The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[Chronocidal]

So after digging through the assorted discussions about third party seekers, I'm almost to the point I want to design my own, and mix the MP-03 mold with the DX9 Stormtrooper style solution for the tail sections, and a few other assorted tweaks to get the thing to stay together.

More than that though.. seeing all of the recent takes on Skyfire's animation model makes me want to attempt a real-world twist on his design, and maybe give it something that looks more airworthy.  I don't know if anyone would actually buy it, but just can't help thinking the recent Phoenix release looks an awful lot like a particular aircraft.

Obviously the backpack doesn't work the same way, but I could see it being an add-on with more weapons and such similar to the recent Jetfire molds.  But I've been wanting to see someone use the Vigilante design for a long time, since it's one of those rare "box with wings" aircraft that would have plenty of room for boxy arms and legs.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Chronocidal

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

I would love to see more classic aircraft in the transforming toys scene. A Vigilante would've made a far better Silverbolt than a Blackbird for sure.

[mikeszekely]

In a move that's becoming all too common lately (maybe I'm running out of combiners?), I got yet another figure that doesn't particularly gel with my collection.  Maybe I need to start collecting MPs after all... anyway, this is Salus, the first (and basically only) release from Voodoo Robots, and their take on an MP Ratchet.

First glance... yup, that's Ratchet all right.  Much closer to the cartoon than the old iGear version (who is similar in height to an MP car, for a height comparison).  I think the only thing that might strike someone as "off" from the cartoon is the windows in his feet, but if I'm being honest I kind of dig it.  It makes me think IDW (although, AFAIK, no IDW version of Ratchet had window feet).  Alas, I don't have the official MP Ratchet to compare them, but here's a pic from TFW2005 user FatedLazarus of Salus, who beat both official MP vans to the market, with MP Ironhide.

I guess I'd suggest that Salus is more like MP-10 and the older MP cars, where they were cartoon-accurate but with some added detail to make them look a little more real.  Salus obviously doesn't have the smooth legs of the official MP or the animation model, but the added detail (which seem to be inspired the Guido Guidi artwork at the top of Ratchet's TF Wiki page) don't feel out of place.  Yes, the smooth legs, protruding torso, and big diaper on the official MP are more cartoon accurate, but I actually prefer the more heroic proportions, lack of hip panels, and the more-defined face on Salus.  Of course, that's a totally subjective call, and there are definitely other factors to consider when deciding what's right for your collection.

Salus doesn't come with a ton of accessories, but that's honestly fine by me.  Figures that have too many gimmicks usually wind up displayed with one or two accessories while the rest wind up in a box in the closest.  What we do have are a few white sprues, which we'll get to in a minute.  We also have Ratchet's signature tool-thingy, with a nice silver paint job and a pistol.  I'm not sure about the design; I can't really recall Ratchet using a gun in the cartoon, aside from moments before his death in the '86 movie.  Now, the guns he used in that movie are definitely more like what MP Ironhide is holding in the above picture, but on the flip side, the G1 Ironhide toy came with the same accessories as Ratchet.  Rather than animate Ironhide with a gun that looks like Ratchet's tools, the animators drew different guns for him.  Long story short, Salus' gun looks sort of like this one:

Given that Voodoo intended to sell a remolded Salus as Ironhide (for whatever reason, the closest they got was releasing a Diaclone black Ironhide before going out of business), I'd say that the gun is acceptable.

Both the gun and the tool thingy use the ubiquitous tabs on the handle that go into slots on the palm, and Salus holds both quite securely.

For articulation, Salus has his head on a ball joint.  He can look up a good amount and tilt his head laterally, and while his downward tilt is a little more limited the whole head is on a hinged flap for transformation, and moving that flap will let you cheat a little more downward range.  His shoulders are ratcheted for rotation, and have soft ratchets that get 90 degrees of lateral movement.  He has bicep and wrist swivels, and his elbow has a soft-ratcheted 90 degree bend.  If you want more, there's another soft ratcheted bend at the top of his bicep, just below the swivel, that can bend 90 degrees forward.  His waist can swivel.  His hips are ratcheted universal joints.  He can get about 90 degrees forward or laterally, but only about one click backward.  I should also point out that he's one of those figures whose hip ratchets go from super stock straight to wide A-stance on one click.  In fact, the stance in that first picture I posted?  One click.  Moving along, he has some thigh rotation built into the hips but due to the shape of the pelvis and his thighs it's extremely limited.  There's a ratcheted swivel just below the knee.  The knees themselves are ratcheted for 90 degrees of bend.  His feet have friction hinges to give him some deep inward/outward ankle tilt.

And on to alt mode... not a lot to complain about here.  The angles are, perhaps, a little sharper than the MP, but very in line with the G1 toy.  The dark tint is also more reminiscent of the G1 toy than cartoon blue on the MP, but Salus definitely looks like a white Cherry Vanette with red stripes and a light bar.  He does have a little bit of stuff that hangs low on the underside of the vehicle, but it doesn't scrape along the ground and he rolls quite well.  My only nitpick with his alt mode, and it's a minor one, is that he's got plastic tires.  I know that's sort of par for the course with a lot of the Takara MPs, but c'mon, this is 3P.  Even the iGear Ratchet has rubber tires.

You may have noticed a number of squarish holes on the sides of the vehicle.  They're pretty unsightly.  But, you remember those sprues?  The have a bunch of little squarish pegs on them.  You cut them off, pop them in the holes, and you end up with a much cleaner vehicle.  Why the holes are there in the first place, or why they weren't filled in the factory, I don't really know.

So I guess the question is, Salus or the official MP?  On appearance alone, I'd say Salus, but he's got the articulation issues with the hips.  While I don't mind his backpack, I do wish that it all locked in a better.  I think he's got, dare I say it, too many ratcheting joints that don't need ratchets.  He's got way fewer accessories than the MP.  And the icing on the cake is that the MP, despite coming with more accessories, is cheaper at retail.  That makes him a bit harder of a sell.  However, if you can find him at a discount (I got him for around $79 from Toy Dojo's Amazon store) he's still a pretty good figure.  Doubly so for me, because I'd rather have different takes on a toy for repaint characters than actually buy the same toy again with new colors and a new head.

[Lorindor]

On 2017-05-30 at 6:22 PM, mikeszekely said:

For Downbeat, I'd suggest the white outline ones.

