The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[mikeszekely]

I think people are just dumping them because they weren't particularly good. I know I've waiting on XTB's. $35 is tempting, but I've got too much on the way already.

[mikeszekely]

Speaking of stuff, an MP-ish Rodimus Prime like Carry needs an MP-ish Galvatron, yeah?  So I went ahead and picked up Tyrant, DX9's version.

Tyrant's a big fella, standing a little taller than Despotron and nearly a head taller than his rival.  While DX9 went with a more Studio OX style for Carry, Tyrant's pretty cartoon-accurate.  The only major departures are that extra spot of red on his pelvis and the fact that his treads are on his back instead of the backs of his arms.  The rest of him, from obvious stuff like his belt, his knee pads, and shoulder kibble to tiny touches like his goatee, the indentation on the top of his chest, to the linework on his cannon is straight form the cartoon.  I think in a vacuum I'd have zero complaints; even his curved feet don't bother me.  In reality, while I think Tyrant looks totally fine, I think FansToys Sovereign pulls off an even better Galvatron in robot mode (minus the particle cannon).

Speaking of cannons, Tyrant comes with two of them.  One is painted with a gorgeous metallic bronze, the other in speckled translucent that's very much like the old G1 Galvatron toy.  He also comes with a Matrix, which amuses me since Carry didn't, and a chain.  The silver and gold parts of the Matrix are fixed to the translucent part on sliders so it can open like MP-01's. 

I think it would have been cool if he came with a gun like the G1 toy did, but it's not really necessary.

With the translucent cannon, what you see is pretty much what you get.  If you take the painted one apart, though, what you'll find inside is not simply an LED but a tiny little flashlight with a trio of purple LEDs.  That's cool and all, but I'm kind of leaning toward the translucent one.  While the painted bronze looks good, it's not quite orange enough.  Besides, I had Galvatron as a kid, and the translucent orange speaks to me on a nostalgic level.

By now, I have a ton of Matrices.  I have so many I'm not even totally sure where they all came from.  This one is easily the largest.  It's big enough that you can get Carry's hands around the handles.  It goes without saying, though, that it doesn't fit into his chest.  The chain has jewlrey claps on each end.  You can work them through the holes on the handle and Tyrant can wear it around his neck the way Galvatron did in the '86 movie.

Tyrant's head is on a hinged swivel.  He can look up just a taste but has good range down, which is fine because Galvatron should be looking down on people.  His shoulders are on ratchets for rotation, and they can move about 90 degrees laterally.  The shoulders are connected to the kibble part on another joint for transformation.  That can give him a bit of a shrug, or work in tandem with the shoulder joint to get further than 90 degrees laterally.  His biceps swivel just below the shoulder and just above his elbows, which are able to bend 90 degrees.  Combined, that gives him a double-jointed elbow that lets him reach up and touch his own shoulder.  His wrists are actually ball joints, so in addition to swiveling he has some wrist tilt.  That's great for a character with a cannon on his arm like Galvatron, where bending the fist downward a bit feels natural in a firing pose.  His hands are perhaps my biggest gripe with him.  They're a little like KFC hands, only smaller and unable to straighten all the way.  Each finger and thumb is on its own ball joint, and the fingers have an addition hinge at the mid knuckle.  From mid knuckle to the tip the fingers are still molded in a curve, so pointing doesn't look too hot, plus the mid knuckle hinges aren't pinned, so they pop off like MP-10 and MP-whatever-number-Soundwave-was.  Moving along, he's got a waist swivel.  His hips are ratcheted for 90 degrees backward and just a little shy of that forward due to the purple pads on his thighs.  They can also soft-ratchet laterally, again a little short of 90 degrees due to his hip pads which can rotate, but not hinge outward.  The ratchets, like Carry's, are spaced a bit further apart than I like, so he goes from stock straight to a wide A-stance in one click.  It's not too hard to get his legs to sit halfway between clicks, though.  His thighs and rotate, and DX9 really blended the cut for the joint into the ridges on his thigh so it never breaks up the sculpt.  His knees are ratcheted and good for 90 degrees.  His feet don't tilt up or down, but due how they transform you can kind of manipulate his toes and heels.  His feet do have some very extreme inward ankle tilts, though.

His particle cannon pegs onto his forearm.

Although it was always on his right arm in the cartoon, he does have a slot on his left arm as well, if you prefer it there.  Or, since you get two whole cannons, Galvatron can show just how much of an upgrade he is from Megatron by dual-wielding.

The little purple LED flashlight does a pretty fine job of making the cannon look like it's firing.  It kind of makes me wish the translucent one could do the flashlight thing, too, but since it's translucent I guess the flashlight would be super visible in there.

As you'd expect, Tyrant turns into space artillery.  Getting to this mode isn't particularly difficult once you know what you're doing, but it's definitely a bit more complicated and less intuitive than Carry.  Also, while Carry really shrinks himself down to get to Winnebago mode, Tyrant is still pretty huge.

I gotta say, DX9 really nailed the alt mode.  In fact, while I do think Sovereign had the superior bot mode, Tyrant's definitely got him beat here.  Going from his largely purple torso to a largely gray cannon feels like sorcery, and DX9 got the front treads to sit on cartoon-accurate wide, flat legs instead of super obvious robot arms by panels on his torso and jamming is arms up in the gaps.

The treads are rubber, and they do work.  In theory, there's a wheel in the rear support so he could roll, but in practice the treads take quite a bit of pressure to move.  I think even the rear looks pretty good.  My gripes are pretty minor.  There's the fact that that everything's pretty much locked into place, so he can only point forward, not up.  There's also the exposed diecast in his feet/around the middle of the cannon.  I'm concered that the diecast will get yellowed, like MP-05's feet, so I kind of wish they'd painted it.  On, there's also the fact that the rear support is purple instead of gray, but I can forgive that.  Unlike the G1 toy, whose's back kibble made the pointy thing on top of the cannon, Tyrant's back kibble becomes the support and the point thing on top of the cannon is his unfurled crotch.

So here's the thing... I really do like this guy a lot.  I think he's a prefectly good Galvatron, with probably the best alt mode I've seen done on a Galvatron.  But, like I said at the beginning, I think FansToys beats Tyrant in robot mode.  Unless you're planning to display a cannon-mode Galvatron blasting Starscream to ash, you're probably going to want to go bot mode.  At retail, Tyrant and Sovereign are pretty close in price; in fact, his current retail price of $165 at TFSource and BBTS is actually $10 higher than Sovereign's, so in a perfect world I'd probably tell you to just get Sovereign instead.

The catch, though, is that nobody seems to have Sovereign in stock.  A quick check on Ebay has Sovereign bidding well over his retail price, with Buy It Nows approaching $300.  Meanwhile, I got Tyrant from an ebay seller for around $100 shipped.  I don't know about you guys, but even though Galvatron is one of my favorite baddies I'm not willing to pay triple for one that's slightly better in bot mode.  Someday, if I see Sovereign for $150 maybe I'll pick one up, but in the mean time I have no regrets about buying Tyrant.  So if you have a Galvatron-shaped hole in your MP shelf, short of FT doing a reissue Tyrant's probably your better buy.

Well, at least until XTB does theirs.

