The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[mikeszekely]

So, this is more of an addendum to my previous review than a full review, but so it goes. Anyway, iGear originally made two Specialists, the Medical Specialist (Ratchet) and the Weapon Specialist (Ironhide). Weapon Specialist came with all the accessories that Medial Specialist except for the screwdrivers, wrenches, calipers, hammer, and arc welders. Instead, he came with two big gatling cannons inspired by the Bayverse Ironhide, a shoulder weapon inspired by the G1 toy, and the hand attachments that go with the welders, just sans welding tips.

Later, presumably either to make a quick buck or perhaps to recoup more expenses on what was a frequently-delayed and ultimately overpriced mold, iGear released two more specialists. One was Defense Specialist.

Defense Specialist was billed as an iGear First Aid, and enjoyed a bit of deco differences including white feet, blue-painted windows instead of black, blue-tinted windshield with black-painted wipers, red thighs, and red shoulders with white crosses instead of white shoulders with red crosses. However, with the big windshield chest he still definitely looked more like Ratchet than First Aid, and the market for First Aid figures that don't combine with four other robots to form Defensor is probably very tiny. So while iGear eliminated all of the accessories except for the small rifle that stores in the alt mode, they did include all three Ratchet heads, and while Medical Specialist's deco is arguably closer to Ratchet's than the Patrol Specialist many people went with the Defense Specialist as a cheaper alternative.

iGear did something similar with Weapon Specialist. And so, I present to you Patrol Specialist, iGear's version of Tote.

So the question, then, is who the heck is Tote? Apparently, Tote was a Micromaster with a very Ironhide-y alt mode.

So if we go by alt modes, sure, Tote is a fine pick, and the new head is nice. However, iGear made fewer deco changes from Weapon Specialist to Patrol Specialist than they did from Medical Specialist to Defense Specialist. Aside from the new head, they really just gave the chest windshield a black tint. The Patrol Specialist Figure doesn't even match the picture on the box.

If you thought the Specialists were too big next to MP10-V, they happen to look great next to Maketoys' Striker Manus.

Like Defense Specialist, Patrol Specialist loses all of Weapon Specialist's accessories except for the little rifle, but he retains Weapon Specialist's heads. We've got ourselves an older Ironhide grinning, an older Ironhide scowling, and an Ironhide with the same face as Ratchet. While I liked the basic face for Ratchet, both of the older Ironhide faces look like they were ripped right out of IDW's Ironhide mini-series, so I'm definitely going with older Ironhide grinning at the thought of busting heads...

And there we go, Ironhide! iGear seems to have not noticed that Ironhide was red with two shades of grey and not red and black, but on the whole I don't think he's too far off the mark (the black shoulders are Reprolabels from the previous owner- the shoulders are actually red). I personally find black instead of gray on Ironhide less jarring than black instead of white on Ratchet, but YMMV. Plus, some of the weapons that came with Medical Specialist look much better with Patrol Specialist.

Articulation is, naturally, the same as Medical Specialist's.

Remember when I said in Medical Specialist's review that he might look better with Classics Prime and Generations Wheeljack than MP10-V and MP Wheeljack? Nope, not so much. He's still too big compared to Prime, and too small compared to Wheeljack. Of course, the same thing I said yesterday applies, and it's about bot scale, not alt mode scale. And for me, my bot mode scale, with Prime a little taller and the carbots about the same size.

That van is definitely Ironhide, though. Same treatment as Medical Specialist; Chrome wheels, rubber tires, chrome grill, chrome under clear plastic for the lights, paint on the door handles and gas cap. Nice Ironhide-y yellow stripe down the side. The sunroof is a Reprolabel, but it matches the windows. For that matter, the dark window tint also helps the painted windows match the translucent windshield. Same stupid grill guard, though. But most importantly, a HUGE improvement from either the Universe Ironhide or the Combiner Wars Ironhide figures.

So ultimately, the same stuff I said about Medical Specialist applies. He's not a substitute for a Masterpiece figure, but if you want a good Ironhide for a CHUG or other smaller-scale collection Patrol Specialist (or Weapon Specialist) is a good choice as long as you don't overpay.

[CoryHolmes]

I'm getting tired of all the 3P dinobot companies using the tail-in-the-boot-trick. It was awesome when MP Grimlock debuted it, but since then every single Dinobot that isn't Swoop has used it. It's just not that very innovative any more.