Just to make sure, is this the one you recommend?

http://toyhax.com/symbols-for-tf/492-outline-symbols.html?search_query=autobot&results=39

[sh9000]

https://tf-direct.com/3rd-wave-jinbao-robot-oversized-bruticus-with-box_p1598.html

Cool.

[mikeszekely]

7 hours ago, Lorindor said:

Just to make sure, is this the one you recommend?

http://toyhax.com/symbols-for-tf/492-outline-symbols.html?search_query=autobot&results=39

Those are the ones.

EDIT: I picked up Maketoys' Striker Noir, their Nemesis Prime repaint of their previous Striker Manus from their Cross Dimension line.  I'm not going to do a full review: re-read my Striker Manus review, but picture all red and blue parts in black, the gold paint replaced with teal, and the translucent parts in red.  Now, while basically everything I said about Striker Manus still applies, there are a few things worth noting.

For starters, I think it's important to point out that the the mold simply looks better as a Nemesis Prime than an Optimus Prime.  Despite Striker Manus' excellent articulation, I kind of noted in the review that the design didn't quite match with the other Autobots I'd keep on that shelf, and ultimately awarded that spot to KBB's downsized MP-10.  I don't have that issue with Striker Noir.  He's exactly what I'd want an evil clone of Optimus Prime to look like, and I'd recommend him on that note alone.

But that's not all!  Noir comes with three runners of parts that you can use to build a bunch of weapons and accessories, plamo style.  Once assembled, you wind up with the following extra accessories:

2 pistols
2 machine guns
1 more traditional Optimus-style ion rifle
1 very large rifle, with large translucent blades on the top and bottom
1 large sword with a translucent red blade
2 katanas
1 pole that can be used with the katanas or his smokestack axes to make polearm or a double-bladed weapon
1 beam saber blade
1 part that can be used as a beam saber hilt, or in combination with...
1 part that, used with the beam saber hilt, can make a handle for Rioter Despotron's fusion cannon so that any Cross Dimension figure (so far) can use it as a hand-held weapon
2 adapters that tab onto Noir's (or Manus') back that allow you to mount some combination of the weapons.  Basically, there's two slots that the hand grip from the pistols, machine guns, ion rifle, or wind vane gun can slot into, as well as two pegs that fit holes on the large bladed rifle and the large sword.  The machine guns also have slots so they can sit on his shoulders, with or without the smokestacks, and the pistols have small grooves that (loosely) fit slots on the moving panels on the sides of his lower legs.

The extra accessories add a lot of value to Noir, whether you plan on using all of the accessories with him or giving some to other figures (for me, that ion rifle is going to MP10v, or, if I were using him, Striker Manus).  Then when you remember that Noir is a great Nemesis Prime figure with fantastic articulation, and recommending him becomes a no-brainer for me.

Edited June 4, 2017 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

Now for a real review.  This is Revolt, TransForm Mission's version of IDW Dragstrip.

Given how goofy CW Dragstrip's head was, the fact that FansProject went for the toy head, and the fact that the earlier Universe Dragstrip had a repainted Mirage head, Revolt has what is possibly the most G1 cartoon-looking head on a toy to date.  Despite that, it's pretty obvious that Revolt is not based on G1 Dragstrip.  Like previous members Disorder (Wildrider) and Carnage (Breakdown), Revolt is based on Don Figueroa's designs in IDW's first ongoing Transformer's series.  I went back and leafed through the series, and Dragstrip's mostly a background character in it.  The best view of him is the cover of Transformers #5, and a lot of his lower legs are obscured in it.  Revolt definitely gets a ton right, like the head sculpt, the shape of the chest down to that little cut out in the center, the pipes on his abs, the front wing sticking up off his back, the bits of purple and silver on his pelvis, the wheels on his arms, the missiles on the sides of his legs, wheels for heels, and the rear wing feet.  The deviations are mostly in color: purple biceps and silver thighs and wrists instead of black, blue missiles instead of red, yellow lights near his belly button instead of red, and the addition of somewhat more G1-ish racing stripes.  While I'm sure that there are still people longing for a more G1 Dragstrip, as a robot I think Revolt is very close to the source material and a good-looking robot on the whole.

He's a little taller than DX9's Invisible, which does make him roughly MP-sized.  I leave it up to you guys to decide if the aesthetic allows you to use him with your MPs or not.  I'm not going to bother to dig CW Dragstrip or Fansproject's version out, because I feel like I established pretty clearly with the previous two that these guys are a lot bigger and more detailed than CW or FP.

A gun is Revolt's lone accessory, so it's safe to conclude that basically all the combiner parts will come with their Motormaster.  It's kind of stupid-looking gun, if you ask me.  For some reason the middle purple part is on a hinge and can swing down away from the silver, leaving the bulk of the gun as a pretty plain, long tube.

Stupid or not, he holds the gun very well, using the tried and true method of tabs on the handle fitting slots on the palms.

Revolt's head is on a ball joint.  He's got very little sideways or downward tilt, but he can look up a great deal.  His shoulders on a ball joint for rotation and lateral movement, and it's cut so that he can get about 90 degrees.  The ball joint is hinged for transformation, though, and the hinge can give you even greater lateral range or even a bit of a shrug.  His shoulder armor is pinned to the back of his shoulders and can rotate on that pin so that it's never in the way.  He's got bicep swivels, hinged elbows that can bend a little over 90 degrees, wrist swivels, and MP car-style hands with a fixed thumb and the four fingers molded as one piece hinged at the base so his hand can open and close.  His waist can swivel.  His hips are friction universals that have no problem going over 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees laterally if you move a transforming part of his butt, but only about 45 degrees backward to due to clips for combined mode that hang out on the backs of his hips.  I'll stress that 45 degrees seems like plenty to get most natural poses you'd want.  Thigh rotation is built into the hip, and the cut of his thigh plus the aforementioned clips prevent his thighs from get a 360 degree (or even 180 degree) swivel, but the 90 degrees or so you do get is again plenty for most natural poses.  The knees are friction hinges good for 90 degrees.  He doesn't have true ankle tilts, but the spoilers that make up the front of his feet are on rotating hinges that supply upward, downward, inward, or outward tilt.  So, no matter how you pose him, it's no trouble to get the front of the feet flat.  The wheels in his heels have pairs of holes on the inside.  You line up a pair with a pair of pegs to lock that wheel, turning it into a stable rubber base.