Edited August 25, 2017 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

When I reviewed BadCube's Evil Bug Corps, I felt compelled to talk about FansToys's Insecticons.  Whenever FansToys does a character, it's hard not to; they've built quite a reputation, to a point where many people will declare that the FansToys' version is the best version when all FT has show is a silhouette.  The thing is, and I was more careful to be clear about this when I talked about Sovereign in my Tyrant review, is that without hands-on experience with the FT version all I can do is evaluate the aesthetics, that is, how it looks.  There are plenty of figures that have looked good, but turned out to be overly complicated, fiddly, fragile, floppy, or kind of a pain.  I'm sure that cuts both ways.  In any case, you'll remember that I also wound up with FT's Grenadier (their Bombshell), and I had to grudgingly admit that even though I think BadCube was smarter in how they handled the legs and proboscis in robot mode I kind of preferred Grenadier.  Grenadier had better proportions in both modes, better paint, and locked together more solidly.  He just had more kibble on his back.  Ultimately, both were good figures, both looked good, both had advantages and disadvantages over the other, but FansToys felt a little bit better.  Would that be the case if I got the other two?  Would having a better, less biased look at them change my thoughts on BadCube's?  When I found a seller dumping his for a reasonable price, I had to find out.  So tonight we're taking a look at FansToys' Mercenary, their version of Shrapnel.

I mean, aesthetically, what can I really say?  He looks like Shrapnel, all right.  Many of the same details are present on both Mercenary and Claymore, the BadCube version.  They both have translucent chests, they both have those nipple bumps, they both have the blue sticker detail on the chest, they both have chromed horns and silver paint on the thighs.  The most obvious difference is, again, their proportions.  Claymore is a little squatter, a little chunkier, and Mercenary is a little leaner and arguably a litle closer to the cartoon.  In this case, I think I actually prefer BadCube's.

Mercenaries accessories are similar to Grenadier's.  He's got his gun, done in chrome, but he's also got a second gun done in the cartoon-style purple.  He's got a small screwdriver that's for swapping the chest and legs (I don't think I got one with Grenadier, and I don't know if he should have come with one or not).  He's got the same trio of small, translucent purple Energon cubes, and an alternate solid yellow-painted chest.  Like Grenadier, he comes with an additional set of legs; the ones on the figure are the bug-style legs, and the ones pictured here are the cartoon/toy style ones.  I find them double disappointing; just like Grenadier, the rear legs are purely for leg mode and not the vestigial guns on his forearms, but also that the other four legs are white/light gray.  Yes, it's cartoon accurate, and yes, FT is know for their cartoon accuracy, but I prefer the yellow legs on the G1 toy and the premium version of Claymore.  I think I showed both sets of legs when I reviewed Grenadier, but I'm not going to bother this time.

Mercenary's head is on a ball joint.  He's got slight downward and lateral tilt, and under 45 degrees of upward tilt.  His shoulders are on swivels for rotation and hinges that get over 90 degrees of lateral movement.  He's got bicep swivels, wrist swivels, and double-jointed elbows that put his forearms against his shoulders.  His thumb is fixed and his fingers are one piece, pinned at the base knuckle like an MP car.  He's got waist and thigh swivels, no ab crunch.  His hips are universal joints that can do 90 degrees forward or laterally, and could possibly do 90 degrees backward if there weren't so much kibble in the way.  His single-jointed knees are good for 90 degrees.  His feet can bend down but not up, and he's got 45 degrees of ankle tilt.  Really, if there's one clear advantage that Mercenary has over Claymore, I'd say it's not having ball joints for his hips and shoulders.

He holds both guns ok.  There's tabs on the handles that fit into slots on the palms, MP-style.  They fit pretty loosely, though; it's mostly the tension of the closed hands keeping them in there.

The other big advantage is, as I mentioned, how the bug legs store in robot mode.  Claymore wasn't as clean as the other BC bugs, since his yellow legs folded over and sat on his back, but they did it in a very G1 way.  Whether you have the insect-style legs or the G1-style legs on Mercenary there's not a lot you can do besides ball them up on his back.

Insect mode.  Again, Mercenary and Claymore have a lot of the same details, like the covers over his robot face, the shape of the horns, and the triangular ridges near his robot feet.  Only Claymore has the thrusters that the G1 toy does, but I don't think that was a cartoon detail so I'll let it slide.  From this angle, the biggest difference is that Claymore's "face" is a little taller, with the horns on ball joints kind of under his robot head, while Mercenary's horns are simply hinged next to his robot head.  That gives his horns less articulation, but a more "correct" appearance.

Of course, another difference would be the legs.  This one's kind of a wash, though.  Yes, they make for more robot kibble, but I'm a big fan of the insect-style legs.  The front and rear pairs have two swivels, the middle pair just one.  The front legs have three hinges, the middle have one hinge, and the rear have two.  The combined articulation gives you options for creepy-crawly poses, and the joints are strong enough to hold him up despite he copious use of diecast on this guy.  If insect legs are your thing, the Mercenary gets the win.  But if accuracy is more important, Claymore's legs beat Mercenary's G1-style legs.

The chest door does open, but there's really nothing in there.

One more difference, I think an important one, is that Claymore's robot arms tuck along side his insect body, just like the cartoon, somewhat like the G1 toy (in that the G1 toy didn't due so much tucking).  FansToys took a somewhat different approach, with some awkward folding and splitting that tries to put most of his forearms and fists on his underside.  Is it cleaner?  Perhaps.  But the lack of accuracy and the same relatively bug-mode thickness kind of has me preferring Claymore, even with Claymore's side panels that slid back too far.

Mercenary does have weapon storage in alt mode, and it's basically the same as Claymore's: stick it underneath.  From most angles it's fine, but it's worth noting that from the rear it does stick out farther on Mercenary than on Claymore.

One last difference, one you can't see at all in pictures, is materials.  If you buy the regular BC bugs, you have all-plastic.  If you get the premium ones, like I did, they have some diecast in the feet.  Mercenary, though, is probably 30% or more diecast.  He's a heavy guy; I don't have a kitchen or postal scale sensetive enough to compare them, but I'd guess that Mercenary weighs as much or more than all three BC bugs combined.  I like a little diecast when it's done smartly, but I'm not one of those people that automatically think diecast and "heft" are automatically better.  I'm not saying that Mercenary is better or worse for all the diecast, just making you guys aware.

So that's that, and what we end up with here is kind of the opposite of what we got with Grenadier and Hypno.  Is Mercenary a good figure?  Most definitely.  Would I recommend him?  If you want all your Insecticons from the same company and you already started on FansToys, sure.  In a vacuum, sure.  But in the head-to-head comparison, I personally think BadCube came out on top this time.  As was the case with Grenadier and Hypno, it's pretty close though, and I don't think you're really going wrong with either choice.  It's also still worth pointing out that if you live in the States, the premium version of BadCube's bugs can be had as a complete set for $140, and that's $10 less than I paid just for Mercenary and Forager... assuming you can even find a copy of Forager.

[mikeszekely]

And speaking of Forager, here he is: FansToys' take on Kickback.

I've seen other reviews for Forager, and to be honest the reviewers seemd to struggle with him, and I've heard stories of the clasps on his wings breaking.  At that time, in my head, I was ready to write Forager off as being too fiddly and delicate.  I remember even thinking at the time if BadCube's Kickbutt would look ok with FT's Grenadier and Mercenary.  In hand, while they're both recognizably Kickback, Forager's slightly longer legs, thinner arms, thinner waist, and wider chest a much better proportionally.  The painted details on his feet, knees, and left breast are closer to the G1 stickers (not applied on mine).  You can't see from this front-on angle, but his torso is also thinner front-to-back.  On aesthetics alone, Kickbutt is good but Forager is pretty much spot on.  Indeed, my one and only aesthetic complaint is that his translucent chest seems a bit darker than the BadCube ones, or even compared to Grenadier and Mercenary.  It's less amber and more orange, I think.