[M'Kyuun]

When a good idea works....

Although I haven't bought any of the third party dinos, I don't mind their copying that particular bit of innovation, as it lends itself to a cleaner looking bot. Could they do something else with the tail? Probably, but would it tuck away as nicely? I guess that remains to be seen.

[technoblue]

Let's not forget Snarl, who uses his tail as a backpack.

Like MP-8, third-party MPs have transformations similar to the old G1 toys. To me, that seems intentional, and being able to hide dino kibble is just a benefit of modern-day engineering. I would rather have those voids filled in and given a purpose (as most 3P dinos do, large and small) than left hollow. And as much as I enjoyed my G1 Sludge and Swoop when I was young, I don't need to go back to those toys. The new ones are certainly better, IMO.

[sh9000]

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/search.aspx?search=fans%20toys&utm_source=Marketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Marketing&utm_content=

Aegis Sentinel A and B. Wow.

[Tking22]

I'm getting tired of all the 3P dinobot companies using the tail-in-the-boot-trick. It was awesome when MP Grimlock debuted it, but since then every single Dinobot that isn't Swoop has used it. It's just not that very innovative any more.

No offense, but what else would you expect them to do with the kibble and bits that normally go in the feet? It's a necessity of the design, MP Dino feet are massive, there's a lot of room in there, the kibble for the back ends usually ends up by the feet, it's naturally going to have to store there somewhere. Gigapower's MP Dinos had two options, you could either transform it like the FT Dinos and put the feet and tail bits in the foot, or you could go for a G1 toy look and have the leg and tail kibble hanging off the robot foot, and then you can place a block piece in the foot to fill it in. Other then that, I'm not sure what to expect, they really can't get more interesting or innovative with it, not without changing the aesthetic and look, these companies are still going for specific looks, this transformation method works, if it aint broke don't fix it. Would I like to see another way to handle the tail and leg bits? No honestly, not really, it works, it hides away well, it's still clever, and it provides a clean look. Maybe another 3P company should take a whack at some other iteration of the Dinos other then G1, then they can try some more interesting things out with the design, but the kibble in boot trick just works for the G1 aesthetic.

[M'Kyuun]

Let's not forget Snarl, who uses his tail as a backpack.

Like MP-8, third-party MPs have transformations similar to the old G1 toys. To me, that seems intentional, and being able to hide dino kibble is just a benefit of modern-day engineering. I would rather have those voids filled in and given a purpose (as most 3P dinos do, large and small) than left hollow. And as much as I enjoyed my G1 Sludge and Swoop when I was young, I don't need to go back to those toys. The new ones are certainly better, IMO.

+1

[edstuff]

That omega supreme!

[M'Kyuun]

Good Lord, almost $500 for that Omega Supreme. I was never fond of the G1 toy, so, price aside, easy pass. But, for what he is, they did a remarkable job on him. I wonder if the little tank is motorized like the original?

Personally, I'd like a well designed Animated Omega Supreme that transforms into the Ark. Love that design; it was a glaring omission from the official toyline that I'd be happy to see a third party tackle. It'd be even cooler if they made a cockpit big enough to fit one or two of the deluxe sized figs, specifically Ratchet and Arcee, with an extra open head and leads for uploading to Omega . Dreaming, yeah, but wouldn't it be cool?

Edited November 22, 2016 by M'Kyuun

[Scyla]

Peaughs review of FansToys Sovereign:

It seems that he is a high quality collectible which I like. Two things I don't like: the mini "stock" of his arm cannon and the mini wheels on the back of this threads. I generally don't know why you want your collectible toys to have them since rolling him around might scratch the paint and they destroy the sculpt on the threads.

Oh well one more thing on the list of transforming robots that I don't understand: light-up feature, the length of extending ladders, small rolling wheels on toys that are not cars.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/search.aspx?search=fans%20toys&utm_source=Marketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Marketing&utm_content=

Aegis Sentinel A and B. Wow.

FansToys has its work cut out for them next year. Hopefully they deliver, especially with that nice looking Skyfire of theirs.

[CoryHolmes]

No offense taken at all If I could design a superior Dinobot transformation gimmick, I'd quit my job and join these 3P companies in an instant!