While I was leafing through the comics I did Dragstrip's IDW alt mode... and this is not it.  Interestingly, Revolt's alt mode is closer to being a G1-accurate Tyrell P34 than IDW Dragstrip's closed cockpit and smooth chassis.  Revolt even has the black vents near the rear tires that an actual P34 would have, a detail that was missing from both the G1 toy and cartoon.  The biggest deviations from a P34 are the shapes of the front and rear spoilers, changes that would have been necessary to get the right shape for his IDW robot mode.  Like Invisible here, he's got nice, smooth, rubber racing tires.  He's a fair bit longer than Invisible.  Given that a real P34 was pretty tiny Revolt's alt mode doesn't exactly scale with MP cars or even the other members of TFM's Stunticons, but that's pretty much what you get with combiners.

I really have no idea why he's got a number 11 on him.  Kind of fades into the maroon stripes.

As is the case with the other TFM Stunticon's Revolt's gun does stow away on the underside of the car.  It's a little loose, but it works.  I also like how he either hides or integrates is robot parts.  If it weren't for his hands, you almost wouldn't know that he can turn into a robot despite his forearms, butt, thighs, half his thighs, and the entirety of his torso behind the yellow bits on display.

Pictures don't tell the whole story with Revolt, though.  While I very much liked him, people had issues with a lot of the plastic on Disorder and Carnage for being a bendier plastic.  They insisted that it felt cheap, although I think it was a deliberate choice given how many parts needed to bend or flex to give or get the clearance to move everything around.  There's mostly none of that going on with Revolt, though.  Everything is pretty well thought out and engineered, so there's lots of flaps and panels moving around but they move in a very intuitive way and everything fits and locks together well in both modes.  The result is that he feels better and more solid in hand, and he's fun to transform.  As much as I like Disorder, there's no question that Revolt is the best of the set so far, and I'd recommend him without hesitation.

[sh9000]

I wonder if a 3rd party company will ever make G1 cartoon styled robot and vehicle Stunticons.

[mikeszekely]

5 hours ago, sh9000 said:

I wonder if a 3rd party company will ever make G1 cartoon styled robot and vehicle Stunticons.

ToyWorld did announce that they were planning on doing a Menasor.  They'd even shown off teaser artwork in the form of wanted posters with their planned names in the manual that came with the V2 G1 Constructor gift set.  But, the artwork was showing off toy-style heads, and all of this was before the ToyWorld shakeup that had their design team leaving and forming Zeta Toys, so I don't know if ToyWorld is still doing a Menasor or where they stand on it.

[mikeszekely]

Well, I feel like I've been reviewing a lot of toys lately that aren't the sort of toys that typically go into my collection.  I think it's time for another combiner.  We'll start with Gumball, TFC's version of Streetwise.

My initial thought is that Gumball definitely looks like Streetwise, maybe more so than Maketoys' (not pictured because, frankly, the Maketoys Protectobots are kind of a pain to mess with) or the CW version.  He's got a head that's somewhat G1 toy-ish.  He's got the big window sticking out from his torso for a chest, white arms, red thighs, and a flat section of the hood for abs.  Red feet poke out from under his shins in a manner somewhat evocative of the way the G1 version used the red light bar for toes.  The biggest deviations are how tall his shoulders are, the red fists, and the black pelvis.

Size-wise, like a lot of TFC's older stuff, he's a little taller than a Deluxe but a little smaller than an MP car or a Voyager.  I'd have liked it if he were a tad bigger.

Gumball comes with a few accessories.  He's got a pair of rifles, cast in black but with some nice red-painted details, a combiner foot, and a... thing.  We'll talk about the thing later.  For now, know that you can kind of stick all the accessories together to form a cool little turret.  I don't think it was intentional on TFC's part, but there you go.  Also, not pictured, is one of those dumb little trapezoidal parts with pegs on the sides and a peg hole on the bottom that you use to plug in the hands and feet.

So Gumball's head is on a swivel.  However, the transforming flap it's attached to doesn't lock in place, so you can fake some up/down tilt with it.  His shoulders are on a swivel for rotation and a double hinge for lateral movement.  His really tall shoulders do impede his lateral range to a little under 90 degrees, though.  He's got bicep swivels, and his elbows are ratcheted hinges that will get you 90 degrees.  His hands are totally fixed; no opening and closing, no wrist rotation.  His waist can swivel.  His hips are on soft ratchets for 90 degrees forward or backward, and on a stronger ratchet for 90 degrees of lateral movement.  He doesn't have thigh swivels exactly, but he does have swivels just above his knees.  Speaking of knees, they can bend well over 90 degrees.  His feet are on a hinged ball joint so he can swivel his ankles and well as tilt then up, down, inward, or outward.  Since his hands are molded for 5mm pegs, he holds his guns just fine.

In alt mode, it's pretty obvious that he's not G1 Streetwise, since he's a newer Mustang.  He's looking a little bland, but G1 Streetwise didn't exactly have a lot of details, either.  The "P.D.N.Y" thing is kind of stupid... why didn't TFC just give him his star?  Oh well, there's always Reprolabels.  In alt mode, Gumball is significantly larger than CW Streetwise (and much bigger than Maketoys').  He almost looks good with MP Prowl here, as Prowl's only a little longer... except that particular Mustang is over a foot longer than a Datsun 280ZX, so Gumball should be bigger than Prowl.

Taking a quick look at the back, recall that little trapezoidal bit I was talking about earlier?  molding on the one side blends with the lines on the bumper.  However, if you remove it, turn it around, and put it back in you have a peg hole that's used for connecting to the foot for combined mode.  It has one other use, however.

You can peg that thingy we haven't mentioned since the accessory section into it.  Gumball's rifles can then plug into the top in a fashion very reminiscent of the G1 toy.

And this is Gumball's leg mode.  It's a little thin for a leg, I think.  Now, you know that when I do these reviews I don't usually look at limb modes, but it'll become clear later why I'm doing it now.

Well, I think Gumball is more fun to mess with than Maketoys' version, and is a better toy than the Combiner Wars version.  I like the Mustang alt-mode.  Like most of TFC's pre-Hades stuff, though, he's not exactly great.  If you want a Streetwise, and you want him right now, he's worth what I paid ($200 for the entire set of 5 in a TFC clearance sale at Big Bad Toy Store).  If a company like GT/TFM or MMC make the Protectobots* it won't be hard for them to do better, so it might be worth waiting.

*GT/TFM is rumored to be working on them, and MMC was confirmed to be working on one but, years later, we've got basically nothing to show for it.