Forager comes with another trio of translucent purple energon cubes, his weapon done up in chrome (but, sorry JB0, still doesn't fit around his fist), an alternate solid yellow chest plate, another screwdriver for swapping the chest plate, and a replacement antenna for Grenadier.

Forager's head is on a swivel so he can turn his head, but he can't really look up or down.  That's because, due to his transformation, his face is on one hinge and the back of his head is on another.  You can only tilt his head back a little bit before his head and face aren't aligned anymore.  His shoulders can rotate, and a hinge lets them extend laterally over 90 degrees.  He has bicep and wrist swivels, double-jointed elbows that curl all the way up, and hands like the other FT Insecticons or the MP cars.  He has a waist swivel and thigh swivels.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and a little less than 90 degrees laterally.  His knees are double-jointed and he can bend them until the insect legs in his calves meet the back of his thighs.  His toes can fold down a little, mostly for transformation, and the purple part is on a hinge for over 90 degrees of ankle tilt.  One big advantage he has over Kickbutt, aside from hinges and swivels instead of ball joints, is that his wings have hinges that you can use to splay them out a bit.  It's something that wasn't necessary to have a perfectly good, perfectly accurate Kickback, but really helps him to look more dynamic when you're posing him.

As with the other FT Insecticons, Forager's gun has tabs on the handle that fit into slots in his palm.  Once again, it fits pretty loosely, and it's mostly the tension of this close hand holding the gun in place.

His chest does open, but there's nothing but molded detail behind it.  But one thing I want to point out is that, yes, he's got some bug legs showing on his back, and technically Kickbutt doesn't.  But, Forager's legs are still much, much tidier than the other FT bugs, and frankly a pretty small price to pay to not have a torso as thick as Kickbutt's.

Grasshopper mode.  His rear legs seem a bit longer than Kickbutt's, which I don't feet particularly strongly about.  What I do feel strongly about his how his torso is, again, much thinner top to bottom and slightly wider between the wings.  The proportions feel better.  The shoulders and front four bug legs also look more proportionally accurate.  Like Kickbutt and the Generations/Titans Return Kickback, Forager seems to have picked up a little non-G1 abdomen, but it's slightly less obtrusive.

Getting to this mode wasn't as fiddly as the reviews I watched made it out to be.  Indeed, I think he's actually easier to transform than Kickbutt, as long as you know what you're doing.  Just be extremely careful of with the rings that connect his wings to his shoulders.  They have clasps on them to open and close them so his back can open up and rotate the shoulders around so his bug legs and his bot arms can switch places.  Hold the wings near the hinge at the base when you rotate, be aware of when the clasps should be opened and closed, be aware that the wings really can't rotate 360 degrees, make sure that everything is aligned properly before you pull open his back, and be mindful that the claps don't get caught on anything when they're opened.

The only other sticking point of the transformation is getting this bug face out.  The instructions should you do this by folding back the helmet part of his head, folding his robot face flat so he'd be looking at the top of is head, unfolding the bug face from flat against the top of the inside of his head, then closing it back up.  The problem is that it seems like there's no way to do that without working a small, thin tool under the bug face, which is sure to scratch the silver paint.  What the instructions don't tell you, however, is that the back of his head can open and fold down, giving you room to stick a little finger behind the bug face and push it out with ease.

Like Kickbutt, Forager's gun pegs onto his abdomen for storage.  The hinges on his wings allow for some flapping instead of just angling them up or down like the G1 toy or Kickbutt.  His front four bug legs have a swivel that can rotate them out away from the body, and three hinges on each leg.  His rear legs use his robot hips, then a hinge where the purple connects to he black in his "knee" and another hinge at his bug ankles.

Worth mentioning again, without making a value call for or against it, but Forager's got a lot of diecast and weighs significantly more than Kickbutt.

Forager turned out to be a very interesting case, at least for me.  I could sort of tell, even before I had them in hand, that I liked FT's Grenadier better BC's Hypno, but I liked BC's Claymore better than BC's Mercenary.  After actually getting them in hand, it was pretty close but my expectations turned out to be correct.  Meanwhile, I fully expected that Kickbutt would be a better Kickback in hand than Forager, despite Forager being somewhat better on an aesthetic level, and in that case I turned out to be totally wrong.  With Bombshell and Shrapnel, despite my preferences I could tell you specific things I liked better on the FansToys' version and things I liked better on the BadCube version, but I find myself concluding that Forager is pretty much better all around than Kickbutt.  Needless to say, if you're on the hunt for a good Kickback figure Forager is definitely the one I'd recommend as the best.  The problem, though, is actually finding one.  I can't find a retail store that has him in stock.  I can only find two on the whole of ebay, one in China and one in Australia, both with price + shipping at or above US $200, and FansToys has stated they currently have no plans to reissue him.  I know people who have decided to sell their copies of Grenadier and Mercenary and buying the BadCube bugs, despite really preferring the FansToys ones, just because they can't get a copy of Forager.  I feel supremely fortunate to have bought Forager and Mercenary together from a TFW2005 member for $150 shipped... and as reasonable as that is, that's still $6 more than I paid BBTS for all three BadCube bugs (including their $4 flat rate shipping).  So ultimately, I'm recommending FT for Kickback and Bombshell, but BadCube for Shrapnel, or FansToys for all three if you insist that your Insecticons come from the same company.  But that's only if you're willing to pay more, and you can even find all three.  If you want to save money and avoid some headaches, the BadCube ones are still a good alternative.

For now, anyway.  Although MMC keeps pushing the release date back their version of the Insecticons are also due out this year, and I'll try to get a look at them and review them for you when they come out.

[JB0]

On 8/30/2017 at 10:48 PM, mikeszekely said:

his weapon done up in chrome (but, sorry JB0, still doesn't fit around his fist)

My heart, it is broken!

[Tking22]

Nice write-up on the FT bugs, but I gotta say, as much as I usually champion and praise FT, I still think the BC bugs are the better deal. There are bits of each FT bug that I think looks a bit better then its BC counter-part, but none of it adds up to me liking any one of them more then the BC counter-parts overall. Plus, dat price though. I've only handled FT Mercenary and I personally found the die-cast to be distracting and far too liberally used. I like me some die-cast here and there, but these tiny little guys have way too much of it IMO. I just wouldn't be willing to pay for, or track down the FT bugs, BC got the price right, and they are readily available.

[no3Ljm]

Hey everyone! I was thinking of getting a KO MPM-03 Bumblebee and Lambor and I was wondering if some of you guys have it and would love to know how was it in comparison to the original stuff.

Thanks!

 

[Scyla]

On 8/31/2017 at 5:48 AM, mikeszekely said:

*snip*

For now, anyway.  Although MMC keeps pushing the release date back their version of the Insecticons are also due out this year, and I'll try to get a look at them and review them for you when they come out.

Thanks for the review. I'm really miffed about MMC and their Insecticons since I passed on the FansToys ones in favor of these. Not they changed lines so they aren't in their "Masterpiece" line any longer and just seem to be unable to be released in any kind of way.

Of course now that I would buy the FansToys ones they are out of stock. Bummer!

In other news I ordered Perfect Effect Warden today because it seems to be right up my alley. Maybe I can give an update once my PoL ships in the next 4 months.

Edited September 1, 2017 by Scyla

[mikeszekely]

On 9/1/2017 at 10:48 AM, Tking22 said:

I just wouldn't be willing to pay for, or track down the FT bugs, BC got the price right, and they are readily available.

