The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[tekering]

6 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Regarding M-01 Steel Fortress, do I skip a house payment, or just save it for a 4 foot tall Metroplex?

I like the sound of a 4' Metroplex, but Lewin's asking too much for a figure that bears only a superficial resemblance to the source material.  It's not G1 Metroplex, not IDW Metroplex, not FOC Metroplex, and it doesn't even look like Prime Wars Metroplex. 😒

Also, that "transformation" barely qualifies. 🙄

Looks bloody heavy, too:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1105143837682388

Edited January 4 by tekering

[Hikuro]

From what I've seen is that it's shipped in multiple boxes for assembly. It resembles to much to me of the FOC Metroplex to make the cost worth it when I already have a FOC Metroplex. Just because you slap a crap ton of cannons on it and make it 4 feet tall doesn't constitute it as being cool and a must have. Not to mention I can't justify the price tag on this thing, way to expensive and could use a lot more color separation. 

[mikeszekely]

To be fair, I think it looks better than Thrilling 30 Metroplex. But 2' tall Transformers are already too unwieldy and take up too much space in my house; a robot that big is immediately out of the question no matter how cool it is. 

...well, unless it also can cook.

[Hikuro]

I just got back a bit ago from Toydojo, I was able to get 90% of what I was looking for but sadly they didn't have Gears at the store and didn't wanna go to the warehouse to grab him despite making such a big purchase lol, oh well. 

I did as I said, get Stellarus, owner said that since the unveiling of Star OP and having Stellarus $20 off he's been seeing an uptick on it selling.
My copy is incredibly stiff, gun turrets, head, appendages, the works, stiff, I didn't have the leg compression issue, yet, it's certainly sensitive, but he held together quite fine while fiddling and getting him to pose and he came with the lock-in parts if it does happen. Iwish there was more to this figure than just his ion cannon.....either a mini Rodimus or the Zodiac orb, SOMETHING. 

Edited January 4 by Hikuro

[anime52k8]

I'm less impressed by the size and more impressed how something that physically exists can look so much like an ugly, generative A.I. mess.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Call me old fashioned, but I am still perfectly content with my Maketoys Utopia for a Metroplex.  Still waiting for a Trypticon to tickle my fancy.

Edited January 4 by Valkyrie Hunter D

[mikeszekely]

A few months ago, when I reviewed the first set of Mecha Invasion Constructions (set 2 is on the way, BTW), I said that I was like 75% sure that Mecha Invasion was Generation Toy.  But apparently they're not the only ones!  And you want to know the weird part?  After doing the Constructicons (well, technically after their Protectobots) GT split apart, and both of their offshoots are doing more Constructicons.  Given that I've already decided that I'm in for Mecha Invasion, MMC, and Hasbro's own Constructicons on top of already owning a bunch of other Devastators, do I really need another one?  Maybe not, but Scrapper's my favorite Constructicon, so I figured I'd at least take a look at Shovel Fighter, Dream Star Toys take on him.

Yeah, apparently Dream Star Toys is also a GT spinoff.  I didn't pay attention to them before because, frankly, the Aerialbots are one of my least favorite combiner teams and I wasn't interested in owning a set of super-stylized versions of them.  Ironically, with MMC's pending Constructicons filling my MP Sunbow niche the fact that DST's Scrapper is so stylized is exactly what attracted me to him.  With the shovel on his back, large shoulder wheels, and largely purple torso with green limbs, he's arguably more G1 than Mecha Invasion's "what if Bayverse was more G1-ish?" take, but the boxy nature of the actual G1 design has been given the more organic shapes of Don Figueroa's IDW-era work (though I should point out that this is NOT Scrapper's IDW design).  His size, heft, and gorgeous metallic paint give him more of a "premium" look and shelf presence than his GT and MI cousins.

I'm not without complaints, though.  One of my bigger gripes is the kibble on his back.  I mean, yeah, there's the shovel... that's part of Scrapper's design and I'm content giving it a pass.  But there's a second set of hinged up bits coming off his butt (it's actually the combiner joint).  I'm also not keen on his eyes.  There's no clear plastic on the back of his head so I assume that he has an LED and not light piping.  However, the instructions make no mention of it, so I don't know what battery or batteries it takes, and I don't know if there's a physical switch I can't find or some kind of magnetic one like the Mecha Invasion guys.

My other complaints are, somewhat interestingly, complaints I've had with GT's designs going all the way back to their original Devastator.  There are some bits of alt mode that simply do not lock into place in bot mode.  The most obvious one that's probably jumping out at you right away is the railing just sticking out of the sides of his feet, but another example are the ball-jointed calves that are just draped over the wheels.

While I've compared Shovel Fighter with his relatives, I know for a lot of people Constructor has been their Devastator for the last several years as the only "MP-scale" option.  Just thought I'd point out that Shovel Fighter is even bigger than ToyWorld's Scrapper.  He's closer in size to MP-44 (or your 3P MP Optimus of choice).

Shovel Fighter's sole accessory is this gun.  The sculpt is interesting, and it's got some nice copper highlights, but the bare black plastic is decidedly less premium than the figure holding it.

Shovel Fighter's head is on a hinged ball joint.  He's got excellent up/down tilt, some sideways tilt, and the requisite swivel, but he can also do things like crane his neck forward or recoil in disgust.  His shoulders are another one of those GT carryovers... see, they rotate on ratchets, no issue there.  And they move laterally, about 90 degrees if you move the shovel on his back out of the way.  But, just like GT's Scrapper, and just like MI's scrapper, the hinge for the lateral movement is in the torso, on the wrong side of the rotation, so he can't move his shoulders laterally while they're rotated.  It's irritating enough on cheaper figures, but with a price range between $120-$150 I'd expect better.  But I digress.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed and bend nearly 180 degrees.  His wrists swivel.  His thumb is on a ball joint at the base with two addition hinged knuckles.  His index finger is separate from the other three, which are molded as one piece, and the fingers all have three hinged knuckles.  His waist swivels, and he's got an about 45 degrees of ab crunch.  His hip skirts are on ball joints and move so his hips can go just about 90 degrees forward and backward on a soft ratchet, and over 90 degrees laterally on a stronger ratchet.  His thighs swivel, and his ratcheted knees bend 90 degrees.  Despite the hinged flaps over his feet, they don't tilt up or down.  He's got about 45 degrees of ankle pivot.