Edited June 6, 2017 by mikeszekely

[JB0]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Gumball comes with a few accessories.  He's got a pair of rifles, cast in black but with some nice red-painted details, a combiner foot, and a... thing.

I just wanted to note that the accent paint on the guns and foot is very nice, and I wish more toys did this. 

[Chronocidal]

Just got my Robot Heroes CG-02 delivered... I might have to pick up a Thundercracker, and Ramjet if they do the coneheads.  This thing is beautiful.  And huge. 

I'm thinking he's close enough to 1/48 to use a few decent sidewinders, but I'm definitely ordering the add-on pack when it appears.

Only a couple of minor quibbles.  The stabilizers were mounted on the opposite sides (easily fixed), and the nose mount in jet mode is a little loose, making it easy to knock the whole nose section down.  The wing flaps are also a little loose, but they stay just fine if you don't hit them.

Also, I'm contemplating using some actual decals to replace all the engrish "NO OVER" markings on the wings.

[mikeszekely]

OK, so this one is Warning Line.  Presumably, this is TFC's Groove.

I think, when you see him, it's pretty obvious why I'm saying "presumably."  If you saw this guy, in robot mode, sitting on a shelf or a desk without any other toys to give him context, would you even know it's Groove?  I mean, where do I even start?  The black thighs and pelvis, which no version of Groove that I'm familiar with had?  The red torso, which, again, no version of Groove I'm familiar with had (there was, AFAIK, a gold-chested version like the cartoon, and a silver-chested version with red stripes).  The head, which I guess does sort of have the right shape, but even the silver-chested toy had a gold face.  I kind of feel like the only thing they got right was that his shins and arms are mostly white (although there's still more color there than I'd have liked), and the fact that his feet are made up from the motorcycle seat.  It wouldn't have been perfect, but I swear molding all the red plastic in a gold color, molding the thighs in white, and touching it all up with a little gold and white paint would have gone a long way toward making him at least somewhat recognizable.  Indeed, I'm sort of wrestling with the idea of repainting him to make him or like Groove, or leaving him (and Gumball) alone and painting the other three and passing them off as Guard City if/when someone else does Defensor.

His accessories are much like Gumball's: a combiner foot, a foot/wrist connector, two guns, and a thingy.  This time, the thingy looks like it could be a third gun, which I appreciate.  And you can still stick them all together, although I don't think the turret mode is quite as effective.

The articulation here is pretty much on par with Gumball's.  Head swivels on a mushroom peg, unsecured transforming flap lets him fake some downward tilt.  Shoulder rotate and can hinge outward 90 degrees.  Biceps swivel, and he's got 90 degrees of ratcheted elbow bend.  For transformation his wrists can hinge up and down, but he doesn't have any rotation.  His waist can swivel, no thigh swivels but swivels just above the knee.  His hips are ratcheted for 90 degrees of forward, backward, or lateral movement, and his knees can bend 90 degrees on a friction hinge.  His feet are hinged for inward ankle tilt, and the hinge is connected to the red part on the inside of his leg.  That part rotates for transformation, but that rotation can also be used to give him some up/down tilt on his foot.  He holds his guns just fine.

And there's his alt mode.  It's a Dodge Tomahawk motorcycle concept, so it is based on a real vehicle, but it's still a stupid-looking one that wasn't even close to street legal.  To top it off, there's zero indication that it's a police vehicle.  The blue panels (brakes?) on the wheels and the red panel under the handlebars were all present on the actual bike.  Once again, though, I have the Reprolabels on the way.

Size-wise, that bike probably fits better with Deluxe Groove there than with Salmoore, but he'd still have to be a lot smaller to scale with his team mates in alt mode.  Such is the life of a combiner, I suppose.

You can leave the combiner connector attached in bike mode, but unlike Gumball it's not really a necessity.  It fits between the wheels, in a gap on the red parts.  Like Gumball you can use plug the thingy into the combiner connector and use it to hold up his rifles for some G1 toy action.

And there's the leg mode.  Folding the front tires along the sides gives it some bulk, and he makes thicker leg than Gumball.  The ankle looks a little small though.  And, without the front of the bike hanging off the knee, he might as well be Rook for how much it looks like one of Defensor's legs.

Now, this isn't official.  It's not in any of the instructions.  However, with some manipulation, you can make an arm mode out of Warning Line.  So... Scramble City?

Ultimately, I'm finding Warning Line to be a lot like Gumball in that I think he's kind of OK.  He's not really good enough, he's not what I really want in a Groove, but the alternatives are CW Groove, who's less articulated, smaller, and makes a smaller Defensor, or Maketoys' version which is also smaller and also makes a smaller Defensor on top of being a fiddly toy that isn't any fun to transform.  So for now, for my display, he is my Groove.  I just hope MMC's Defensor shows some signs of life, or GT/TFM come out and say definitively that they're doing one.

Edited June 7, 2017 by mikeszekely

[Chronocidal]

I fear I may be on the verge of another hobby to engross myself in.

Just fiddling with proportions for fun, an actual F-16 has some serious issues making an actual transformer.  But I'm wondering how well the conformal tanks on the back would work as a way to hide the arms..

[Kurisama]

Only one way to find out! I think the conformal tanks would help, might need to fudge the proportions/placement of them tho - keen to see how it turns out   

[Chronocidal]

Keeping the powermaster gimmick might not be possible, but I think there'd be enough room to conceal Dreadwind's original shoulder pods inside the front portion of the fuselage, under the front of the conformal pods.  The rest of the arms would just have to lay along his back, and rotate to the front after sliding the wings down.

You're right about the proportions though.  Even without any arms, this thing makes for a really long and skinny torso and legs.  Might have to squash him down, maybe do some VF-1-style nose collapsing to get him shorter.  Might get better if I stick more of the rear fuselage to the tail section.

[mikeszekely]

This would be Hydrant, TFC's Hotspot.

I think, aesthetically, he's definitely on the right track.  He's got the G1 toy's black head, and the combined chest on his shoulders hides some of the blue, but he's mostly got the right colors in the right places, with a more G1 chest than Maketoys'.  If I'm going to complain, it's less about the basic design and more about the proportions of said design.  His torso is too long; from feet to hips his legs are the same length as CW Hotspot, but from hips to neck Hydrant is a head taller.  Cap it off with a head that's too small and arms that are too huge, especially in the forearm area, and he looks kind of goofy.