I really think that's a very reasonable response, and I tried to emphasize that in my reviews.  I really do prefer FT's Bombshell and Kickback (but BC's Shrapnel), but I really think anyone looking for Insecticons right now just grab BC's, because the FT ones I like better really aren't so much better than they're worth the time and money you'll spend tracking down a copy of Forager that's just going to break anyway.

...yeah, mine broke after I wrote the review and went to put him back in bug mode.  It's not the clasp on the shoulder, but when you transform him there's a joint that rotates to invert the robot arm with the bug legs.  The joint is pretty thin, and basically instead of turning it just sheared off under very minimal force. I glued it back, but before I mess with him any more I'm going to try to find another thin piece of plastic I can reinforce it with.

Anyway... how about another review?  I know I said I really just need the Seekers to complete my Season 1 Decepticons, but somehow I ended up with Season 2 Seekers.  Tonight, let's look at Combustor, ToyWorld's version of Ramjet.

The first thing you're likely to notice when handling Combustor, or any of the ToyWorld Seekers, is that they're pretty big.  I don't have any of the MP-11 molds, but I do have an MP-03-based Walmart Skywarp, and Combustor towers over him.  For a lot of collectors, that in and of itself is an immediate deal breaker.  Others have suggested that the MP-03/11 molds are too small, because apparently the scale chart is gospel when it suits people but tossed aside when it doesn't.  Still other people are fine with the MP-03/MP-11 size for the season 1 Seekers, but suggest that maybe the season 2 Seekers are could be bigger.

Aesthetically, rather than go full cartoon/toy/OX for Combustor's design, ToyWorld seems to have blended influences with a bit of their own unique style.  Black arms?  Toy.  Arrow-shaped marks on his feet?  Toy, but the black behind them is a bit cartoon.  Red on his knees?  Toy, but missing the yellow.  The black in his shins is more cartoon than toy, as is the white on his torso.  His weapons are generally toy-shaped, but the red on tips as well as on his hip armor and the bottom of his pecs is totally new.  His leg wings have the engines that the cartoon eschewed, but they lack the sticker details on the robot-front side that the toy had.  The markings on the inside of inakes flanking his head is also neither toy nor cartoon.

(Note: I have him slightly mistransformed, and I didn't really catch it until I was done taking photos, but the panels in the jet intakes on his shoulders should be pushed in.)

For accessories, Combustor comes with the toy-style "cluster bombs" you already saw.  An interesting point about them is that they red tips are spring-loaded missiles, and the trigger is actually the part that with the peg that fits into his shoulders.  You're probably going to find yourself accidentally firing them many times until you remove the spring, which you can easily do without tools.  Simply pull the front and rear sections off, them gently pry apart the two halves of the middle.  That will let you remove the trigger so you can take the spring off, then put it all back together.  The tips will still slide out when the trigger is inadvertently activated, but they won't go flying across the room.

Also included is a bag fo screw hole covers for the side of the fuselage, and a box thing.  The box thing can open, and it's apparently a tracking device.  More on that in a minute.

There's also this toy base, with a flight stand and some of these clips.  This is the only time I'm going to mention them, but each ToyWorld Seeker comes with two complete bases, and they're designed so they can be fit together in a variety of ways, using the clips to help secure them, to make a larger display.

Combustor's head is on a ball joint, and in addition to swiveling he can get a little up/down/lateral tilt.  Down is limited to where his chin starts to dip behind his nosecone chest, up is sort of limited by how his face transforms.  His shoulders can rotate, and panels on the sides of his shoulders move out of the way so that he can move them laterally 90 degrees.  He's got bicep and wrist swivels, and double-jointed elbows that curl until his forearms and shoulders start to meet.  His thumb is mounted on a ball joint, while each finger is individually-articulated with a hinge at the base knuckle and one additional hinge at the mid-knuckle.  He's got a waist swivel, a rarity for a Seeker, and although he doesn't really have true thigh swivels he does have swivels just above the knees.  His hips are kind of interesting.  The skirt armor is hinged so it can move out of the way, and the hip itself can do 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally (none of which are ratchets, and the friction on the lateral motion is a tad loose).  However, there's an additional hinge in his thigh, just below the hip joint, that can give him 90 degrees of forward motion without moving the skirt or engaging the hip, or the two joints can combine to give Combustor a chest-high kick.  His knees are double-jointed and can get well beyond 90 degrees.  The front half of his feet are on ball joints, so he can get some up, down, inward, or outward ankle tilt, as well as ankle swivels.  The back half of his feet are just the engine nozzles, which seem to be ball jointed but are much tighter than Walmart Skywarp.  His wings are hinged, so you can leave them out like in the cartoon or fold them back.

His cluster bombs have pegs that fit into peg holes on his shoulders, which is kind of disappointing.  I didn't necessarily need the crazy armature that MP-11 has that moves the null rays from jet mode to bot mode without removing them, but even MP-03 and the iGear Raptors had the null rays on a rotating part that could move them from the sides of his arms to the front.  At least the peg hole is on a hinged panel so you can splay his cluster bombs out.  Alternatively, I don't think he looks too bad with Walmart Skywarp's null rays, but I might check Shapeways to see if someone made something specific to him.

Another interesting thing to note is that while his hands do have individually-articulated fingers, his palm is cut like a 5mm peg hole.  If you have any MP-sized guns that just use a 5mm peg instead of the now-common gun-tabs and palm-slots, like the rifle that came with TFC's Ironwill, Combustor will hold it quite securely.

As for the tracking device, he can hold it, but not super securely, using the strength of finger joints.  The tracking device itself seems to be pulled from the IDW comic Spotlight: Ramjet, which is basically teh only IDW thing about him.

For as big as Combustor is in robot mode, he's fairly similar in size to the MP-03 (and I assume the MP-11) mold.  The stripes one the wings and the painted detail on top of the intakes seem to be based somewhat on the G1 toy.  The stripes on his vertical stabilizers are silver and blue, like the toy, but thinner and more subdued.

The underside cleans up fairly well; when you know what you're looking at you can see what's what, but I don't think any parts are super obvious robot parts.  He's got landing gear; the front landing gear is in the base of the nosecone and the rear are at the base of his shins.  All the landing gear rolls, and they actually have springs in them that make them a kind of a chore to deploy and stow.  Combustor has peg holes in two different spots on the underside of his wing to store his cluster bombs.

Combustor's cockpit can open, but the nosecone doesn't open to reveal the radar inside the way MP-03 (and I think MP-11) does.  All four engine nozzles move on what seem to be tight ball joints.  You can mount him on the flight stand, but the way I perched him here is actually incorrect.  There's no obvious peg hole on the underside of the jet, so I took to sticking the peg from the flight stand into one of the shoulder holes, then laying him at an angle over the stand.  Turns out there's a spring-loaded square panel on his crotch, similar to the one on MP Sideswipe's roof.  It's easy to miss because it just looks like molded detail.

