but not quite accurate to the one he used in the comics.  Note the silver circle on the pommel; that's a magnet, and we'll talk about that later.  I'm not entirely sure if he used his gun in the comics, but PX did include a rather G1-ish gun.  Oh, and my complaint about his hands not being the right color?  You get a second pair of red hands, so complaint rescinded.

Swapping the hands is fairly easy.  They're actually just connected via a c-clip, so you just have to pop one set of and push the other into place.  I know, despite it being less accurate, that several people have stated a preference for the default hands.  I'm personally going to be using the red ones, but the unpainted red plastic does look kind of cheap.

Cacus' head is on a ball joint.  He can only look down a little bit, but he's got plenty of upward and sideways tilt, plus his ears can swivel if you need them to.  His shoulders rotate on some very stiff ratchets- so stiff I expect that's part of what's causing the breakages.  Annoyingly, there's another ratcheted joint that's used for transformation, and as it's not as tight it's difficult to pose the shoulder without the transformation joint moving.  Sometimes it's almost easier to spin his shoulder around almost 360 degrees the other so you're working against the transformation joint.  Another ratchet allows him to move his shoulders laterally 90 degrees.  He's got bicep swivels, but they're hindered by the armor on his shoulders.  Double-jointed ratcheted elbows allow for over 90 degrees of bend.  His wrists can swivel, but they can also bend palm inward due to the c-clip.  His thumbs are on ball joints at the base, so they can swivel or fold over the palm as required.  His fingers are individually articulated, pinned at the base and one additional knuckle.  There's a hinge between the gray upper torso and the red lower torso that lets him lean to the sides, a super tight waist swivel, and a weirdly loose ab crunch.  Once you've moved his hip skirts out of the way, his hips can go forward and laterally 90 degrees, and backward almost 90 degrees, all on ratchets.  His thighs swivel.  His ratcheted knees bend about 75 degrees, but if you unlock them as you would for transformation you can cheat it into a double bend and get a little over 90 degrees.  His feet aren't ideal.  The black and gold toes can tilt up and down, as well as pivot over 90 degrees.  And, to help keep him stable, there are bits on his heels that can slide out.  However, most of that big base that he stands on doesn't move.

Cacus has a ridge down the middle of each palm.  His sword and gun both have grooves cut into the handles, and he holds his weapons by pressing the grooves over the ridges on his palms.  Unfortunately, and maybe it's a your-mileage-may-vary sort of thing, his grip on his accessories seems rather tenuous.  When I got him into a pose they'd stay, but posing him was kind of a pain because a little shake would be enough to knock them loose.  It seems like the dark hands are a little tighter than the red, but they're ultimately still very loose so my complaint stands for both sets of hands.

A big part of the draw for IDW's Grimlock is that he's mostly a G1 Grimlock, even moreso than the Fall of Cybertron design that Planet X used the last time they made a Grimlock, but he turns into a more scientifically-accurate T-Rex (again, moreso than Fall of Cybertron Grimlock).  His body is parallel to the ground with his tail off the ground, his tiny forelimbs have just the two claws, and his legs are properly digitigrade with three toes on the front of the foot and one dewclaw.

Transformation is kind of what you'd expect, too.  His robot chest becomes the dino pelvis, with his arms becoming the legs.  His backpack shifts up, with the wings closing over his robot head to make the dinosaur chest and the dinosaur head flipping up and locking between those wings.  His robot legs turn around and the rest of the tail extends from inside.  It's probably a good thing you'll mostly know what you're doing, because the instructions are a horrible series of postage stamp-sized pictures printed on just one side of single A4-sized sheet of poster paper.  What's more, instead of doing the sensible thing like MP-08 or Gigapower's Grimlock where the thighs rotate and the legs fold up and over the thighs from the side, Cacus' legs have to bend at the knee joints over the thighs with a few panels and minimal clearance, making it something of a pain.  If everything doesn't line up right, you'll know it, forcing you to kind of massage everything until everything lines up and tabs in.

Note- remember to rotate his cheeks dino cheeks.  It's a step almost everyone seems to miss.  Maybe because there's not really much reason for them to rotate out of that position for robot mode, but I digress.

And I do mean pain!  At one point I saw a red spot on his back and I thought it was a paint blemish.  Nope.  Turns out I'd actually sliced my thumb open on one of the sharper ridges on Cacus' body.  So yeah, be careful if you handle this guy.