[JB0]

That omega supreme!

Four hundred and seventy dollars?! The beauty of sticker shock!

I understand why they split him into two boxes, because DAAAAAAAANG that is an expensive toy robot, but it is REALLY disingenuous to pretend it is a combiner when as near as I can tell neither half is useful by itself. .

It isn't even split logically, like "one set gets you a rocket and launchpad, the other gets you a tank and track, by their powers combined you get a giant plastic robot".

Instead, one set gets you a rocket, half a launchpad, and half a track, the other gets you a tank, half a launchpad, and half a track.

Either box by itself just leaves you with an incomplete mess of partially-assembled parts, and I think this is the biggest problem with splitting him like that.

That said, I've always thought Omega Supreme was awesome, and I am glad to see him gettin' some love.

[Tking22]

No offense taken at all If I could design a superior Dinobot transformation gimmick, I'd quit my job and join these 3P companies in an instant!

You and me both, that would be SWEEEEEET.

That FansToys Omega looks amazing, not a giant fan of the Bot or character so I've got no interest, I bet he'll be a beast once he releases though. As others have said, FT has a ton on their plate it seems, everything announced now Omega, and Devastator on the way in MP form as well, yeesh.

[sh9000]

Cool.

https://tfsource.com/make-toys/downbeat/

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Cool.

https://tfsource.com/make-toys/downbeat/

[sh9000]

[M'Kyuun]

Phoenix is sharp. I wish TT would make an official version- Generations Jetfire is cool, but he's not this.

Looking forward to seeing a review of this figure.

[Dangard Ace]

Phoenix is sharp. I wish TT would make an official version- Generations Jetfire is cool, but he's not this.

Looking forward to seeing a review of this figure.

Easy. Better than the Daca version.

[no3Ljm]

Photos courtesy of TagHobby.

Edited December 1, 2016 by no3Ljm

[Vermillion One]

I have resisted Mastermade so far, but I have a weakness for Scorponok. That looks great.

[M'Kyuun]

That does look cool, like a transforming Zoid. Great use of color, and all that tampo.

[Scyla]

Adorable!

[sh9000]

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=MMD10004&mode=retail

$169.99

[no3Ljm]

LunarToys has it preorder for $144.98.

I don't collect TF toys except for some Hot Rod/imus figures but I do like how the Master Made SD releases look like. I'm tempted to get all of them.

[valhary]

I waiting for this three

[M'Kyuun]

I wish TT had designed MP-10's rear wheels to fold in like that center pic. That's pretty much an improved MP-10- looks good, except for the silver areas where Autobot symbols are meant to be. Those would have looked far better, IMHO, had they just left them red.

[anime52k8]

first one looks like a rescue bot, second one looks aweful, third one looks kind of cool except for the head.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

I kinda like the beefy, boxy Studio OX look the second one has, but it's not replacing my MP 10.

[mikeszekely]

Well, after buying some computer parts I told myself I wasn't going to buy any toys over the holiday weekend last week, but then I went and ordered Seraphicus Prominon, MMC's version of Nova Prime.

Seraphicus Prominon is a toy that I had originally preordered; I love IDW's Transformers lore, I love Don Figueroa's design for Nova Prime, and I've wanted a toy pretty much since his first appearance (but somehow didn't buy Maketoys Hypernovae, go figure). I ultimately canceled my preorder, largely because a Nova Prime didn't seem as necessary as getting more combiners for my burgeoning combiner collection, but also because Seraphicus takes a lot of liberties with Don's design- more on that in a bit.

Seraphicus is actually sold in two parts; the core robot, and an armor kit. Accurate or not, the core robot looks fairly cool with a lean silhouette and nicely contrasting dark blue and white plastic picked out with some translucent blue and mostly silver, gray and yellow paint. He stands noticeably taller than an MP car, and slightly taller than one of MMC's Feralcon limb bots (although Tigris here is noticeably heavier).

The core robot comes with just these accessories: two translucent blue swords, and a silver and blue Matrix-like trinket. I've got no issues with the Matrix, but the swords seem like an odd fit (an issue that will be exacerbated when we talk about what comes in the armor box); cheaply made and totally unpainted copies of Hexatron's swords that almost seem tossed in after the fact.