So here's the thing about Combustor, and it's basically the thing about all of the ToyWorld Coneheads.  They're bigger than MP-03/MP-11, and they're not cartoon-accurate, which is going to turn a lot of people off.  But that's kind of a shame, because while I haven't handled the iGear MP-style Coneheads or the various KBB/Yes Model/BB7 "improved" MP-11 KOs, ToyWorld has crafted the best Seeker toy I've handled.  The transformation is somewhat similar to MP-03/MP-11, but most of the differences make for a toy that has better articulation and locks together very solidly.  Plus, his neck isn't way above his shoulders the way the offical MPs are, and he's got a waist swivel.  In all of those matters he's a much better choice than the official.  As for the size, well, I'm one of those people for whom the robot size isn't a big deal (in my head, as Megatron's 2nd-in-command and constant usurper, Starscream and the other Seekers should be at least as big as Soundwave, no matter what the scale chart says), and the jet size is close enough that I think he can get away with it.  He doesn't have any ratchets, and like I said I wish some of the friction joints were tighter, and I wish he came with cartoon-style null rays as an option, but for now this is the Seeker mold to beat.  In fact, if ToyWorld were planning to do the Season 1 Seekers I'd seriously consider them, although I've got Maketoys version of Starscream on preorder.  I think the $120 price at most US retailers is on the high side of fair for this guy (especially since he comes with the bases), and I'd recommend him.  If you were lucky enough to get him during TFSource's customer appreciation sale, though, I suspect you'll be very happy with your purchase.

[Smiley424]

On 9/2/2017 at 2:21 AM, no3Ljm said:

Hey everyone! I was thinking of getting a KO MPM-03 Bumblebee and Lambor and I was wondering if some of you guys have it and would love to know how was it in comparison to the original stuff.

Thanks!

 

I have a KO MP-12 Lambor/Sideswipe and I am happy with it.  I bought it not knowing they would rerelease the MP-12 so and at the time prices were getting a little crazy for the Takara/Tomy official one.  Compared to my other official MPs (Prowl and Wheeljack), the fit on the MP-12 is not seem as good as the official ones.  I don't have an official Lambor/Sideswipe to directly compare him to the KO.  I think it's worth it depending on how much you can get the KOs for compared to the official versions.

Edited September 8, 2017 by Smiley424

[Dangard Ace]

The ko for Lambor is great, just as good as TT.  Do NOT get the KO Red Alert.  Same mold but a complete POS compared to the official.  Chest will not stay tabbed in even if you try using future to thicken the tab.  

[mikeszekely]

My KO Lambor's head swivel is a little loose, and he doesn't hold his gun that well... but wasn't the gun thing an issue for the Takara version?  I don't have one to compare; I originally wasn't going to do MPs and just got Lambor for size comparisons.

And as long as we're comparing stuff... how about I compare ToyWorld's Assault, their version of Thrust, to DX9's Tyrant?

To the top of his conehead, he's actually slightly taller.  His face (which isn't a very good sculpt, IMHO) puts him more or less even.  This again raises the question of whether or not the ToyWorld Seekers are too big.  Of course, that's a call you have to make for yourself, but I don't see myself investing in another MP-style Thrust any time soon.

Aesthetically, His forearms, thighs, and hips are all black, like the G1 toy, but his face is silver (which I guess is closer to the lighter gray of the cartoon).  I'm fine with these colors.  The gray panels on his hips are cartoon-colored.  The triangles on his feet are sort of like the G1 toy's in that they're red triangles, and they point to his toes, but like their Ramjet there's no silver background.  The gold on his knees is neither toy nor cartoon.  But I think the aesthetic detail that's going to be the most noticeable is that his wings aren't on his his hips or legs, but folded around and on his back like the Generations or iGear versions.  Maybe the Sunbow purists will balk at that, but personally I prefer it this way.  I think it looks neater and less awkward.

Assault's accessories are par for the ToyWorld course.  We've got the tracking device that was only a thing for IDW Ramjet, now in Thrust colors, the same screwhole covers, and his null ray/arm missiles.  They don't strike me as particularly toy or 'toon-accurate, but I like them for being visually distinct from the season 1 Seekers' null rays.

Articulation is identical to Combustor, as the only difference in the molds are the wings, faces, and weapons.  Aside from the somewhat limited options for posing his weapons I've got no major complaints.  The waist swivel alone puts him ahead of the MP-11 mold.

Does a size comparison with space artillery help?

Anyway, the jet mode is more in keeping with the toy, with the painted detail on top of the intakes and the stripes being somewhat reminicent of the cartoon's stickers, and the fuselage being red instead of partially black.  The wings are also dark gray, which matches both the cartoon and the toy.  The horizontal stabilizers seem a bit longer than the cartoon, and the VTOL bits have some extra intake-looking details molded on the leading edge.  The stripes, while at least present vs the cartoon, are red and silver and not as dynamic as the red and gold of the G1 toy.

Once again, you have options for plugging the weapons into the bottom.  There's two holes in a row on the wings, and if you're feeling extra saucy a hole on each horizontal stabilizer.  My main complaint here is that the aftward holes on the wings, which would be my preferred choice, are slightly larger than the ones in front.  That means that the weapons secure solidly in the foreward holes, which leave the missiles sticking far further forward that I'd like, are nice and snug, but if you use the aftward holes they're loose and tend to fall out.

Not much else to say about jet mode.  Still has landing gear and a cockpit that opens, still works with the stand.  If you blow on the VTOL rotors they'll spin quite nicely.  Oh, and unlike Combustor's weapons, Assault's don't have firing missiles.  Hooray!

The conclusion here is basically the same thing I said about Combustor.  He's going to be too big and not Sunbow enough for a lot of collectors.  He could have benefitted from some ratchets, because the friction joints are a little looser than I'd like.  He could have used a heel spur.  But if you can get past those issues, you have a version of Thrust that locks together solidly and has much better articulation than the official in robot mode.  ToyWorld's Seeker mold isn't perfect, but it's the best Seeker mold on the market right now.  For that reason, I'm giving it a recommend.

[mikeszekely]

And wrapping up ToyWorld's Coneheads, this is Requiem, their Dirge.

Starting to notice a trend yet?  He's using black instead of the dark gray that the official MP uses.  That's toy-accurate, and you could argue that the dark gray of the cartoon was meant to be black.  I guess the real question is why is his face just silver?  I don't think that's either toy or 'toon-accurate.  It's another goofy ToyWorld face, too.  He's got some detail on his knees and feet that looks like it's meant to be the sticker details from the toy, but it's just painted gold instead of red (or purple if you want cartoon knees).  So again, it's not 100% cartoon-accurate, it's not 100% toy-accurate, but it works ok.

You should know what to expect with the accessories by now; screw hole covers, two weapons, and two of the bases we talked about in Combustor's review.

Articulation is, once again, identical to the other two.  And sadly he's pulling the same missile firing gimmick that Combustor has, with the same hair pin trigger built into the part you peg onto his arm so you're pretty much guaranteed to accidentally fire and lose the missiles.  They are just as easy to take apart if you want to remove the spring, though.

And jet mode.  Just like the other ToyWorld Coneheads he skips the extra black on his fuselage that was seen in the cartoon and goes for a toy-style blue fuselage with tampoed details on the intakes mimicking the stickers of the G1-toy.  He's got the stripes on the wings, but rather then run along vertically near the fuselage they run perpendicular to the leading edge of the wings.  I don't think it looks bad, per se, but it's not accurate.  Honestly, though, I think I like it better.

Requiem's got just the one peg hole on under the wing for his weapons.  If you want to put them closer to the body, like I would, you can't because there's some kind of weird thing there that looks kind of like Thrust's VTOL bits, sans rotor.  I have zero clue what it's doing there, since it's not something that was on either the cartoon, the G1 toy, or seriously any other toy of Dirge ever.  They don't seem to be easily removable, either.

Odditities aside, he's got the rest of the stuff the other's do; some diecast, opening cockpit, landing gear with springs, sits on base.