The handle on Shovel Fighter's gun has a small slot on it.  That slot matches a little tab on his palm just in front of his thumb, then you can wrap his fingers around the handle.  The connection seems nicely secure.

Shovel Fighter's transformation is fairly interesting in the way his arms end up underneath, the way his torso kind of turns inside out to form the cab, and the way his legs and feet also turn inside out to wrap around his body and form the back of the vehicle.  Interesting, but also kind of annoying.  The instructions aren't always super clear, and a lot of the transformation is splaying him out in a bunch of dangling bits, rearranging those bits, and not tabbing things together again until near the end.  That said, once everything is tabbed together the resulting vehicle is fairly solid.

I'm not an expert on wheel loaders and I don't know if Dream Star Toys had a specific model in mind for Shovel Fighter.  I've seen loaders from Volvo, Komatsu, and Hyundai that are similar but not the same as this guy.  It's believable as a real vehicle, though, with only a few seems and no obvious robot parts.  He's compacted in this mode; while still the biggest loader on my review table, he doesn't really dwarf ToyWorld's Scrapper in this mode the way he did in bot mode.  He may be too realistic, as the black railings are more annoying than helpful and I think we could have lived without them.

Shovel Fighter rolls just fine on big rubber tires, and there's four hinges between the truck and the bucket of his shovel.  There's a gap between his legs on the underside of the vehicle, and in that gap you can see a small tab in what was his chest.  That the bottom of his gun's handle fits into that tab, with the barrel pointing toward the rear.  It locks pretty solidly in place.

Interestingly enough, the instructions indicate that the gun should be removed for leg mode.  Yeah, DST's Scrapper isn't doing anything crazy like turning into an arm the way MI's does.  The leg mode isn't quite as solid as the loader mode; some of the tabs that locked things in place are deliberately undone, I assume to give the combined mode ankle articulation.   Note that this is the official transformation, but I'd imagine that you could probably find a way to position that kibble near the knee joint so that it's not just split open like a banana peel.  I do kind of like how the shovel folds up into something more like a robot toe.  And again, as big as Shovel Fighter's bot mode is, in leg mode it's the same size as ToyWorld's so I don't expect the combined Devastator will be much bigger than Constructor.

I think DST is facing a tough sell.  Most collectors are laser focused on cartoon accuracy these days, and chances are some of you are (like me) planning on buying XTransbots', Fans Toys', or MMC's Constructicons.  If you're in for one of those, do you really need another Devastator?  At least going with a more unique take on the Constructicons doesn't force them to compete directly... you could do one of the big three for your G1 Devastator and grab another one just because it looks cool.  But then, Mecha Invasion are arguably doing more creative things with their Constructions, all well selling them in packs of two for less than one of DST's.  And if you're like me and enjoy transforming and playing with your toys, the MI figures are definitely more fun.

That said, I bought Shovel Fighter because he looks cool.  No, he's not the most fun Scrapper to transform and play with, and no, he's not the most G1-accurate Scrapper, but he just looks really good.  If you just want cool robots to pose and look good on a shelf there's a lot to like here, I think.  Oh, and the next release from DST is their Hook, whose crane boom turns into a scythe.  I mean, I was going to just do Scrapper as a one-off, but now I'm thinking I might be in on the whole set after all.

[sh9000]

Nice looking updated G1 style Metroplex.  I hope Hasbro makes a Titan Class one.

 

[mikeszekely]

As much as I enjoyed checking out a design that looks as cool as Dream Star Toys' Shovel Fighter, I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't more excited to check out the second set of Mecha Invasion's boys... which I'm going to do now, starting with Craner, their version of Hook.

Compared to Loader and Mixer (aka Scrapper and Mixmaster), Craner's design is pretty conventional.  He's got the flat head, purple torso, (mostly) green arms with wheels on the elbows, purple torso, silver thighs, and silver toes of Sunbow Hook.  His shins are green, like the toy, and he's got a big-ol crane boom on his back like both.  The biggest divergence from G1 are his shins, though.  Rather than the silver lumps with a cab on his left foot of the cartoon, or the green slabs which also had a cab on the left one, Craner's shins are kind of backward; they're the underside of his alt mode (with guards and stabilizers folded over his knees).

Meanwhile, the cab that's usually on the front of his left leg is actually on the back of his right leg.

There are some other, minor differences... he doesn't have that shelf over his shoulders that G1 Hook does, and the wheels on the sides of his shoulders are on the back.  On the whole, though, it's probably even less stylized than the Generation Toy version.  When I reviewed Loader and Mixer, I noted that they had several Bayverse influences, almost like they were G1/Bayverse hybrids.  So it stands to reason that Craner would have to be more traditionally G1- there really isn't a Bayverse Hook to drawn on.

Craner's weapon is this... unfortunate-looking gun.  Seriously, is this review going to need a NSFW tag?  It's even worse when I point out that the silver barrel can collapse into the black stock.

Craner's articulation is pretty much on par for the set.  His head's on a ball joint with decent up/down/sideways tilt.  His shoulders rotate and you can tell that the designer had the same "use the hinge in the chest" mentality that gave the Loader and Mixer 90 degrees of "Hot Rod Shoulders," but due to his transformation he does have maybe 45 degrees of proper lateral shoulder movement.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel; there's an additional hinge mid-forearm that swings inward, to help his fists clear the gas tanks on the outsides of his arms.  His waist swivels.  No ab crunch this time.  His hips can go a little over 90 degrees forward with his hip skirts on swivels to get out of the way, and a little under 90 degrees backward due to his backpack.  They ratchet laterally a little over 90 degrees.  His thigs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on ratchets.  His toes can tilt down due to how they transform, but not up.  He's got about 60 degrees of ankle pivot.