He does come with a lot of accessories, though.  We've got his ladder, which can be removed if you want that cartoon "the ladder just disappeared" look, a gun that doubles as the combined mode gun, two gray objects that I assume are sirens, two missile pods, and then a variety of objects whose purposes are not immediately clear; four hinged bits, a piece like the usual TFC hand/foot connector but taller, and another thing with a combiner port in the middle and a combiner peg on a hinge.

Hydrant's head is on a swivel, and unlike the previous two there's no folding flap for transformation so he's got zero tilt.  His shoulders rotate, and they have friction hinges for lateral movement where they connect to the torso, as well as a ratcheted hinge inside the shoulder.  His head keeps you from getting 90 degrees on the first hinge, and the combiner chest on his shoulders keeps you from getting 90 degrees on the ratchet, but combined getting 90 degrees isn't an issue.  He has bicep swivels and ratcheted elbows that can bend 90 degrees.  For a change, he actually does have wrist swivels, and his hands are MP car-style with a fixed thumb and a hinge through the base knuckle of his fingers, which are molded as one piece.  He actually has two waist swivels.  The first is ratcheted and above the black part of his waist.  The second, which seems to be more for transformation, is below the black on his waist but above his hips and crotch.  His hips have strong ratchets that can bend 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally, but they have two big problems.  First, he's got that issue where the hips go from straight to wide A-stance in one click.  The above picture is one click out, and four clicks will have you at 90 degrees.  The second is that , for combined mode, there's a joint in his thigh that will become the joint for lateral motion in combined mode.  That joint is ratcheted, but the ratchet is weaker than his regular hips so it'll bend when you're just trying to straighten his legs.  Like the others, he has a swivel above the knee instead of a real thigh swivel, and ratcheted knees that bend 90 degrees.  The back half of his feet are on hinges that can give his feet some downward tilt, but that's it.  The front of his feet are on ball joints that can give also do downward tilt and give him a faux ankle tilt.  The shape of his foot and the size of his shins mean that he doesn't have a lot of room, and practically you can only keep his toes flat with his hips at one click out.

Although his hands open and close, the palm is still molded to a 5mm hole.  The articulation in them does allow for him to hold his big chain gun with both hands, though.

Alternatively, you can fold the rear around and give him a weapon he can wield with one hand, albeit on his shoulder.  And yes, he can wear his ladder in bot mode if you so choose.

Hydrant makes for a much more convincing fire engine than  CW Hotspot.  My initial feeling was that the rear looks kind of funny, sticking out so far past the rear tires, but a quick look at fire trucks online would seem to indicate that it's actually pretty normal.  So I guess the biggest issue is really the mess of the combined mode chest on the roof of the cab.  Aside from looking like a lot of black kibble on a blue truck, it's sitting where the light bar should be.  A little red paint instead of the silver lines on top and the silver circles on the front might have helped that.

The ladder does extend, and quite a bit, too.  Some molded details on the silver panel look like the joints and controls for connecting hoses.  The little siren(?) things fit onto the top of the silver panels, but they're not super secure.  Honestly, after taking these pictures they came off and went back in the box.

Folding over the rear of the gun makes look sort of like a basket, and it reveals a nozzle.  It can slide into the end of the ladder, and I think that's better integration than the CW or MT versions of Hotspot.  As for some of those other mysterious bits, they can fit together in a way that mounts onto the rear of the ladder like a missile launcher.

They have other uses, though.  You can arrange them in a way that they fit onto the back of Gumball in leg mode, helping to fill him out.  The hinged parts plug onto the back of the combiner feet and allow you to mount Gumball and Warning Line's guns to them in a way that also fills in the sides of his feet and ankles.

But that's not all!  Arranged a little differently, they fill in the backs of Gumballs legs and give him a new combiner port that's a little lower than the one that's built into him.  This gives Gumball an official, functional arm mode.  From here on out, it's Scramble City.

So, yeah... I think Hydrant's pretty good.  Like I said, a little wonky in the arms and I wish he more detents in his hips, but he mostly makes for a pretty good Hot Spot and his alt mode is one of the better fire truck alts I've seen despite it's flaws.  However, I'm definitely still hoping someone else does a better one.

[JB0]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

If I'm going to complain, it's less about the basic design and more about the proportions of said design.  His torso is too long; from feet to hips his legs are the same length as CW Hotspot, but from hips to neck Hydrant is a head taller.  Cap it off with a head that's too small and arms that are too huge, especially in the forearm area, and he looks kind of goofy.

Honestly, I like that look. He has the boxy out-of-proportion look that so many of the original toys had, and that  tickles my nostalgia bone.

Where I'd complain is his shoulders. They come up WAY too high. Any further and they'd attach directly to his ears.

[David Hingtgen]

On ‎6‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 2:08 AM, Chronocidal said:

Just got my Robot Heroes CG-02 delivered... I might have to pick up a Thundercracker, and Ramjet if they do the coneheads.  This thing is beautiful.  And huge. 

I'm thinking he's close enough to 1/48 to use a few decent sidewinders, but I'm definitely ordering the add-on pack when it appears.

Only a couple of minor quibbles.  The stabilizers were mounted on the opposite sides (easily fixed), and the nose mount in jet mode is a little loose, making it easy to knock the whole nose section down.  The wing flaps are also a little loose, but they stay just fine if you don't hit them.

Also, I'm contemplating using some actual decals to replace all the engrish "NO OVER" markings on the wings.

I just got Thundercracker last night.  Tailplanes weren't upside down, but left one ALWAYS popped right out when moving it.  Tried a bunch of fixes, but in the end the only thing that really worked was heating the lower "finger" of the hinge and curving it up a bit, to "wrap" the rod-like part of the tailplane a bit more.   May bend the right-side one to match now... (but just my luck, that'd make the right side NOT work...)  

Nose section pretty good on mine, much better than the actual MP-07 for sure.    Right wing-root extension doesn't seem to want to stay flush alongside the intake though.    

Need to disassemble it anyways to paint it more G1 (black accents, not navy!) and may be able to tweak a few things while I'm at it.  I hope the pins and screw-covers come out easier than on an actual MP seeker. 

I too am tempted to remove/alter the "no over" markings, but I do think it does have the same Future-esque gloss coating that real MP-06 and MP-07 do---and so most removal methods would strip the coating, too, leaving a bunch of obvious dull spots where they were.  