And that's that.  So I'll conclude with a summary that applies to all three: friction joints are a tad too loose (but not Hasbro floppy), could use a heel spur, could use more articulation where the weapon mounts on his arm, could use weapons that cartoon style and/or don't have the missile gimmick.  Too big and not Sunbow enough for some people's tastes.  And yet, great articulation that includes a waist swivel and a bot mode that locks together solidly make this arguably the best Seeker mold you can get, I'm satisfied that my MP Conehead needs are being adequately met and would need for another version to be significantly better to get me to trade up, and for that reason I still recommend him and his mold-mates.  I think he's a good toy at the regular asking price, and better if you can find a bargain like I did.

[mikeszekely]

I partly wanted a gun for Fans Hobby's Scourge, since he didn't come with out.  I like the idea of having a bunch of MP Primes.  I like the deco.  And I kind of just wanted more trucks.  Here's Fans Hobby's Gunfighter II, their version of G2 Laser Optimus Prime.

Fans Hobby's deco is very faithful to the US version of Laser Convoy, with red and black paint on the faux chest windshield and some molded and painted detail on his shoulders meant to be evokative of the stickers on the original toy.  He's got the same red his knees , molded detail on his hips and thighs that are very close to the original toy, same blue feet and faux ab grill, and even some molded detail on his lats where the original toy had screws.  How you feel about the deco will largely depend on how you feel about the orignal toy's deco, since Gunfighter is very close; personally, I dig the early '90s color scheme that's a bit garish but not as crazy as some of the other G2 toys.

Size-wise, I already compared Archenemy (the Scourge version of this toy) to MP-10, so this time I have him with a Hasbro Deluxe and Voyager who were also inspired by Laser Optimus.

Thankfully, Gunfighter comes with a few more accessories than Archenemy.  We do have another sword, identical except the blade is a light translucent blue instead of red (it look kind of purple in pictures, but in hand it's definitely blue).  We also have two guns in black with red details.  One is modeled after his trusty ion rifle.  The other I suppose is meant to be like the gun that came with Laser Optimus.  I mean, it's got two barrels, but that's about where the similarity ends.  Once again, he doesn't come with a trailer (nor is he compatible with MP-10's), but supposedly Fans Hobby is planning to release versions of the trailer separately for both Archenemy and Gunfighter.

This being an Optimus Prime and not Scourge, Gunfighter comes with one other accessory.  His chest panels can open up (Archenemy's can't), and inside is a diecast Matrix.  It pops right out.  Fans Hobby molded a loop onto it, in case you wanted to put it on a chain and wear it yourself.  Aside from that, though, it's probably one of the nicer Matrices I've got in my expanding collection.

Gunfighter's articulation is identical to Archenemy's.  His head is on a hinge swivel.  He can look up probably about 30 degrees and rotate his head, but that's it.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, but the angle of the truck kibble can cause his shoulders to get caught up on his backpack.  A friction hinge inside his shoulder armor can move his arm laterally a little less than 90 degrees, but the armor itself can swivel inward a bit to get him just past 90 degrees, and ratcheted transformation joints can let you manipulate the shoulders even higher.  Like MP-10, the arms also can slide outward from his torso a little to give you a little extra clearance.  He has a bicep swivel a just above his elbow, which is a single-jointed friction hinge that does go past 90 degrees.  His wrists can swivel.  His thumb is fixed and his fingers are pinned at the base knuckle.  The index finger is separate, with an addition hinged knuckle, while the other three are a single molded piece.  Although his index finger can move independently and has a little extra articulation, he can't open any of his fingers very far so he can't even manage MP-10's droopy pointing.  He has a small ab crunch, and his waist can swivel.  His hips are ratcheted in every direction, and whichever way they move they get more than 45 degrees but less than 90.  His thighs swivel just below the hips.  His knees are double-jointed, both ratchets, and he can get some pretty deep bends before his calves start banging his thighs.  His feet can point down a little, nothing really upward, with incredible 90 degree inward ankle tilts.  Plus, his heels and toes can wiggle slightly up or, due to transformation, bend very far down.  All-in-all it's pretty good, especially considering the bulk on his shoulders and back.

He can hold his guns and swords by sliding the back of the weapon, which has a little notch, into a groove on his palm.  The double-barreled gun is a little loose, but the other two weapons are fine.  He has the same flip out peg holes on the backs of his shoulders that you can use to store his weapons.  The sword plugs in just like Archenemy's, and the guns plug in by folding up the handle to reveal a little peg.

It can be a little tough to get the guns to peg in, because the peg holes want to rotate back in.  I'd complain more, but I don't plan on storing any of his weapons.  He can hold his G1-style gun and sword, and Archenemy is getting the double-barreled affair.

The alt mode is, again, pretty faithful to Laser Optimus.  The top of the cab is taller and missing the horns, silver fuel cans instead of red, and the step up to the cab sticks out kind of far and has the silver plating on the side instead of the top, but everything else is right.  That includes the abrupt way the red transitions to black.  I mean, I know it's accurate, and I know we make fun of the Bayverse design for the flames, but take a look the the Reveal the Shield toy.  You can't honestly deny that the flames make for a more interesting, more logical transition from red to black.

He does unfortunately still have the weird gap in the molding of his grill, and I do still wish his feet had another hinge to fold in more for transformation.  His feet sticking out the back are especially out of place now that they're blue vs Archenemy's black.  He does still roll, and his tires are still rubber.  It could just be my copy, but the legs tab together pretty loosely and have a tendency to come apart.  On the flip side, I found his arms easier to get into place and tab together than Archenemy's.  Oh, and while I still can't figure out where you'd stow his sword in truck mode, the holes that let you store his weapons on his shoulders in bot mode allow you to mount his guns on his hood in truck mode.

I have mixed feelings about Gunfighter.  He takes one of the best Transformers toys of the G1/G2 era and updates it with better articulation and a size and aesthetics that make it more of a match with MP-10.  It's a solid, well-made, well-painted figure.  It's cheaper than Archenemy, despite having more accessories, and cheaper than similar toys like Op Ex or the various trailer-less MP-10 repaints.  On the other hand, the engineering and transformation is very simple (the Deluxe Reveal the Shield version is more complicated).  Accurate, yes, but I've already noted more they could have done with the feet.  I feel like maybe there was a more clever solution to the arms/fuel tank part of the transformation too, that could have left the truck a bit tidier.  The other thing is, while I do like the deco, I never owned the original toy, and to my knowledge he's never appeared in fiction like this.  I mean, even if Robots in Disguise was pretty bad, I still watched it.  I still have a connection with Scourge that I'm lacking with Laser Optimus.  So do I recommend him?  That entirely depends on whether or not you think you need a Masterpiece Laser Optimus Prime in your collection.  If you do, then go for it.  Gunfighter's a competent toy, and I don't see anyone else rushing to do a Laser Optimus.  If you don't, then you can probably pass; he's competent, but lacks the kind of "wow" that would make him an interesting one-off figure.

[no3Ljm]

On 9/4/2017 at 9:20 AM, Smiley424 said:

I have a KO MP-12 Lambor/Sideswipe and I am happy with it.  I bought it not knowing they would rerelease the MP-12 so much and at the time prices were getting a little crazy for the Takara/Tomy official one.  Compared to my other official MPs (Prowl and Wheeljack), the fit on the MP-12 is not seem as good as the official ones.  I don't have an official Lambor/Sideswipe to directly compare him to the KO.  I think it's worth it depending on how much you can get the KOs for compared to the official versions.