A panel opens on Seraphicus' chest and the Matrix sits inside, as is usually the case with Primes. The swords can actually store on his back by sliding them in little notches on his backpack, and that's the only reason I'd believe that the swords weren't tossed in after production was completed. When the swords are on his back the tips of the blades may collide with his legs, depending on your pose.

Speaking of poses, the articulation on this guy is kind of mediocre. His head is on a ball joint that ends on a second ball joint where the neck connects to the torso, so he can rotate his head and get some extreme tilt, both up/down and laterally. Although his shoulder armor is on hinges it still limits his lateral movement to about 60-70 degrees, with a full 360 degrees of rotation. He's got a little bit of a butterfly joint in his shoulders, too, but with his backpack getting in the way it feels less like an intentional joint and more an artifact of a transformation joint not locking in place in robot mode. He has a bicep swivel above the elbow and a second swivel for transformation below the elbow. His elbows are double-jointed, but due to the shape of his arms doesn't get much more than 90 degrees of bend. His wrists are on ball joints for rotation, and the way they're cut he can actually bend his wrist inward. His thumb is on a ball joint and his fingers are molded in a slight curl with a hinge pin at the base. Unlike the MP cars, though, each finger can be moved independently. His waist can swivel. His hips have ratchets for forward and backward movement but they don't have a ton of range; almost 90 degrees back, but but only maybe 50 degrees or so forward. The lateral motion on his hips is similarly ratcheted and he can get beyond a full split. However, there aren't enough teeth on the ratchets, and he goes from stock straight to moderate A-stance in one click and to a ridiculously wide stance in three. He has thigh swivels just above his knees. His knees are ratcheted and could (and do for transformation) go beyond 90 degrees, except that the panels on the backs of his lower legs stop you shy of 90 degrees. His feet are on a pivoting hinge so they can tilt upward or downward a bit, and he's got some ankle tilt but not a lot. To make matters worse, what tilt he has is actually foiled by the fact that the armor on his lower legs comes down so low that it's below his foot if you use more than half the available tilt. Between his ankles and his hips, you're really limited to just stock straight and one A-stance position.

Seraphicus' hands, despite being more articulated than the Feralcons, has the same odd channels in the palms and rectangular-ish weapon handles that pretty much force you to slide them in sideways and turn them to lock them in straight.

According to Don Figueroa's art in Spotlight: Optimus Prime, Nova Prime should turn into a truck that's fairly similar to Maketoys' Hypernovae (that is, a more angular version of Laser Optimus Prime). Seraphicus turns into a shoe. I mean, yeah, it's got wheels, a grill, and what one might identify as a windshield, and no, we don't have to expect that a Cybertonian truck should look like an Earth truck. But the white color, broken with dark lines, combined with the overall silhouette definitely look more like a shoe than a truck with a casual glance. The shoe-truck is roughly the same size as an MP car.

The shoe truck rolls very well, and everything tabs together very solidly. The transformation is fairly simple, even a tad obvious, but it's a little bit of a pain to get everything in just the right place so that everything tabs up. The shoulders remind me a lot of Universe Sunstreaker/Sideswipe, and not in a good way. The chest panel can still open up to reveal the Matrix in this mode, evoking the idea of a Matrix-powered motor, which is kind of cool. There doesn't seem to be any way to store those swords, though.

Now that's it for the core robot. To get the full experience, most people also bought the armor kit.

The armor kit comes as a trailer, one nearly as long (but not nearly as tall or heavy) as MP-10's trailer. One the outside are two more weapons, a revolver pistol and a larger sword. Unlike the translucent Hexatron swords, this sword has a brilliant translucent blue blade and lots of silver and orange paint on the Matrix-hilt that's very clearly meant to be Prima's Star Saber. Still not sign of storage for the Hexatron swords.

A peg on the underside of the overhanging front of the trailer fits into a peghole on top of Seraphicus' shoe. Again, the result is far from Don's original sketches but still makes for a pretty convincing space truck. The cab looks less like a shoe pulling the trailer, and the bits inside make the trailer look more solid than it really is.

By flipping up the overhang and folding a the underside of it back, unclipping and opening up the sides, then wrapping the top back around to the underside and standing the whole thing up, the trailer turns into a sort of armor stand. Although the instructions have you remove the gun, sword, and the feet parts you can actually put them all back once the trailer is transformed. It makes for an interesting display piece.