[mikeszekely]

38 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

I just got Thundercracker last night.  Tailplanes weren't upside down, but left one ALWAYS popped right out when moving it.  Tried a bunch of fixes, but in the end the only thing that really worked was heating the lower "finger" of the hinge and curving it up a bit, to "wrap" the rod-like part of the tailplane a bit more.   May bend the right-side one to match now... (but just my luck, that'd make the right side NOT work...)  

Nose section pretty good on mine, much better than the actual MP-07 for sure.    Right wing-root extension doesn't seem to want to stay flush alongside the intake though.    

Need to disassemble it anyways to paint it more G1 (black accents, not navy!) and may be able to tweak a few things while I'm at it.  I hope the pins and screw-covers come out easier than on an actual MP seeker. 

I too am tempted to remove/alter the "no over" markings, but I do think it does have the same Future-esque gloss coating that real MP-06 and MP-07 do---and so most removal methods would strip the coating, too, leaving a bunch of obvious dull spots where they were.  

Pics?  Before and after, if you're painting.

[Chronocidal]

Had the same thought on the finish, and I might leave the markings alone.  They're too small to read at anything over a few inches, so they won't bother me on a shelf.

Far as I'm seeing, they didn't glue the screw covers in, they're just friction fit.  I was able to pop off most of the ones on the nose with ease.

Should clarify actually, my nose cone is almost too tight, but the joint to fold down the entire forward fuselage behind the canopy is very loosely secured.  I might coat the connecting surfaces to build them up, but they seem awfully small in general.

For the stabs, I wonder how hard it would be to file the slot for them a bit deeper, without changing how they snap in.  They sit a couple millimeters out from the fuselage.

[Chronocidal]

Kind of a half post, but as a footnote to my last one, I noticed one of my stabs likes to pop out when rotated as well, and it might be the same one as yours David, since I flipped mine left for right.

I get the feeling the rotation post on that stab isn't actually round.  It fits nice and tight when level, but starts squeezing out when rotated.  Given the obvious molding direction of the stabs, I'm thinking that post may just be oval shaped, so I might go at the edges of it with a file tonight and see if that helps the one that pops off.

[David Hingtgen]

I thought so too.   (Rod had mis-aligned halves, not circular).   I sanded the heck out of it. Helped, but far from fixed.  Eventually started creating a gap---seemed offset---gap below, strained above (looking from side, with fin folded).  Heating and bending the "plate below the rod" up a bit, fixed it perfectly.  

[David Hingtgen]

19 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Pics?  Before and after, if you're painting.

Will do, but it'll be a while. 

[mikeszekely]

Keeping it quick tonight, I'm still giddy from the Penguins win.  This is Red Cross, TFC's First Aid.  This will be the one and only time I compare a TFC Protectobot to a Maketoys one, because the Maketoys ones just aren't fun to transform.

I actually really like this guy, aesthetically (2nd one in).  He's what I'd expect a First Aid toy to look like.  Sure, G1 First Aid had white hands and white (or no) feet, but red hands and feet are almost IDW-ish.  The translucent blue crosses are a little out of place, but nothing Reprolabels can't fix.  I like the silver breaking up the red on his torso, but I do wish the black parts/paint were white.  And even his hands, while still basically being 5mm grips, aren't the Hasbro-ish closed fists that Gumball and Warning Line have

Honestly, my biggest gripe is his size.  He's just barely taller than Maketoys', and a head shorter than the MP car-sized iGear Ratachet.

His accessories are basically what you'd expect by now.  He comes with two guns, a thing that's pretty much a third gun, and a combined-mode hand.  Not pictured are the not one but two hand/foot connectors.

Head's on a ball joint for a change, so he can look up and down an adequate amount, as well as have a slight sideways tilt in addition to the usual rotation.  His shoulders are ratcheted for rotation, and a hinge inside lets him move his arm 90 degrees laterally.  Due to his transformation he's got a butterfly joint as well, although I'd have preferred it if his shoulders had locked in place.  His ratcheted elbows bend 90 degrees and he does have bicep swivels.  Due to transformation his wrists can bend forward, but we're back to a lack of rotation.  He has a waist swivel, ratcheted hips that move 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally, friction knees that bend 90 degree, and swivels just above those knees.  His feet are on hinged ball joints so they can tilt up a little, down a little, inward a fair amount, and rotate.

Ambulance mode... this time he's the third one from the left.  Despite being only a little taller than Maketoys' version in robot mode, he's much larger in alt mode.  He's maybe a little larger and scales quite well with iGear's Ratchet, but he's still a little smaller than Voodoo's Salus.  He's lacking a little detail, although that's pretty G1-appropriate.  I still have the Reprolabels coming, though, because I like realistic markings on a realistic vehicle, and Red Cross is clearly a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter "TraumaHawk".

(You eagle eyes might notice that, yes, he's missing the translucent blue headlights.  For some reason mine was missing them.  I contacted BBTS, and they send they'll send replacement parts when they get stock in, but it probably won't be until July).

One of the two hand/foot connectors is white and angled on one side to sit flush on the back of the ambulance.  You have to flip it around for leg mode, or if you want to mount his guns G1-style.

The other hand/foot connector is black and fits between his ankles, under the rear of the ambulance.  If you see pictures of the combined mode online, you'll notice that a lot of people bend the shin panels out the way they are in robot mode.  You can do that if you like the aesthetics, but it's actually only necessary to give him room for his upward foot tilt in robot mode, and the instructions do not tell you to do it for arm mode.

And, like I said in the previous review, we're officially Scramble City now, so he does have a leg mode.  Interestingly, due to the larger size of his rear in alt mode, the gun connectors hinder Red Cross more than they help him.

First Aid is my favorite Protectobot, and I'm glad that Red Cross turned out to be a pretty solid take on him.  In fact, he's the first member of the set that I feel comfortable recommending if you like ambulance alt modes or if you need a First Aid for a CHUG collection.  Newer figures like TFC's Seacons, GT's Constructicons, or TFM's Stunticons have spoiled my expectations for 3P figures, though, so I'm still hoping for a better one.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Hold the phone, now there's 2ND ginormous G1 Omega Spreem? Eek, it's priced similarly too.

I take that back, Gabriel is cheaper, but it's still $280.

Edited June 10, 2017 by Valkyrie Hunter D

[mikeszekely]

Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday, but here's TFC's Verti-Aid, their Blades.  