On 9/4/2017 at 6:28 PM, Dangard Ace said:

The ko for Lambor is great, just as good as TT.  Do NOT get the KO Red Alert.  Same mold but a complete POS compared to the official.  Chest will not stay tabbed in even if you try using future to thicken the tab.  

On 9/4/2017 at 9:08 PM, mikeszekely said:

My KO Lambor's head swivel is a little loose, and he doesn't hold his gun that well... but wasn't the gun thing an issue for the Takara version?  I don't have one to compare; I originally wasn't going to do MPs and just got Lambor for size comparisons.

Thanks guys for your replies. I really appreciate it. I'm still on the fence if I'm going to get one. But I somehow interested more on getting the MPM-03 Bumblebee. And the reason why I asked also Sideswipe KO is that the store where I'm planning on getting Bumblee has it too so I was just trying and see if I could save a little bit since it's gonna be shipped together.

Again, thanks!

 

 

[JB0]

On 9/4/2017 at 11:08 PM, mikeszekely said:

 If you blow on the VTOL rotors they'll spin quite nicely.

BEST. THRUST. EVER.

[Smiley424]

7 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Thanks guys for your replies. I really appreciate it. I'm still on the fence if I'm going to get one. But I somehow interested more on getting the MPM-03 Bumblebee. And the reason why I asked also Sideswipe KO is that the store where I'm planning on getting Bumblee has it too so I was just trying and see if I could save a little bit since it's gonna be shipped together.

Again, thanks!

 

 

I'm currently looking at getting a KO or Official Bumblebee as well.  I am also pondering between Fan Toys Grinder or the KO oversized Grimlock (Reximus Prime).  I would love to hear your thoughts on the KO Bumblebee if you end up getting one.

[David Hingtgen]

On 9/4/2017 at 11:20 AM, Smiley424 said:

I have a KO MP-12 Lambor/Sideswipe and I am happy with it.  I bought it not knowing they would rerelease the MP-12 so and at the time prices were getting a little crazy for the Takara/Tomy official one.  Compared to my other official MPs (Prowl and Wheeljack), the fit on the MP-12 is not seem as good as the official ones.  I don't have an official Lambor/Sideswipe to directly compare him to the KO.

What exactly doesn't fit?   If it's the doors in car mode, I feel it's an inherent design flaw, not a QC thing.  (I think they are honestly wider than the rest of the car).  

[mikeszekely]

I'm not a huge Beast Wars fan.  I thought the show was fine, but I don't like the idea of robots that turn into realistic animals.  I've never seen the Japanese anime sequels.  That said, I've always kind of dug Lio Convoy.  I've been tempted by Perfect Effect's Leonidas, but ultimately kept passing due to the reported fragility and the high-ish price tag.  However, a company called NeoArt Toys, best (only?) known for doing a high-quality clone of Feral Rex, recently released a clone of Leonidas with supposedly improved quality at a much lower price.  I bit.

So, let me get this out of the way.  Leonidas is, ostensibly, Lio Convoy, but he's not actually based off the of the cartoon the way that MP-36 is based off of the cartoon Optimus Primal.  Rather, he appears to be at least somewhat based on a doujinshi called T-Beast 2 that featured a number of Tranformers characters (including G1 characters) with mechanical animal alt modes.  If you're looking for a cartoon-accurate Lio Convoy this might not suit you.  To be totally fair, he's not totally accurate to the doujinshi, either.  However, I think the design is pretty cool.  It's instantly recognizable as Lio Convoy, much more so than the Universe repaint of Cybertron Leobreaker, but the changes in the chest and the additional red on the torso make him a little more evokative of G1 Optimus than Lio Convoy already was.  Besides that, Perfect Effect (and subsequently NeoArt) gave him a lot of little painted details that help highlight the more mechnical nature of the design, as well as give it a really premium look.  In pictures like this one it looks pretty good, but in hand it looks amazing.

I was a little surprised at the size; I thought he was a bit closer to MP-10 in height, but he's really a full head or so shorter (although there are tricks to squeeze some extra height out of you).  Surprisingly, he's much closer in size to the Universe version, who was a Voyager, albeit a large one.  All-in-all, though, I think that's ok.  While I haven't watched the anime, I think Lio Convoy was supposed to be the same size as Optimus Primal.  While Leonidas is shorer than MP-10, he'd still be taller than MP-32.

Leonidas comes with a ton of accessories.  We've got a stand.  You can turn the top part around, and the base has additional slots, so if you have more than one version you can actually mount them on the same base.  There's a pair of katanas, totally diecast with gunmetal and red paint, that fit into plastic and painted scabbards designed to look like rail guns.  He's got two G1 Optimus-style ion rifles.  The barrels can be extended a bit, and you can fold the handle it, rotate the butt, fold the trigger guard down into a scope, flip it over, and fold out a second handle.  There's a red visor for the lio head, a bit of armor that plugs into the top of his pelvis, and a crossbow.  Finally, we have a weapon that can be a whip or a spear that will form the lion tail.  This piece is very articulated; those round joints between segments cans swivel on either side of the joint, and the joint itself rotates to angle the segments.  This is one of the parts that broke on a lot of people's original PE versions.  I haven't had an issue, and this is one of the things that NeoArt supposedly improved, but just in case NeoArt included some replacement segments.

Oh, yeah, and if that wasn't enough, the tip of the tail/spear/whip can be removed and split in half to form two daggers.

Although he has a veritable arsenal you can actually store everything on him.  The tail folds up as show into the armor part, which again pegs into a spot at the top of his pelvis.  The katanas in their scabbards fit onto the small pegs on the sides of the armor, and the two ion rifles have slots that fit into tabs on the back of the armor.  The crossbow folds up and pegs into a hole on his back, between his shoulders, and the visor tabs into a small slot on the lion forehead (although I prefer the no-visor look).

I don't recall what's up with the Matrix during the Beast Era.  I do know that the original Lio Convoy toy's chest opened to reveal a molded-in Matrix-like spot.  Likewise, Leonidas doesn't come with a removable Matrix to add to my burgeoning collection, but you can open his chest up to reveal a molded spot, painted with gold and a metallic blue, that definitely looks like a Matrix.

Leonidas has a lot of articulation, but it feels more like some of the articulated humanoid Japanese figures than a Transformer.  His head is on a ball joint where it connects to his neck, and then his neck is on another balljoint inside his torso.  That gives him a little upward range, a fairly good amount of downward range, some lateral tilt, but also stuff like stretching his neck forward or leaning his head to the side.  The lion bits over his shoulders are actually on ball joints at the ends of armatures connected to his back, and the armatures themselves have a large ratcheted hinge above a peg that connects to his back on another ball joint, allowing you to easily ove them out of the way.  The shoulders themselves have what I think is a ball joint inside them that, by themselves, allow for swiveling and give you a little under 90 degrees of lateral movement.  However, that ball joint is on a peg, and the other side of that peg is a large ball joint in the chest that also swivels, pushes the lateral movement up to the full 90 degrees, and gives him a bit of forward and backward butterfly motion.  He's got bicep swivels, single-jointed elbows that still give you better than 90 degrees of bend, wrist swivels, and hands with a fixed thumb and all four fingers molded as one piece that can open and close on a pin at the base knuckles.  The top of his torso is on a ball joint that can stretch up a bit, swivel a bit, and lean forward, backward, or to either side.  His waist is yet another ball joint that also swivels and can lean forward.  He can't swivel his torso 360 degrees like a lot of Transformers, but the combined ball joints give him a very natural range of motion, both in twisting and leaning/ab crunching.  His hips are slightly hinged in the pelvis, so they can stretch downward a bit to give the thigh a little extra room to clear his waist armor, then extend out to ball joints in the hip itself.  He can get over 90 degrees forward or backward, and somewhere between 45 and 90 laterally.  The thighs swivel over the hip, which limits how much they can swivel but still allows for a fairly natural motion and doesn't interfere with the sculpt of the thigh.  His knees are double-jointed, ratcheted on both ends, and get over 90 degrees.  The red knee cap armor is on a slider, too, so you can adjust it to keep the joints covered.  His ankles are yet more ball joints, capable of swiveling, tilting up and down a little, and inward quite a bit.  The front half of the foot is connected to the back half by still another ball joint, giving him some extra up/down foot flex, and the other toes are connected to the middle toe on swivels.  Plus the armor on teh top of his foot is ball-jointed too, so you can keep it close to the shin when his foot is neutral or bending downward or flex it outward when you bend his foot up.