Before we get him armored up, the core robot is perfectly capable of using the gun and sword that come with the armor. The sword seems a tad too big for the core robot, but the gun looks pretty much perfect for him. Unlike the swords that come with him, the gun can even kind of be pegged into his alt mode by sticking it in the hole for the trailer. In other words, the gun feels like it should have come with the core robot.

Armored up should be the money shot, right? I mean, it doesn't matter how off the core robot is, or that it turns into a shoe, as long as he looks like Nova Prime when he's all armored up. And... he kind of does. He's mostly white and dark blue/black where he needs to be; I'd only argue that his biceps, shoulders, and feet could have had more white, and his silver-painted mouth plate should have been painted to patch the horns on the helmet. He's even got orange flanking his ab-grill on on the parts of his wing armor that connect to his backpack, a callback to the orange light panels on Nova. The overall shape of his head is right, and although it's a rounder and puffier his torso has the right idea. Even if they're gunmetal instead of white his shoulders are on the right track, and even his arms are OK as long as you accept the silver armory stuff in place of tires. He starts to lose it after that, though, with missile pods on his thighs and huge shin armor that reminds me more of the Gundam GP02 than Nova's clearly-made-of-truck-cab legs. His wings, instead of being a cloak of thin panels, are massive wings that furl and unfurl like Destiny Gundam's.

All of his armor doesn't really add to his height. Anything gained from the feet armor is quickly negated by the fact that his shin armor forces him into an A-stance. As you can see, he's still barely taller than Tigris. What it does do is take the lean figure of the core robot and bulk it up like Bruce Banner going Hulk. And for the most part, it fits very securely. The only real exception is his bicep armor, which is just waiting for an excuse to pop off.

One odd observation... the core robot's forearms are molded in such a way that the translucent blue looks like it would naturally point out away from his body when his arms are set so his elbows would bend inward. The gauntlet armor slides over the forearms so that the new translucent blue bits are on the same side, but the way the gauntlets are shaped causes the wrist to point inward slightly. Although he can bend his elbow the same way, his hands look kind of awkward. It almost makes me want to rotate the forearm below the elbow so the translucent blue parts are pointing backward. His hand looks more natural that way, but the downside is that you can see the core robot's arm nestled inside.

The armored robot can still wield and store the Hexatron swords. He can also hold his gun, but it looks rather small for him now. This reinforces my believe that MMC could have done away with the Hextatron swords entirely and shipped the core robot with the gun.

Armored up, Seraphicus looks best with the Star Saber-esque sword that came with the armor kit. You can even kind of store it on his back if you want by sliding it into the gap in his backpack. It doesn't look great there, though, because it's not intended to go there; the blade is simply too wide where the silver starts to fit all the way through.

As far as articulation goes he's using basically the same shoulders, hips, neck, waist, thighs, knees, ankles, biceps, and elbows that he was before. The armor doesn't impede it much; he loses a little lateral movement on the hips and thighs, and if you try to use the bicep swivel above the elbow his bicep armor will come off. The swivel below his elbow, as well as his neck, waist, elbows, knees, and thighs are all the same. The panels on his new hip skirts can fold out of the way, so his forward/backward range isn't any worse, and his shoulders can still rotate 360 degrees. His wrist and hands are new, with the core robot's hands all tucked inside. The hand has the same articulation as the core hand, but the wrist is a simple swivel instead of a ball peg and loses the inward bend.

His wings are a whole thing, though. First, they can pivot up or down where they connect to his backpack, and that joint is molded to look like a turbine. Then there's an arm with a hinge that can fold the wings back or forward. The arm ends in another up/down pivot at the base of the wing. A little way from that is another molded turbine with another pivot that furls or unfurls the wing. When the wing is unfurled, there are five translucent orange "feathers" that you can spread.