Craner can hold his sex toy gun in either hand by simply plugging the 5mm port handle into either fist.  And just like the previous two, his eyes have a light up gimmick.  This time the batteries were included, but it works exactly the same- insert the battery into the LED module, stuff the module into his head, put the cover over it, and turn it on/off using a magnet in his gun.

Craner has a little trick up his sleeve.  Where other Hooks simply have the boom dangling from his back, Craner's can flip over his shoulder.  There's a scope that folds out from the side of his boom, and a cannon folds out from the underside and plugs into the front, giving him a massive shoulder cannon.  That'll teach you to make fun of his gun!

From the waist up, Craner's transformation is just as simple as Loader and Mixer's.  From the waist down it feels like there's a bit more origami going on with the panels in his legs, but it's nothing too difficult.  That said, going from truck to robot is going to be a bit more frustrating, and his toes seem very difficult to flip out on my copy.

G1 Hook's Nissan UNIC crane truck mode has never been particularly exciting, and G1 Hook's particular version of it loses at lot of what details the actual truck does have.  So I appreciate some touches like the silver skid plate between the cab and the crane controls, the metal fuel tanks, and the stabilizers.  And I don't even mind that Craner's cab and crane controls are on the opposite side as G1 Hook's (but, it kind of makes sense, Hook being based on a Japanese crane would have the cab on right, because Japanese drive on the left, but a Chinese company like Mecha Invasion would put the cab on the left because Chinese (like Americans) drive on the right).  But I have to be honest and say that in some ways his crane mode is a bit unrefined.  Like, sure, there's a molded and painted grill, and painted headlights, but the lights molded onto hinges that stuck out from the front of the cab, and there's gaps under the front.  And there rear sort of has painted taillights and even a spot that could be a license plate... on what's very obviously Craner's purple chest.  Plus, while the other members of this team have been rock solid in alt mode, Craner feels just a bit less so.  He's mostly fine, but if you squeeze him in certain spots things start to come undone.

You can play with him, though.  He rolls just fine on his rubber tires.  The crane can swivel, and it moves up/down on ratchet.  The boom can extend, and although there's no string or chain that can lower the hook, the hook is hinged at both ends of the black part for posing.

What's more, the cannon in the boom can still be deployed while in crane mode.  As for his other handheld, er, "weapon," there are tabs on either side.  Retract the shaft, and there's some vacant space between his arms on the underside of the vehicle.  You'll find a slot there that you can plug the gun into.

With Loader and Mixer I talked about their combined modes when I did their reviews... I'm not going to do that with Craner.  Mainly because, by himself, his combined mode is kind of a floppy mess.  He needs a friend to latch on to.  But also because, unlike Loader and Mixer shattering your expectations by becoming arms instead of legs, Craner isn't really doing anything unusual here.  He's forming the upper torso and and head of the gestalt.  So, after the third set is released, I'll do a review just for the whole combiner, and we'll talk more about it then.  For now, all I'll say is that the there's no partsforming.  The combined head is inside Craner... actually, the black details on Craner's abs are actually the top of the head!

So far, Craner is probably my least favorite of the set.  That's not to say he's bad!  He's just less good, I guess.  His alt mode is just a little less refined, his transformation isn't quite as smooth (though, again, that's relative to the rest of this set... it's still a breeze compared to most 3P toys!), and there's just a few more little annoyances like his toes being hard to get out and his chest not staying tabbed in when you handle him.  But also, we're talking about a  fun, solid toy that comes with another figure (who we'll be looking at very soon) for just $90... that's two guys for less than one of Dream Star Toys' or X-Transbots' Constructicons, or all four released so far for less than just Fans Toys' Scrapper.  Craner's very much worth the prices of admission, so he gets a recommend from me.

[mikeszekely]

Eh, I was going to save it for tomorrow or Monday (though I guess it technically is tomorrow now, since it's nearly 2:00am here), but I'll be busy and this guy comes in the same box as Craner, so... here's Tipper, Mecha Invasion's Long Haul.

At a glance, you're probably thinking, "yeah, that's Long Haul all right."  Really, the first thing that I noticed that was less-than-G1 were his colors.  Rather than being almost entirely green with a silver head and black arms, the green is broken up with a black pelvis, silver thighs, green forearms, and silver hands (kind of ironic, given that the other three have black hands instead of their usual green, then the first guy that should have black hands is the first guy that doesn't).  There's also some painted details like the silver trim around his feet... I dig it, it looks like treads on boots.  Tipper is more jacked than G1 Long Haul, but without the dumpy proportions of Combiner Wars Long Haul or even his GT counterpart here.

Anyway... I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't really notice it until I had him in hand, but Tipper's chest isn't the usual truck grill you'd find on a more G1 Long Haul.  You know who else didn't have a truck grill for a chest?  Bayverse Long Haul.

Bayverse Long Haul also had his wheels on the backs of his shoulders or shoulder blades (kind of both, they're big tires).  Which is exactly what we find on Tipper.  While we're at it, on Bayverse Long Haul part of the bed flap that stick out over the cab sat behind his head in bot mode.  And yep, we're doing that on Tipper, too.  So I feel like we're getting back to the mix of G1 and Bayverse that was missing from Craner.

While we're focused on his back, you'll note that the hollowed-out plastic on his fists.  Guess Hasbro's the not the only ones cutting costs by cutting plastic.

Tipper gets this gun, which is decidedly less phallic than Craner's.  No real complaints here.