So, I guess after being mostly happy with Red Cross that Verti-Aid is a bit of a letdown, and for the same reasons that I wasn't taken with Warning Line.  He's just not very Blades-y.  The head is OK, and even has the cartoon's large eyes, but it comes across as kind of generic without the blue face.  His white arms are broken up with gray paint, gray biceps, and red hands. His lower legs are more like white with red flaps than actually red, and he's missing the swath of white down the middle of his torso.  Worst of all are his totally out-of-place black hips pelvis and thighs.  At some point, TFC had to make a decision to specifically make a runner of black parts for that, when there shouldn't be any black on him.

Unless, of course, they were on the same runner as his accessories, which are all cast in black but have some nice touches of red and silver paint.  We've got a hand/foot connector, the other combined-mode hand, two guns, and a rather interesting piece, like a shield with a chain gun.  Very reminiscent of the Gouf Custom's gatling shield from the 08th MS Team.

Verti-Aid also comes with this chunk of rubber tape.  It's not pre-cut in any way, and the instructions suggest using it not just with Prometheus but with Uranos and/or Ares.

His head is on a ball joint that can look up a little or tilt his head sideways.  He doesn't really get any range down, but he's got a hinged flap that'll let him cheat.  His shoulders can rotate on ratchets, and he can get about 90 laterally on a hinge.  He also has a hinged butterfly joint for transformation, but like First Aid I'd have rather it tabbed down.  He has biceps swivels, elbow ratchets good for 90 degrees, and he actually has wrist swivels.  His waist swivels.  His hips use ratchets for 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally.  His knees are ratcheted for 90 degrees, and he has swivels just above those knees.  As with Red Cross, his feet are on hinged ball joints so he can bend his foot up or down, tilt his ankles in or out, or swivel his ankles.

He holds his guns fine.  His rotors peg onto his right forearm.  The blades on the rotor are hinged so you can fold them, but there's no way to make a V-shape on his back.

The blades themselves are pegged onto the rotor, so you can remove them and put them in his hands like swords.  As for the chain gun shield, it pegs onto his left arm. when he's in robot mode.

The proportions are a bit weird, but I'd guess that TFC intended for Verti-Aid to transform into a Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter.  It's a decent little helicopter, albeit one totally bereft on any markings indicating that it is, in fact, a Coast Guard helicopter.  I guess that's technically true for the G1 version of Blades, but for some reason I like my rescue vehicles to be marked up like the real things.  Despite the weird proportions, it's a pretty good helicopter that isn't immediately obvious as a toy that turns into a robot.

Verti-Aid's guns plug into ports along the sides of the helicopter.  The rotors spin and, and he can roll on his wheels.

The chain gun shield fits onto the underside of the helicopter.  Because why wouldn't the Coast Guard have chain guns on their helicopters?

Verti-Aid does have a leg mode, and it's pretty solid.  At least, as long as you leave the rotor off.

Of course, Blades is traditionally an arm, and Verti-Aid does that, too.  The helicopter rotor is less of an issue in this mode.  My big gripe would be how loosely the split tail pegs onto the sides of the forearm.

So there you have it.  He's a good helicopter that makes a mediocre robot and is part of a combiner, and the refrain is the same as it's been since I reviewed the first one: I want better Protectobots.

[mikeszekely]

On the TFW2005 boards, people will inevitably talk about how great the new connectors are and wonder why TFC didn't stop using the Energon-style pegs and ports sooner.  Someone will say that everything TFC had done before Poseidon was ruined by weak joints and the Energon connectors (excluding maybe Hercules, who is kind of dated but was pretty awesome in his day).  And whenever it comes up, someone will always say, "Prometheus was pretty good!"

That person is either lying, or suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

So that's Prometheus, TFC's Defensor, all put together.  A handle folds out of Hydrant's big gun to turn it into a normal-sized rifle for the gestalt.  Aside from Warning Line lacking that bike front for a kneecap it's a fair homage to the G1 toy.  Silver paint on the feet mimic molded detail on the original, and he maintains a very boxy, rectangular shape.  He's also got the smaller chest shield and red abs of the toy.

For articulation, his head swivels.  He's got double-jointed shoulders since both the combiner pegs on Hydrant and the ports on the limbs can move, and those ports are ratcheted.  The limb-bots' waists become bicep swivels and their hips become ratcheted elbows good for about 90 degrees.  His wrists can rotate on their pegs, and the hands have individually articulated fingers; the thumb is ball-jointed at the base and has two hinged knuckles, the fingers are hinged at the base with two more hinged knuckles.  His hips can ratchet forward and backward, and I'm not totally sure about the lateral movement because they're just mess.  He doesn't have thigh swivels, but the leg-bots can swivel on their combiner port.  The same port will also provide 90 degrees of knee bend.

The foot is the worst.  It's basically a 5mm peg on a moving cylinder inside the foot.  The cylinder can ratchet forward or backward to provide some up/down tilt (in theory), and ratchet left and right to give him ankle tilts.  In practice, the forward/backward ratchets are too weak and they're very wobbly between clicks.  Combined with the fact that the hand/foot connector in Gumball has a tendency to rotate a little, and those crappy Energon connectors, and he's honestly not that stable.  Yes, you can get him to stand a little easier than Uranos or Ares, but that has a lot more to do with the fact that his hips are wide enough and his legs narrow enough that he doesn't need an A-stance than any inherent improvements TFC made to the stability of their combiners.

TFC's toy-style aesthetics are probably a little overboard.  I mean, usually 3P combiners are leaps and bounds better than their Combiner Wars counterparts.  Even Uranos, for all his flaws, looks better than CW Superion as long as you've got the Wings of Uranos on him.  I'm not sure I can honestly say that Prometheus is a clear winner over CW Defensor, though.

 

In terms of aesthetics, I think Maketoys' Guardia is so far beyond Prometheus it's like comparing a Hot Toys 1/6 figure with a Happy Meal toy.

Unfortunately, though, Guardia (aside from being a pain to mess with) is just too small.  All the other combiners in my main display are roughly the size of Gravity Builder here, plus or minus a head, and Prometheus is the only one that fits.

So there you go.  He's ugly, he's unstable, and stuff will fall off of him.  And yet he's going in my display because Guardia is just too small.  I guess, for the clearance price I paid ($200 for the whole set at BBTS), I don't feel like I wasted my money exactly, but he's definitely a placeholder, and a better Defensor (hopefully from GT/TFM) is even higher on my want list than a better Superion than Uranos.  I in no way, shape, or form recommend this set.