A big problem with Seraphicus is that the majority of the people who bought both the armor and the core robot are going to display him in his armored robot form... which leaves you with quite the leftovers, and the dilemma of what to do with them. You could leave them as a very empty armor rack. You could close it back up into the skeletal remnant of a trailer. Neither is particularly appealing. From Don's sketches, it looks like he intended Nova's trailer to turn into a gun emplacement for the inner robot and for the entire trailer to be used as part of his armored form. Using the whole trailer is how Maketoys handled it, and it's an approach that I wish MMC would have taken because honestly what you're really doing is paying for a ton of extra plastic that most people are going to leave in the box. At the end of the day, it's probably the biggest reason for why the armor actually cost more than the core robot: $140 for the trailer, $85 for the core robot, going by TFSource's current pricing. And that's probably Seraphicus' biggest downfall. Is the core robot worth $85? If MMC had tossed in the pistol, I'd say so. But the armor isn't worth $140, and the full experience isn't nearly worth $225. I mean, that's more than MMC's Overlord. That's more than their Tarn and their Kaon combined.

As it stands I cannot recommend this guy at full price to anyone, even the biggest IDW fan hard up for a Nova Prime. Maybe just the core robot, but only if you're cool with the core robot and you promise you'll never spend the extra $140 for the armor. I'm very glad I canceled my preorder back in the day. Honestly, I saw a couple of stores selling the core robot and the armor together during the holiday sales for $160, and even that's pushing it. I managed to snag the core robot and armor for $120, and I think that's probably about the point where I can start to say to myself "there are better toys for $120 but clearly there's a lot of plastic here so I guess it's fair".

[Dio]

I'll echo the sentiment on Seraphicus Prominon being a bit of a disappointment. I got mine at release, and had to get repairs/fixes on both the core figure (mis-installed pin in the hand that broke out the back of it) and the trailer (missing the armored-mode helmet). Couple that with MMC's rock-hard plastic and a transformation that has to overcome some nasty tight tolerances, and it's just not a fun figure to play with. It also should have had 2 pistols, the one just doesn't look right and there are actually two mounting holes for them in the trailer - similar to Mike's sentiment, I think two revolvers with the core figure would have been way cooler than the hexatron lightsabers.

All that said, it is a very attractive display piece, and I certainly don't mind a little Gundam aesthetic in my 3P TF's. MMC's customer service was also top notch when I submitted my complaints... no questions asked, though it was a little head-scratcher to get a company response signed "sent from my iPhone." It weirded me out the same way when my roofing contractor earlier this year communicated with me solely by text messages, so maybe I just need to either get with the times or go out on my front porch and start yelling at kids to get off my lawn.

Anyhoo, I digress. Nice figure, but right now for me MMC is a pretty distant second to Maketoys when it comes to my enjoyment of their products. While MMC's service is excellent, and their figures are quite satisfactory, I'm just not getting the "top tier" vibe from them that so many other fans are expressing. Maybe when Kultur comes out it will wow me a little more.

In other 3P TF news... I am SO buying Iron Factory's next few figures.

[technoblue]

For me, it wasn't that MMC's Seraphicus Prominon was disappointing so much as it took too long to get released. And this problem isn't limited to Seraphicus alone. It appears that MMC has a habit of teasing new toys well ahead of their release dates. I think Titanika was teased summer of 2014? Anyway, Seraphicus had the longest project tease-to-release schedule by far, and compared to his other contemporary MMC Reformatted releases, it shows in unfortunate ways.

For instance, the power cradle could have used more work and a better "base" (or repair) mode transformation when the armor was on the figure. The skeleton rack is useless. Having the ability to turn the Cybertronian "truck" fluidly in alt mode would have been nice too. Granted, these are nitpicks but when other third party toys (even MMC's own toys) are doing it right it makes me scratch my head. Maketoys did a better packaging presentation by offering Hyper Novae in one box. Seraphicus being split in two boxes and at a premium price was odd.

Articulation and design are both important to me when planning a purchase, MMC usually is okay in both categories, but Seraphicus felt dated once the new toy shine wore off.

[mikeszekely]

All that said, it is a very attractive display piece, and I certainly don't mind a little Gundam aesthetic in my 3P TF's.

I don't think that I mind that it's Gundam-ish, I think I mind that it's Gundam-ish instead of Don's original design, which I really liked.

right now for me MMC is a pretty distant second to Maketoys when it comes to my enjoyment of their products.

Not sure that I have a favorite. People speak highly of MMC, and yeah, the stuff I've bought from them have been solid. Maketoys... yeah, I really like Gundog (the only Re:Master figure I have) and Striker Manus (Cross Dimension), but their combiners just aren't up to snuff for me anymore. Honestly, while they've definitely got issues that almost always boil down to "why didn't they put a tab or something to lock that down?", I've really enjoyed Generation Toys/TransForm Mission's stuff.