Once you have him in dino mode, though, the blood (literally), sweat, and tears almost seem worth it.  There's more silver paint and less red plastic showing in this mode, and if everything is lined up and tabbed in properly his dino body has an almost seemless, natural curve that belies his transformation.  This being Planet X, who demonstrated how to do dino articulation right the last time they made a Grimlock, this time his articulation is pretty good, too.  His dino head can tilt quizzically to the sides, plus it can look up, down, or sideways a bit where the base of the head meets the neck.  He gets some additional movement up/down/sideways where the neck meets the torso, too.  His jaws can open, and he's even got a hinged tongue inside.  His shoulders are on ball joints for rotation and 90 degrees of lateral movement.  His elbows range from nearly straight to a little over 90 degrees of bend.  No wrist swivel, but each claw is individually articulated with two hinges.  His legs swivel at the hips, but lateral motion is unfortunately limited due to clearances to just two or so clicks.  His thighs can swivel, and his knee can bend a little over 90 degrees.  His ankle bends (where the red screw covers are), plus each toe is individually articulated with a pair of hinges.  Even his dewclaws have a pair of hinges.  Each of the silver sections of his tail have hinges that allow for some up, down, or sideways bend.  Really, the only thing holding you back from some awesome T-Rex poses is the fact that he's kind of back heavy and it can be tricky to get him balanced properly.

One other minor complaint I have about his dinosaur mode is that I wish the translucent red eyes were painted.  It doesn't look like it's easy to take his head apart to paint them, either.  Mind you, the reason they're translucent is because you can open the top of his head to find a small circuit board.  You'll need a CR927 battery, which somehow I don't have despite having bought a ridiculous number of batteries for 3P toys over the years.  The neat thing is that there's no physical switch on Cacus' body.  Instead, you wave the magnet in the pommel of his sword over his head to activate the switch, which is probably pretty neat if I had a batter and could test it.

I have mixed feelings about Cacus.  For one, MP-scaled IDW figures seem few and far between.  So far, there's just Cacus, GT's Prime and Megatron, and GCreation's Prime and Prowl (their Smokescreen repaint of Prowl wasn't technically a form he actually had in the comics).  Something that scaled with MMC's Reformatted line, like the Grimlock they shelved to avoid competing with Cacus, probably would have been better.  The transformation on Cacus was poorly thought out and fiddly enough that you're not going to want to do it often, and minor QC issues detract from the notion of premium that Planet X is trying to sell you on with the paint.  Still, if you can get around his issues he makes for a pretty impressive display piece in either mode, and I appreciate the T-Rex mode that doesn't look like it was based on the 1925 version of The Lost World.  Ultimately, I think I'm pretty happy with my purchase, so I'd say I'd recommend him if you're looking for a display piece with lots of presence, but pass if you're looking for a bot you can fiddle with at your desk.

[Kuma Style]

Nice write up, Mike. 

 

[M'Kyuun]

On 12/21/2021 at 5:06 PM, Dobber said:

The latest China-former Sci-figure Industry CS-02 is finally about to bE released.

 

 

 

 

Chris

 

Oh this thing looks so cool! Mine's on its way from ShowZ, and I'm definitely looking forward to messing with it.

This is the first I've seen it painted, but that matte black with metallic gold accents looks beautiful. this will be my first piece from this company, but I hope all other aspects are as good as the aesthetics. 

I'm hoping they'll roll out a proto for their Flanker concept

a must-buy if it turns out as well as the Thunderbolt helo or the J-20.  I'd love to see their take on the V-22 Osprey- funny the Soviets or Chinese haven't made their own version yet.

a little something to further whet the appetite.

 

[Dobber]

Yeah mine is paid for but I haven’t received my shipping notice from ShowZ yet. I also hope the still make the Flanker. I have their first release J-20 and it is really good. This Helicopter looks even better, IMO.

Look forward to your review whist I wait for mine.

Chris

[M'Kyuun]

On 12/23/2021 at 1:32 PM, Dobber said:

Yeah mine is paid for but I haven’t received my shipping notice from ShowZ yet. I also hope the still make the Flanker. I have their first release J-20 and it is really good. This Helicopter looks even better, IMO.

Look forward to your review whist I wait for mine.

Chris

I may have jumped the gun- mine's also paid for, but I too am still waiting for a shipping notice. So, whichever of us receives it first will have to do a little write-up.  

I thought the J-20 was pretty well done, too, but I have no room for any more of this stuff (yet I keep buying it), so since it didn't totally "wow!" me, I passed on it, with a twinge of regret. But, I've long been a helo fan, and this guy was done so well, and that bot mode so striking, especially in color, that I couldn't let it go.  I felt the same way about Dreamstar Toys' Harrier and F-16 figs in their very stylized take on the Aerialbots.  We so seldom get good looking jets in the TF world, especially these two aircraft, so I took the plunge on both. Actually, I think all of them look pretty good except poor Silverbolt, who never seems to get a good looking jet mode devoid of the bot-box-under-a-Concorde treatment. Given what Dreamstar accomplished with the other team members, I expected their Silverbolt to be just as well done, but sadly no. Anyway, I'm looking forward to having all three of these toys in hand.