[mikeszekely]

Once upon a time, I wasn't really doing 3P.  I had picked up Mania King and Hegemon to replace my Classics Voyager Megatron and my Universe Deluxe Galvatron, but somehow didn't really give 3P another thought until Combiner Wars.  Hasbro was stopping short of delivering all the US G1 Combiners, which was something I could live with, except for one glaring omission: Predaking.  So I asked, in this very thread, if I should buy Unique Toys' War Lord.  I thought he looked pretty good, and I just wanted something to fit with my Hasbro combiners, but you guys insisted that I spend the extra money and buy Feral Rex.  I was blow away by Rex's quality, I realized that 3P could offer much better than Hasbro (assuming you're willing to spend the money), and two years and thousands of dollars later here we are.

Except, recent pricing has been encouraging me to buy multiple versions of some characters (as my comparison of six Devastators might have demonstrated).  So tonight, we'll look at Unique Toys' Sharp Claw, their version of Divebomb. (Note: I'm not comparing these guys to MMC's Feralcons right now, because I have a clearanced Ares on preorder and I'll compare all three at that time).

In hand, I can really understand why so many of you insisted I go with Feral Rex.  The plastic quality is not great and he's lacking a lot of the engineering you expect from 3P toys.  Objectively, MMC's Talon is a better toy than Sharp Claw.  That being said, Talon is roughly a tall Voyager, detailed, and articulated.  Sharp Claw is definitely Deluxe-sized (as indicated by placing him with CW First Aid), and is pretty simple in both articulation and transformation.  He is, arguably, a better fit with CW figures than his MMC counterpart.

Despite his simplicity, I think UT did a pretty good job with the aesthetics.  He's got the molded detail on his yellow chest, and he's got yellow hands and feet like the G1 toy (although is yellow is sort of an orangy-yellow).  He's got black biceps, a black torso, black lower legs, and a black bird head behind his face, just like the toy and cartoon.  He's got the yellow face of the cartoon, and some gold detail on his knees like the toy but his shin is mostly black like the cartoon.  His forearms, thighs, shoulder armor, and parts of his wings are orange like both the cartoon and toy.  His pelvis is the same orange, which seems like the logical halfway between the toys' red and the cartoon's yellow, but the red still makes an appearance on his abs.  The feathers on his wings, rather than just black like cartoon or gold on black like the toy, are simply gold.

Sharp Claw doesn't come with much in the way of accessories.  There's the hand for combined mode.  Like that it's not simply gray or silver plastic, but seems to be painted silver.  The sword has some gold paint to be evocative of the G1 version, but the hilt isn't really a match.  He lacks the guns of the G1 toy as well.

Sharp Claw's articulation would be fairly good... for a Hasbro Deluxe.  It's well below average for even contemporary 3P figures at the time.  His head is on a ball joint and he can tilt his head sideways a bit, but not really up or down.  His shoulders rotate at the torso, and inside the shoulder his arm is hinged so he can get a little less than 90 degrees of lateral movement.  His elbows can bend 90 degrees, but he has no bicep or wrist articulation.  He does have a waist swivel and limited thigh swivels.  His hips are ball joints that can do about 90 degrees forward or backward and just a hair shy of that laterally.  His knees bend 90 degrees.  Due to his transformation he can tilt his foot upward, but he's got now downward tilt and no ankle articulation.  We'll cover his wings in bird mode.

He can hold his sword, but the fit is pretty tight.

Speaking of bird mode... his backpack is orange instead of yellow, and his tail is black and gold instead of orange.  None of that seems like a huge deal. 

His bird legs are mostly black, like the cartoon, but it's broken up with some silver and red paint.  There's no flaps or anything to hide the robot face under his bird head, but I guess that's no worse than the G1 toy?  His bird head can range from looking straight forward while standing straight up to looking straight forward in flight, and can swivel on the ball joint.  His legs can spread and move a little on the ball jointed hips, and the bird feet can swivel and tilt forward, backward, or sideways on a ball joint.  Plus, each talon his hinged and has about 90 degrees of range.  The wings connections are hinged to his sides for flapping, but the wings bump his backpack and don't have a ton of range.  The wings themselves can swivel where they're plugged into the connectors with another swivel where the gold is connected to the orange.  The "feathers"  are also individually articulated if you want more spread.  His tail is also hinged.  The wings can be removed, which the instructions will have you do for combined mode, but not the whole backpack.

I actually kind of like Sharp Claw.  I mean, it's true he's not as good as Talon, and I'd probably tell you he's garbage if I'd paid the full retail price for him back in the day.  I got the whole set for $150 shipped (you can actually get him a little cheaper now at BBTS), though.  That's closer to the the $90-$100 that a Combiner Wars team would go for and even closer to the "I'm importing the Takara version" price.  So while he might not fare favorably compared to $70-$100 3P toys, I'm inclined to judge him against CW/UW toys, and on that note I think he fares quite well.  He's decently painted, not really worse in the articulation department, and has a simple transformation reminiscent of a G1 toy.  I wouldn't display him with Generation Toys' Constructicons or even TFC's Aerialbots, but unlike the advice I first got I would recommend him to someone looking for something to display with Combiner Wars Deluxes.

[Chronocidal]

So, I'm curious, does anyone know what the process would be to actually get started on actually producing one of these types of projects?  I might have to start sending bits and pieces to Shapeways for a prototype, because this is actually looking pretty promising the further along I get.

[Kurisama]

What would you like to know exactly?

[Chronocidal]

Mostly, I'm curious how the design process for these goes, and whether you can just design something, and then send it off to one of the 3rd party companies to make.  Obviously, I'd need a working prototype first, but do those companies just take submitted designs as projects, or usually do everything in-house?

I know this is probably a loaded question, and I'm probably going to have to do a lot of fact finding and browsing over at tfw2005's forums to get a better idea.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Chronocidal

[Kurisama]

It is different with every company/product - sometimes they find you (even then they may have a design that needs tweaking or open to see what you have) and other times you introduce yourself. Sometimes you have a working, physical prototype, other times you have only renders or 2d concepts.

They'd have their engineers to look at it and process it for it to begin the mold making process.

[Chronocidal]

Gotcha, I might have to see about getting some printed prototypes to play with in a bit.  Anything like this I do probably wouldn't even be for the profit, I just like cool transforming stuff.

[Kurisama]

In any case that transformation looks great!