For me, it wasn't that MMC's Seraphicus Prominon was disappointing so much as it took too long to get released. And this problem isn't limited to Seraphicus alone. It appears that MMC has a habit of teasing new toys well ahead of their release dates. I think Titanika was teased summer of 2014? Anyway, Seraphicus had the longest project tease-to-release schedule by far, and compared to his other contemporary MMC Reformatted releases, it shows in unfortunate ways.

For instance, the power cradle could have used more work and a better "base" (or repair) mode transformation when the armor was on the figure. The skeleton rack is useless. Having the ability to turn the Cybertronian "truck" fluidly in alt mode would have been nice too. Granted, these are nitpicks but when other third party toys (even MMC's own toys) are doing it right it makes me scratch my head. Maketoys did a better packaging presentation by offering Hyper Novae in one box. Seraphicus being split in two boxes and at a premium price was odd.

Articulation and design are both important to me when planning a purchase, MMC usually is okay in both categories, but Seraphicus felt dated once the new toy shine wore off.

I'm not sure when MMC started work on Seraphicus, but I've got some older figures, mostly iGear. I've got Feral Rex, which I think was designed first. Some of the design choices on Seraphicus could be age-related, but some of the choices were just poor choices. Like I said in my review, there's no reason the core robot couldn't have had guns instead of cheap Hexatron swords. Maketoys released Hypernovae forever ago, and didn't his whole trailer become armor? MMC didn't need to leave a skeleton. But I can be fairly forgiving, and my biggest disappointment with Seraphicus isn't really with his engineering, it's with his price. The core robot and the armor kit are not worth $240. They should never have been sold separately. They should have, from day one, all been in one $150 box (although I think even $150's pushing it).

And MMC has a habit of revealing toys well ahead of their release date? Maybe, but no one does that better than Fans Toys, whom I'm pretty sure have announced more toys than they've actually released.

[CoryHolmes]

Is Serephicus as gappy and hollow as he looks to me? For the price point that 3P companies are charging, hollow limbs and gappy designs are a major no-no.

[mikeszekely]

Is Serephicus as gappy and hollow as he looks to me? For the price point that 3P companies are charging, hollow limbs and gappy designs are a major no-no.

I guess that would depend on where you're seeing gaps and hollowness? The trailer, sure. The illusion of it being a solid trailer is largely because his wings cover the sides, but take all the armor off of it and it looks like a sprue from a Gundam model kit.

The core robot? I don't think he's worse than most other 3P toys. The insides of his lower legs are hollow, sure... just like most 3P toys whose lower legs open up and fold over the thigh for transformation, and MMC even built a fold-out panel into to help hide the inside. There are little holes below his knee pads, because that's where they peg in for alt mode. If they bother you it looks fine to leave the knee pads folded down onto his shins (that's how they come and I didn't realize they went up at first; if you look at the pics in my review the first three have them down, the rest have them up). His forearms are perhaps more solid than most toys because his hands don't fold into them. His biceps, hips, and thighs are likewise as solid as any given 3P figure (and obviously much more so than a Hasbro toy). The only gaps are slots or pegs for transformation.

Now his torso, yeah, it's kind of hollow. It's an artifact of his transformation; the chest swings up and away from the hips, and his arms rotate into the hollow space. From most angles, though, you don't really see it because his backpack covers it. You really have to look up at him from below his waist or straight down from directly above his head to see into the gaps.

With the armor on? The shoulder, bicep, thigh, feet, and waist parts are all pretty snug on him. The helmet could fit him better, though. The wing and chest piece sits tight to his backpack and the core robot's chest, but it does have these swing arms on the back that grab the front. The boots wrap around his lower legs and clip shut, no real gappage there. His gloves, maybe? They just slide over his forearms; they don't wrap and close like the boots. You can actually see the core robots hands inside, so while it's not in the instructions I do recommend you turn the core robots hands backward before putting the gloves on.

TL;DR - I've pretty much already said not to buy Seraphicus without a substantial discount, and I've got no problems criticizing him where I think it's due, but I don't think hollowness or gaps are a problem with him.