That pic of Sci-Figure's Flanker has been around for a while, and I'm loving the design of the bot mode. If they can get the jet mode looking as realistic as they managed for their helicopter fig, I'm totally sold. The Flanker's a beautiful bird, and to have one that transforms into such a cool bot mode is most welcome.

[Kuma Style]

 

[Hikuro]

okay so quick question, X-Transbots, are they any good at all for a 3rd party MP setup? I was scrolling around Toydojo since they're "local" seeing if there was anything interesting out and saw they released a new version of Kup and have an Ultra Magnus which looks kind of nicer to me, and cheaper for order. It's a brand I haven't touched compared to things like Fansprojects, Maketoys and MMC, so I don't have a clue. 

[mikeszekely]

55 minutes ago, Hikuro said:

okay so quick question, X-Transbots, are they any good at all for a 3rd party MP setup? I was scrolling around Toydojo since they're "local" seeing if there was anything interesting out and saw they released a new version of Kup and have an Ultra Magnus which looks kind of nicer to me, and cheaper for order. It's a brand I haven't touched compared to things like Fansprojects, Maketoys and MMC, so I don't have a clue. 

The thing with X-Transbots is that occasionally they put out something really good, but they're just as likely to put out something that's got all sorts of issues.  Take their Stunticons, for instance.  Breakdown was great, Wildrider had ground clearance issues but was otherwise pretty good.  Dragstrip, though, had issues with the clearance you needed to move his wheels between modes, and a lot of people wound up with broken shoulders.  I don't know how widespread it was, but my Dead End has bad paint chipping on his thighs.  And as far as I know, every copy of Motormaster that went out had a bad stress mark on his waist joint.  However, I don't know of many actual breakages.  I don't think XTB's Ultra Magnus is actually out yet; it does look good, but we'll have to wait and see (personally I'm sticking with a modified KO of MP-22 until someone makes an MP Magnus with a white Optimus inside).  As for Kup, the first release was actually a total crap show.  I mean, the QC was so bad XTB promised free replacements.  From what I've heard the replacements were better, but maybe still less-than-good.  I'll let you know for sure later; I actually bought a copy for cheap during a Black Friday sale, but I'm waiting for something else to come in to get the free shipping.  I have a DNA kit on preorder that's out in China, so hopefully not too much longer.

[tekering]

42 minutes ago, Hikuro said:

X-Transbots, are they any good at all for a 3rd party MP setup?

Certainly!  XTB has been around for ages, and while their output is nowhere near as consistent in quality as FansToys, MMC or Maketoys, they've produced some excellent, even definitive 3P Transformers:

I feel no brand loyalty to any specific manufacturer, so I buy from all sorts of third-parties.  I look at online pics and reviews and choose whatever toy most represents the character as I envision them, regardless of price.  All the above XTB figures were chosen because of their cartoon-accuracy, scale consistency, and compatibility with the rest of the characters in my Masterpiece displays, so each represents what I consider to be the best option available.

[Kuma Style]

[M'Kyuun]

12 hours ago, tekering said:

Certainly!  XTB has been around for ages, and while their output is nowhere near as consistent in quality as FansToys, MMC or Maketoys, they've produced some excellent, even definitive 3P Transformers:

I feel no brand loyalty to any specific manufacturer, so I buy from all sorts of third-parties.  I look at online pics and reviews and choose whatever toy most represents the character as I envision them, regardless of price.  All the above XTB figures were chosen because of their cartoon-accuracy, scale consistency, and compatibility with the rest of the characters in my Masterpiece displays, so each represents what I consider to be the best option available.

Nice display- just oozes G1, with all the feels. 

I feel the same way so far as brand loyalty; I have none.  I have preferences, but that's not the same thing.  I buy every fig on its own merits and by how it strikes me. I have a few nitpicks, but little in the way of regret, which is about as close to content as you can be in this hobby. I'm just glad that Transformers existed past the 80s, that it has enjoyed such an evolution in engineering and quality, and that we have the privilege of choice often times with which iteration of a character(s) we want. It's beyond what I ever hoped for in my teens looking at my nigh-immobile G1 toys and dreaming of better.

[Hikuro]

From what I've understood is the Locke 2.0 is decent from the review videos depending on who you watch, or at least he's better than the original version. And that was another thing with MMC's Sphenix Cel, it sounds like he was better overall in quality and style from their original version. I'm even looking at PS-09A Hellion from MMC and he looks fun and nicely designed versus the Takara sample that was shown. But then I see X Transbots has their own version of Cliffjumper and despite his fake torso and huge backpack, he does seem to fit better with the MP's and his proportions are nicer done than MMC's. 

I dunno guys, tough call, really really tough call. 

[Convectuoso]

Some pictures of NewAge's Mirage:

[Dobber]

Mirage looks nice!

Chris

[Kuma Style]

 

[Kuma Style]