Tipper's head is on a ball joint with good upward and sideways tilt, but downward tilt's a little limited.  Of course it swivels, too, but he's got a bit less clearance so he only gets about 45 degrees in either direction comfortably, and maybe 90 if his head is tilted up as much as it goes and you don't mind his chin scraping the raised bits near his shoulders.  Speaking of shoulders, just like the other three he's got rotation and 90 degrees of lateral movement, but the lateral movement comes from a transformation joint on the wrong side of the swivel, giving him "Hot Rod Shoulders."  His biceps swivel, his elbows bend over 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel.  His waist swivels, and like Craner he's got no ab crunch.  His hips go forward 90 degrees, backward a little less than that due to some kibble getting in the way, and over 90 degrees laterally, all on strong ratchets.  His thighs swivel.  His knees bend 90 degrees on ratchets.  His feet can tilt down, but not up, and he's got nearly 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

And just like the previous three, the peg handle of his gun fits into the hole of his non-articulated fist.  It's cute how tiny his gun looks in his hand, given that it's not actually that much different in size than the others.  Also like the other three he's got light-up eyes that are turned on/off via a magnet in his gun.

Tipper's transformation, at least between bot and truck, is a return to the simple, satisfying engineering experienced with Loader and Mixer.  I've heard some complaints that, like Craner, bits of the alt mode are prone to coming untabbed, but that hasn't been my experience at all.  Tipper's a solid dump truck that could be used to bludgeon someone.

Much like Craner, I can't find a specific make and model for Tipper's alt mode, though I think it's mostly me Liebherr vibes.  That said, with it's tall, flat face and the ladder/stairs it's clearly meant to be a larger mining-type hauler rather than the G1 Long Haul's much smaller Hitatchi truck, which is certainly in line with Bayverse Long Haul's Caterpillar 773B mode.  From the front and sides I think it mostly looks pretty good, though why they didn't paint the ladder on the side of the grill to match the stairs going across it is a bit of a head-scratcher.

Things are a little messier at the back, specifically in the bed.  To be fair, though, I think it's a better than GT's Long Haul.  Tipper at least has some room in his bed, whereas GT's couldn't even contain all of his own kibble.  And while Tipper rolls great on his big rubber tires his bed isn't articulated.  No tipping for Tipper.

Tipper does have storage for his weapon, though.  On the underside, between his silver thighs, you'll find a black flap.  Open it, and you can see a slot on the underside of Tipper's crotch.  A tab on the back of his gun plugs it into that slot, then you can close the flap back over it.

Tipper will form the waist, pelvis, and thighs of the combined mode, no fun surprises there.  So, as with Craner, I'll cover it in a review of the entire combined mode later.

This second set has turned out to be interesting, because if Craner is the weakest MI release so far, then Tipper is probably my favorite.  It's not that he does anything particularly different or better than Loader or Mixer, I just think his bot mode looks the best (versus Loader, who I think is too skinny and loses something for having his bucket form his feet instead of a more traditional backpack).  In any case, while not everyone has room in their heart or on their shelf for a set of stylized Constructions, I can't help but point out that Mecha Invasion's set of Hook and Long Haul run about the same as Hasbro's own Commander-class two-pack of same.  And, sure, the Hasbro set comes with an additional trailer of combiner kibble for Long Haul to pull, Mecha Invasion's Constructicons are significantly bigger.  That isn't to say that one is necessarily better than the other (I'll be getting Hasbro's, too), just that for a 3rd party product where normally just one of the two would cost even more, MI's Constructions are still a great value for sturdy, solid, extremely playable figures.  Tipper, like Craner, Loader, and Mixer, is an easy recommend, and I can't wait for the third set (which will very likely be out by spring).

[Scyla]

@mikeszekely do you think with Craner and Tipper being their usual self (i.e. the torso) do you think Mecha Invasion missed an opportunity do do something interesting with Devastator seeing how interesting the arms turned out?

[mikeszekely]

9 hours ago, Scyla said:

@mikeszekely do you think with Craner and Tipper being their usual self (i.e. the torso) do you think Mecha Invasion missed an opportunity do do something interesting with Devastator seeing how interesting the arms turned out?

I'm thinking probably not. For one, when you change up too much stuff just for the sake of being different you run the risk of the end result being unrecognizable. Two, I think the shape of their alt modes don't lend themselves to switching places as much. That's definitely the sort of engineering challenge that can be overcome with enough transformational origami, but that would come with the more complex engineering of someone like DreamStar Toys, which seems to run counter to Mecha Invasion's style. And third, Devastator's traditional purple chest shield covers up a lot of what goes on in his torso anyway, so even if they did flip them there's a chance it might not have made much visual impact anyway unless you ditched the chest, but that would bring me to back to the first point.

Frankly, I think even switching the limbs was less about originality and more about the ease of doing an all-in-one design. Traditionally Devastator has needed not just hands but whole forearms to be partsformed. Scrapper and Mixmaster's longer alt modes and room for hand storage lend themselves better to being arms. Meanwhile, I've seen what MI is doing with Bonecrusher and Scavenger (near as I can tell the final prototypes we done in early December, and should be ready to ship soon after CNY). They're sharing a lot of engineering, and doing a thing where their treads are folding into pretty symmetrical feet.

Edited January 13 by mikeszekely

[shazam]

 

[Scyla]

On 1/13/2025 at 5:49 PM, mikeszekely said:

I'm thinking probably not. For one, when you change up too much stuff just for the sake of being different you run the risk of the end result being unrecognizable. Two, I think the shape of their alt modes don't lend themselves to switching places as much. That's definitely the sort of engineering challenge that can be overcome with enough transformational origami, but that would come with the more complex engineering of someone like DreamStar Toys, which seems to run counter to Mecha Invasion's style. And third, Devastator's traditional purple chest shield covers up a lot of what goes on in his torso anyway, so even if they did flip them there's a chance it might not have made much visual impact anyway unless you ditched the chest, but that would bring me to back to the first point.

Frankly, I think even switching the limbs was less about originality and more about the ease of doing an all-in-one design. Traditionally Devastator has needed not just hands but whole forearms to be partsformed. Scrapper and Mixmaster's longer alt modes and room for hand storage lend themselves better to being arms. Meanwhile, I've seen what MI is doing with Bonecrusher and Scavenger (near as I can tell the final prototypes we done in early December, and should be ready to ship soon after CNY). They're sharing a lot of engineering, and doing a thing where their treads are folding into pretty symmetrical feet.

