The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[M'Kyuun]

7 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

The impression I got is that Mecha Invasion might be just one guy.  If he's doing all the designing and prototyping himself (and not paying himself for that work) that would reduce the cost, and make it possible to sell for for less and still make a profit.  There's also (technically) the reduction in packaging due to pairing them up.  Still, I think a lot of the pricing (especially by Fans Toys) is less "we need to charge this much to make money" and more "we're charging this much because collectors will pay it."

"Good business is where you find it."😄

[shazam]

 

[Chronocidal]

You know what.. why not.  It might make Starscream's body actually fit within more aircraft designs for a cleaner alt mode.  

[JB0]

7 hours ago, shazam said:

 

And lo did the shippers rejoice as at last Megatron has the trophy wife he deserves!

 

A Slipstream repaint of this would be interesting, but probably ain't happenin'.

[sh9000]

I think I will get this set for my Optimus.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

 JGM-SKP01 Ferocy - my favorite combiner AND it's fun sized.  Yeah, I'm buying a set.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

 JGM-SKP01 Ferocy - my favorite combiner AND it's fun sized.  Yeah, I'm buying a set.

They look really cute, but I hear that the people that did that Core-class gun Megatron are doing a Core-class Predaking (and Devastator, and maybe Bruticus and Menasor for good measure).  I'm holding out for those.

[26662]

On 1/8/2025 at 7:49 PM, mikeszekely said:

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.

The Dream Star constructicons look amazing.  I love their design, finish, and transformations.