Understood. From your explanation I can see why a designer would choose a established torso configuration.

Maybe a symmetrical docking approach where each bot forms one side of the torso or Long Haul forms the upper torso to have wider shoulders from the extra mass could be interesting configuration, even if Devastator has the same torso bots.

[M'Kyuun]

I've expressed many times over the years how much I wish some third party would give us a CHUG scaled G1 Megatron with a proper pistol mode that at least fairly resembles the Walther P38. I was quite surprised, pleasantly so, when Newage stepped up to the plate with just such an offering. I already had their legends scaled Megs, and to be quite honest, it wasn't the best offering at that scale (ahem, Magic Square's Doomsday takes that honor, IMHO). Thus I was a bit concerned until pics of their grayscale model surfaced, and at that point I breathed a sigh of relief. It looked good, and while I didn't care for the trigger guard forming the insides of the thighs, in all other aspects it exceeded expectations.

My copy arrived today, and I haven't been this excited for a fig in some time. I'm not the best reviewer, but I did take a few comparison shots for those curious as to how it'll scale with other figs. A note of caution to anyone out there getting this: I nearly broke my copy following the included instructions. I highly suggest watching PrimevsPrime's review, as he offers a clear and concise methodology for transforming this figure that will keep you from breaking stuff.

Gun mode:

By this point in time, it's a foregone conclusion that most G1 Megatron toys that become guns, regardless of scale, are going to be replete with panels. All things considered, this comes together very well, and while there are a lot of panel lines, I think it still presents well. I believe I saw it mentioned somewhere that he's missing his safety, but beyond that, he's fairly accurate. For those wondering, the trigger is not spring-loaded- you have to adjust its position manually.

I have kid hands, so it's a pretty good fit for me. NGL, I had some fun with him in this mode. My wife was all 🙄.  😁

Comparisons:

I figured I'd show how his alt mode compares to other bots' alts. First up, Netflix WFC Soundwave. 

 

WFC Siege Megatron

WFC Earthrise Skywarp

WFC Earthrise Optimus Prime and SS86 Optimus

 

Bot mode comparisons:

Overall, I'm really impressed with this fig. The articulation far exceeds what we can expect in a mainline toy, the transformation, when done properly, is relatively intuitive although I'd suggest guidance on the first time, paint and sculpt are very well done (most of the figure is painted), and of course, he transforms into his original pistol form which isn't feasible with official toys. Very happy that this exists, I hope more like it are coming, and I'm supremely happy to finally fill a vacancy in my mainline collection that I thought would remain forever empty. 

edit: The box indicates that this is the first of a series, so hopefully Newage will indeed make more figs at the mainline scale. They've not even done triple-changers at the legends scale yet, that I'm aware of, but I'd love to see what they'd come up with for both Blitzwing and Astrotrain, as well as upscaling their really-well done seeker mold. Hopefully, good things to come. The more I handle Romulus, the more I appreciate it- just a well-done fig.

Edited Saturday at 10:57 PM by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

I also finally received a copy of NewAge's Romulus.

Romulus is the first 3P Megatron that turns into a gun and is meant to scale with Hasbro's mainline figures instead of the usual 3P Legends and MP offerings.  As you can see, he's smaller than ToyWorld/Zeta's Hegemon, barely equal in height to Hasbro's official Siege/Earthrise Megatron.  And that's in height; he's a fairly lean figure.  While I do think I prefer the proportions on Romulus overall more than the somewhat awkward Siege/Earthrise, I do like a chunkier Megatron overall.

It's a bit better or worse when you compare Romulus to his main rival... depending on the figure you're using.  His overall proportions match extremely well with Earthrise Optimus.  However, not only is he nearly a head shorter than SS86 Optimus, he loses quite a bit of bulk against him as well.

Looking at them like that, I can't help but point out a number of other things about Romulus.  He's actually got a lot of paint, but the paint is that flat gray color on most of his body, with a weird gray for the face that has an almost greenish tinge.  There's diecast in his feet and parts of his legs.  Romulus is trying too hard to get that Sunbow look, which makes him a little out-of-place with Earthrise Prime.  And the diecast and paint make him a little more "premium" than SS86.

These complaints may seem petty... a toy is too good?  I'll elaborate on that in a minute.  But first, enjoy the back and side views!  NewAge's previous attempt at a Megatron, their Legends-scaled Agamemnon, was criticized pretty hard for having a very ugly back.  NewAge clearly took the feedback to heart, because Romulus is clean as a whistle from darn near any angle.  Scaled down, Romulus would give Magic Square's Doomsday more of a fight than Agamemnon did.  Scaled up, Romulus could replace MP-36.

NewAge must have been under some pressure to keep the final cost down.  As great as the figure looks, the accessories are almost an afterthought.  I mean, you got the fusion cannon, which is fine, but the red bump is actually a separate piece, and there's a milky translucent bit in the barrel that really makes me wonder if a light-up gimmick was planned at one point but scrapped.  There's a trio of alternate faces, and they're as good as the stock one.  But the rest is Megatron's signature mace, the laser sword he used during his fight with Prime in the '86 movie, and the pistol he used to murder Prime with in the '86 movie.  Those last three are done entirely in a translucent purple plastic; fine for the mace and the blade of the sword, but cheap for the gun and the handle of the sword.  There's no stock, and no silencer.

As for as faces go, the stock face (far left) is a neutral expression.  There's two open-mouthed faces, one with a happy maniacal laughter face and the other with an angry yelling face.  The forth face is one of the best faces I've seen for a Megatron.  I've heard it called his "duck face," but if you've watched the '86 movie as many times as I have over the years you'll recognize it as the sneer he makes after saying, "More than you imagine, Optimus Prime!" in response to Prime saying, "Now all we need is a little Energon and a lot of luck" on Laserbeak's recording, and NewAge absolutely nailed it.  I think the last time I'd seen a face sculpt on any toy that so completely nailed the character might be MMC's Saltus (Springer).  The change faces, pull up the entire top of Megatron's head along with the face; it's pegged in.  Once you'd done that, the face has a tab at the top that fits into the forehead.  Wiggle the tab out, swap in a different face, then plug the top back into the rest fo the head.

Speaking of heads, Romulus's is on a ball joint.  He can look up or down or tilt his head sideways about 30 degrees in addition to the standard swivel.  His shoulders rotate, and you should get at least 90 degrees of lateral movement.  His biceps swivel.  His elbows are double-jointed and get nearly 180 degrees of curl.  His wrists swivel, and are hinged so they can bend up or down.  His fingers are articulated; they're hinged at the base and middle knuckles, with his index finger being separate from the other three.  The thumb just has a hinge at the base that has it fold in a somewhat unnatural position.  His waist swivels, and he's got over 90 degrees of ab crunch.  Due to his somewhat unconventional hip skirts his hips can move forward and laterally a tad under 90 degrees, and only about 45 degrees backward, but that should be enough for most poses.  His thighs swivel, and his double-jointed knees bend until his shapely calves collide with his thighs.  His feet tilt up and down a little, and have over 90 degrees of pivot.  All-in-all, really top-notch articulation.

Romulus' wrists are pegged in, so using his mace is as simple as unplugging one of his fists, then plugging the end of the mace into the hole.  His fusion cannon has a tab on it that fits very snuggly into a slot on either forearm.

His grip on the sword and gun are a bit more tenuous.  They both rely on the tension of his fingers wrapped around the handle.  Where the thumb ought to curl around and rest over the top finger it instead must be either left half open, or be folded against his palm along side the handle.

The first time you transform Romulus is bound to be a bit intimidating.  The instructions aren't always clear, and there's a lot of thin parts on hinges.  Once you know what you're doing, though, it's kind of clever.  Instead of the usual stuffing the head inside the chest his chest actually turns inside out over his waist and lower back.  The final result doesn't have quite the same level of real-world details as the G1 toy, but it's really one of the better attempts and it's interesting how similar in size it winds up being to the G1 toy.

There's no safety, and some of the mechanical details that should be under the slide have been replaced with some basic hinges, but there's some texture molded into the back of the slide and the grip.  I'll also note that there's a cutout in the back of the grip that's filled in with small pieces that are quite removeable; perhaps a stock and silencer were planned at one time.  Perhaps they could still be released as an add-on later?  Like the G1 toy, you'll find the gun is a bit on the small size, but still mostly fits in your hand, and you can squeeze the trigger though there's no spring and you'll have to reset it manually.

While I was playing with Romulus and taking pictures for this review, I couldn't help but think back to the one Chang Tiao did a few months back.  I remember having a discussion with someone who was complaining that it was a pretty crappy figure; mediocre articulation, super basic transformation, hollow lower legs, gaps in the alt mode.  And I told them that was exactly why it was good.  Chang Tiao understood the assignment- make a Megatron that turns into a gun to replace the tank in the Core-class.  They turned in a figure that cost nearly the same price as a Core-class figure, with exactly the same sort of simple engineering and aesthetic flaws you'd get from Hasbro on that budget.  The resulting figure couldn't possibly have fit better with Hasbro's own Core-class figures if Hasbro had made it themselves.

I'm not sure NewAge understood the assignment quite the way Chang Tiao did.  Looked at one way, I think NewAge made one of the very best Megatron figures ever at any scale.  But looked at another way, they made a figure with diecast, and I can't remember the last time Hasbro used diecast.  They painted the figure with more paint than Hasbro budgets for a Titan.  They made him Sunbow-accurate to a degree that not even SS86 manages.  It's complicated enough that you're NOT going to be flipping it back and forth between modes.  And the result is a figure that doesn't quite have that Generations aesthetic; it's too premium.  Which brings us to the cost.  $105 from ShowZ (and more like $140 if you buy from an American retailer) for this figure, with clear signs that it was going to be even more but they scaled it back by eliminating paint from the accessories, dropping stuff like a stock and silencer, and dropping electronics from the scope/fusion cannon.  Now, in the general scheme of 3P $105 isn't outrageous, but it's roughly double a Leader-class.  There's an argument to be made here that if NewAge did the sorts of things Hasbro does; simplified the engineering, static hands, rely more on colored plastic over paint, etc, that they could have turned in a figure that closer to Hasbro in both cost and aesthetics.

Then there's the elephant in the room... just look at the box Romulus comes in.  NewAge heard, like we all did, that a SS86 Optimus was coming, and they figured they could cash in by making a Megatron to go with him.  But, and I know hindsight's 20-20 and all, they wound up jumping the gun.  They made a figure that scales perfectly well with Earthrise Optimus Prime, but falls short (pun intended) of being a true rival for SS86 Optimus.  If they'd waited a few more months and made Romulus a little bit bigger then he'd be one of my easiest recommendations ever, even with my quibbles about his price/aesthetics/engineering compared to Hasbro's.  Instead they worked from an assumption (no matter how reasonable it seemed), missed the mark, and left the door open for another 3P to come in and eat their lunch.  Heck, it could be that company that keeps KO'ing their Legends stuff, just come in with a KO Romulus that's 15% bigger.  As for this writing, if you're in the market for a Megatron to go with some version of Earthrise Optimus then you should definitely get Romulus.  If you're in the market for a cool Megatron toy and don't care about the size, get Romulus.  If you're looking for a Megatron to go toe-to-toe with SS86 Optimus, though, event though it doesn't transform the Yolopark AMK Pro version might fit you better (especially if they ever get around to the promised re-release with the more cartoon-style deco), or you might want to wait to see what official SS86 Megatron Hasbro turns out.

[M'Kyuun]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

  While I do think I prefer the proportions on Romulus overall more than the somewhat awkward Siege/Earthrise, I do like a chunkier Megatron overall.

Enjoyed the review, Mike. I'd also like a slightly chunkier Megatron, although, it's obvious they used ER Prime as a comparison model to base Romulus assuming, as you said, that the upcoming SS86 would scale similarly. Hindsight, indeed, alas. I think the comparable thickness of Romulus' thigh and lower leg throws off his general silhouette from how we're used to seeing him depicted, with a more pronounced lower leg thickness and a thinner thigh. However, the fact that the thighs contribute so much to the alt mode and enjoy a fair bit of the transformation process themselves, it's forgivable and my view of it is obviously subjective. Returning to the scale conversation, despite the intention to scale with SS86, I'm glad that Romulus ended up scaling the way he does, as he fits better with the overall entirety of CHUG. SS86 Prime has overly large proportions, and I wonder why they chose to upscale him from the usual voyager scale and give him so much chunk comparatively. I think he's a really well-done fig, but I still have a huge soft spot for ER Prime who scales better, IMHO, with the rest of CHUG.

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

  Romulus is trying too hard to get that Sunbow look, which makes him a little out-of-place with Earthrise Prime.  And the diecast and paint make him a little more "premium" than SS86.

These complaints may seem petty... a toy is too good?  I'll elaborate on that in a minute.  But first, enjoy the back and side views!  NewAge's previous attempt at a Megatron, their Legends-scaled Agamemnon, was criticized pretty hard for having a very ugly back.  NewAge clearly took the feedback to heart, because Romulus is clean as a whistle from darn near any angle.  Scaled down, Romulus would give Magic Square's Doomsday more of a fight than Agamemnon did.  Scaled up, Romulus could replace MP-36.

 

I'm no Skully, as paint is not really one of my high requisites for a figure, especially in a mass retail toy under significant budget limitations, but you make a good point about the level of paint and die-cast, the latter of which rarely if ever shows up in the mainline any more. Newage is known for adding a more premium touch to their legends toys (I just bought their whole team of toy deco Dinobots, and those things are delicious with both paint and die-cast- beautiful figures, all), and they've applied those touches to Romulus as well. I suspect Newage may have believed, too, that SS86 Prime at standard voyager scale might, at the commander class price, have enjoyed far more paint on the core figure as well as possibly some little bit of die-cast. I'd love it if Sixo and his podcast group could score an interview with the designer(s) behind Romulus and coax some elucidation on their thinking and intentions going into Romuls' production. There's definitely a story there, and while NA may be catching some flack for getting the scale wrong, IMHO, the choice was both reasonable and far more apropos to the rest of CHUG on the whole.

As to how clean Romulus is, so much yes, especially in comparison with their legends offering, which looks a little wonky due to his weird hip joints and messy backside. I guess they made a hip replacement for him, but I never bothered to get it. Compared to Magic Square's Doomsday, Agamemnon suffers in any number of ways. I've said it often and it bears repeating: MS' Doomsday is the best Megatron toy ever released. I still stand by that assessment; however, I give Romulus second runner up- he's just that well-done. IMHO, Doomsday gets the proportions better in bot mode (Romulus gets a couple things more accurate in gun mode, but honestly, how many people keep their G1 Megs in gun mode?) As to Romulus looking too Sunbow, they were after all aiming to mate this with SS86 Prime, which I assume they thought would be smooth as a baby's bottom for lack of details. However, while I suppose they could have added some additional panel lines/ mechanical details into the forearms or his back, I think he's fine and still pairs up with ER Prime pretty well, regardless. I say this as a big fan of details on my bots and not a big fan of the ultra-smooth toon look.

Scaled up, Romulus or Doomsday would make for a suitable replacement for MP-36. My continuing hope is that Magic Square will seize the opportunity and do SS86 Prime and MP scaled Doomsday figs. That would be glorious.

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

NewAge must have been under some pressure to keep the final cost down.  As great as the figure looks, the accessories are almost an afterthought.  I mean, you got the fusion cannon, which is fine, but the red bump is actually a separate piece, and there's a milky translucent bit in the barrel that really makes me wonder if a light-up gimmick was planned at one point but scrapped.  There's a trio of alternate faces, and they're as good as the stock one.  But the rest is Megatron's signature mace, the laser sword he used during his fight with Prime in the '86 movie, and the pistol he used to murder Prime with in the '86 movie.  Those last three are done entirely in a translucent purple plastic; fine for the mace and the blade of the sword, but cheap for the gun and the handle of the sword.  There's no stock, and no silencer.

Given the level of paint on the core figure, I also thought it a bit odd that there was no paint on the purple pistol or the handle of the laser sword. The pistol in trans-purple just looks wrong. I also thought the omission of the stock and silencer were odd as well, as those are more salient accessories to a G1 Megatron toy than even the mace, laser sword, or pistol, all of which showed up in single scenes. However, every time Megs transformed in the show or Movie, he always had the silencer and stock equipped, just like Prime always had his trailer. I didn't mess about with the little bits on Romulus' heels to see if they're removable, but I assume you did, and that's an interesting observation. Perhaps there was indeed more planned for this fig, but they dialed back on the accessories, features/functions, and accessory paint to bring the price down given this was a testbed of sorts for Newage and they may have felt it better to omit those in favor of a lower price tag. While it would have been nice to have them, since Romulus will be in bot mode the vast majority of his existence in my collection, the stock and silencer, much like my Primes' trailers, are kept aside and at the end of the day, I don't really miss them.

Again, there's more conversation to be had with the designers and I hope it happens at some point.

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

IThe first time you transform Romulus is bound to be a bit intimidating.  The instructions aren't always clear, and there's a lot of thin parts on hinges.  Once you know what you're doing, though, it's kind of clever.  Instead of the usual stuffing the head inside the chest his chest actually turns inside out over his waist and lower back.  The final result doesn't have quite the same level of real-world details as the G1 toy, but it's really one of the better attempts and it's interesting how similar in size it winds up being to the G1 toy.

There's no safety, and some of the mechanical details that should be under the slide have been replaced with some basic hinges, but there's some texture molded into the back of the slide and the grip.  I'll also note that there's a cutout in the back of the grip that's filled in with small pieces that are quite removeable; perhaps a stock and silencer were planned at one time.  Perhaps they could still be released as an add-on later?  Like the G1 toy, you'll find the gun is a bit on the small size, but still mostly fits in your hand, and you can squeeze the trigger though there's no spring and you'll have to reset it manually.

The instructions are definitely misleading; I nearly broke mine while trying to flip down the chest panel. There's nothing in the instructions that indicate that you have to disengage the tab on the left shoulder mount panel from the back panel. I was using a scarily uncomfortable amount of force to try and push that chest panel down and when it looked like stuff was starting to possibly be breaking, I consulted a vid review which set me straight. Fortunately, no major harm done. For good measure, I applied a little Gorilla Glue to the sandwich of panels that comprise the chest panel assembly just to be sure. After transforming him a couple of times and getting some of the really tight panels loose enough to move without tearing off a nail, I find the process rather fun. I can't honestly say that about a lot of third-party figs, and even a number of official figs, MP-36 included. The schema is clever, unique, and lends itself to a pretty close facsimile of the Walther P38. The lack of a safety and other minor details is lamentable, but a worthy tradeoff for such a well-designed transformation process and such a clean robot mode. Gotta admit, the last steps of putting the hip skirts and butt panels into place to finish the pistol grip is really satisfying. The gun mode is solid and looks really good. Despite my earlier comment, it is a bit of a shame that you can't complete his alt mode with silencer and stock. perhaps NA will do an accessory add-on pack, or do a repackage with additional accessories, hopefully better painted. I got the toon-colored version, but if they sold such a repackage, I'd be tempted to get the toy deco and just share the silencer and stock between them.

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm not sure NewAge understood the assignment quite the way Chang Tiao did.  Looked at one way, I think NewAge made one of the very best Megatron figures ever at any scale.  But looked at another way, they made a figure with diecast, and I can't remember the last time Hasbro used diecast.  They painted the figure with more paint than Hasbro budgets for a Titan.  They made him Sunbow-accurate to a degree that not even SS86 manages.  It's complicated enough that you're NOT going to be flipping it back and forth between modes.  And the result is a figure that doesn't quite have that Generations aesthetic; it's too premium.  Which brings us to the cost.  $105 from ShowZ (and more like $140 if you buy from an American retailer) for this figure, with clear signs that it was going to be even more but they scaled it back by eliminating paint from the accessories, dropping stuff like a stock and silencer, and dropping electronics from the scope/fusion cannon.  Now, in the general scheme of 3P $105 isn't outrageous, but it's roughly double a Leader-class.  There's an argument to be made here that if NewAge did the sorts of things Hasbro does; simplified the engineering, static hands, rely more on colored plastic over paint, etc, that they could have turned in a figure that closer to Hasbro in both cost and aesthetics.

Then there's the elephant in the room... just look at the box Romulus comes in.  NewAge heard, like we all did, that a SS86 Optimus was coming, and they figured they could cash in by making a Megatron to go with him.  But, and I know hindsight's 20-20 and all, they wound up jumping the gun.  They made a figure that scales perfectly well with Earthrise Optimus Prime, but falls short (pun intended) of being a true rival for SS86 Optimus.  If they'd waited a few more months and made Romulus a little bit bigger then he'd be one of my easiest recommendations ever, even with my quibbles about his price/aesthetics/engineering compared to Hasbro's.  Instead they worked from an assumption (no matter how reasonable it seemed), missed the mark, and left the door open for another 3P to come in and eat their lunch.  Heck, it could be that company that keeps KO'ing their Legends stuff, just come in with a KO Romulus that's 15% bigger.  As for this writing, if you're in the market for a Megatron to go with some version of Earthrise Optimus then you should definitely get Romulus.  If you're in the market for a cool Megatron toy and don't care about the size, get Romulus.  If you're looking for a Megatron to go toe-to-toe with SS86 Optimus, though, event though it doesn't transform the Yolopark AMK Pro version might fit you better (especially if they ever get around to the promised re-release with the more cartoon-style deco), or you might want to wait to see what official SS86 Megatron Hasbro turns out.

To your first argument that Romulus is too premium, I disagree, but from the standpoint that this is a third-party toy and not an official release. I think you could expect this level of paint and die cast from a Takara-Tomy figure, but they operate on a different philosophy than Hasbro, and one needn't look further than the Missing Link line. If TT were to make their own SS86 G1 Megs that actually turns into a gun, while I doubt it would have die-cast, I think it'd definitely have better paint than anything Hasbro releases. I wish they would, as I'd love to see what they'd come up with as a properly scaled mate for their SS86 Prime. As to Romulus being too premium to fit in with CHUG, while he's a bit shy on small surface details, I think he fits in pretty well. 

That said, my feelings would not be hurt if they continued the series giving us, at the very least, a better Soundwave +cassettes and upscaled versions of their Seekers. For my part, I think Romulus is a clear winner and an amazing success for a first stab at producing a CHUG scaled toy by a company that hitherto has only worked at legends scale, even if some of those legends toys approached CHUG scale (looking at my NA Skyfire). Perhaps making some of those larger legends figs gave them the impetus to try. Whatever it was, I'm very glad they did as they've filled a notable void in my collection that no official toy, save a TT SS86 Megs that turns into a gun, will ever again fill. I keep hoping Magic Square will toss their proverbial hat in the CHUG ring as well, but for now, I'm quite satisfied with Romulus filling the void. Hopefully this toy sells very well and gives these companies who may be on the fence the courage to put out their own CHUG scaled stuff. It's well past time.

Totally off topic, but after these legends toy producers exhaust G1, I hope at least one of them decides to do Animated figs. I know Animated isn't everybody's cuppa, but I think there's enough of us out there that we could adequately support the venture. Seeing what they've done with G1 really makes me want to see how they'd tackle the stylistic elements of Animated, arguably not the easiest look to translate into a transforming toy. I think TT did a pretty good job back in 2007-09, but 3P has come a long way since then, and one can only imagine what they'd come up with in terms of solutions to capture that look faithfully and still deliver bots with much better articulation than the official toys ever had.