Despite the large number of friction joints, most of the joints feel really good.  A few are a little tighter than I'd like, but the only loose joints are the front halves of his feet.  Unfortunately, that can make him tricky to balance, as the joint will give without supporting any weight.  It's possible to balance him on the back halves of his feet alone, though.  Or, you can make use of the stand, which has two tabs that fit into two notches on his butt.

His weapons don't have any kind of tabs or other gimmicks to help him hold them.  You just fit them into his palms then close his fingers.  His fingers do have something like a tab to ensure to help push the handle of the weapon evenly into his palm, but it's really the strength of his knuckle joint doing most of the work.  Despite that, he holds the diecast katanas just fine.  Same with the crossbow.

He also holds the spear well, although I never tried it as a whip.  Same goes for the daggers.  The one weapon he didn't hold all that well was the ion rifles.  I'm not really bothered by that, though.  I'm not exactly sure what weapons Lio Convoy uses in the anime, but G1-ish ion rifles are like the least interesting thing Leonidas can hold.

Leonidas "transforms" into a mecha lion that kind of reminds me of Zoids (especially with the visor piece).  I use the word "transform" loosely because you're really just using the double-joints in his knee to get his legs in a more lion-like configuration, flipping his forearms around to (mostly) hide his bot hands and bring out his lion paws, manipulating the lion bits that were over his shoulders so they merge over his head, then standing him on all fours.  Technically the instructions also have you rotate his chest panels to basically no effect and shrug the shoulders up, but if you shrug them up as much as the instructions suggest it looks very unnatural.  Despite the overly-simple transformation it's arguably one of the better robot-lion formers I've seen.  He's got the same shoulder, bicep elbow, hips, and feet.  His knees use the same joints, but they're a little more limited if you want to keep them in lion-y positions.  The ball joints in his waist and upper torso give the lion mode some twist and flext to put him in nice prowling poses.  The tail, if you clipped it up properly, still has four of those balls active for a total of seven swivels and five bends.  The front paws on hinged at the "wrist", and like the foot the outer toes are hinged to the inner toe.  The lion jaw can open and close, and the various sections of his main are either hinged or ball-jointed so that you can fold them back or flare them out a little.

The lion neck is really the weak point of this mode.  It can swivel, look to either side, or look down a bit, but it's kind of limited due to both armatures that hold part of the lion head having to work in tandem.  Move too much in any direction, especially upward, and the whole assembly starts to come out too far from the body to look natural.  Even with everything collapsed as much as it can go you'll find that his robot head is clearly visible in the gaps from some angles.

As with robot mode, you can get all of his weapons onto the lion mode.  For starters, the butt armor stays in place with the tail.  The ion rifles clip into the same spots, but now's a good time to point out at the parts where they clip onto fold out on a pair of ratcheting hinges.  The crossbow plugs into the same spot as robot mode as well, but this time stays more or less unfolded.  The katanas remain sheathed, but insteads of pegging them into the butt armor* you plug them scope side up onto the ends of the crossbow so the barrels of the sheath-guns point forward.  They can even rotate on the pegs to aim up and down, and the pegs themselves are on swivels so they can be aimed closer together or wider apart.  With all due respect to actual lions, this heavily-armored robo-lion looks way more intimidating and way more boss than anime Lio Convoy, although it may be a tad over the top.

*Ok, technically you can leave the railgun-sheaths on the butt armor pegs, but putting them on the crossbow puts them further out to the side, away from his body, making it a little easier to clear his mane.  If you want, you can actually transform him with all the accessories attached, since the crossbow can stay folded if you're not using it to hold the railguns.  The railguns will be upside down, but that will put them up a little higher and able to clear the top of the mane.

If you want to tone him down a little, as well as store some accessories you might not feel like using with him (as is the case with me), good news.  Leonidas is built a bit like a Gundam model, in that some of his outer armor is just pegged together.  While this works against him sometimes (the red parts of the shoulders like to pop off, and if you twist him too much at the upper torso joint it'll push the darker red parts off of his lats), it does mean that you can fairly easily remove the armatures that the ion rifles tab onto off of his butt armor.  I don't plan on posing him holding the rifles, nor do I particularly want to store them on him in either mode.  This way, I can store the armatures with the rifles in the box, and his butt armor will have a cleaner look.

So here's the deal... Leonidas is not your typical Transformer, MP or otherwise.  He just doesn't move the same way.  The numerous ball joints, while holidng up so far, don't feel as robust as even your average friction hinges and swivels let alone ratchets more common on high-end Transfomers, official or otherwise.  The movement of his joints isn't as fluid.  And, like I said, some bits can pop off when you don't really want them too.  Basically, he doesn't feel like a toy that you can really play with the way you can set a lot of other figures on your desk and mess with them.

However, as long as you're careful with them the range of the joints, as well as joints you don't usually see like two ball joints in the torso or the neck that's ball-jointed in both the head and the chest, remind me of stuff like Figuarts or Figma.  Add that to the sheer amount of sharply molded detail and the liberal use of paint and it becomes clear that Leonidas is meant to be more like those figures- a gorgeous thing you pose then put on display then go for long periods without touching it.

Generally speaking, I don't have a problem with those sorts of figures, but to me the allure of Transformers is that they transform.  The reason why everybody else isn't making Transformers like this is because Transformers, more than other toys, are begging to be messed with.  And I think that reinforces my decision to have passed on the original Perfect Effect version of this toy.  $150 feels worth it for a figure like Op Ex that I can mess with and transform to my heart's content, but not for a figure destinted to be left alone on a shelf, no matter how much paint or how many accessories it comes with.  The NeoArt version, though, comes in under $100 (I got mine for around $91 at TF-Direct).  He's still more display piece than toy, but at that price I'd say if you like the design he's worth it as a display piece.

One side note: Perfect Effect did a repaint of Leonidas called Xerxes in black and red.  Neoart also copied that version if you prefer it.  Or, if you want a version you can't get from Perfect Effect, NeoArt did an Evangelion version of Leonidas.

One other side note: Around the same time the NeoArt clone was released, Perfect Effect came out with a new version of Leonidas called Origin Leonidas.  This version comes with an extra big sword, and has a remolded chest and head as well as some altered paint apps to make him look a little closer to the anime.  Did Perfect Effect release it to try to lure people back, away from the NeoArt version?  I couldn't say... but I can tell you that NeoArt plans to clone that version now, too.

[Scyla]

I have the PE Xerxes and I really wish someone would knock off the Leonidas katanas because they are the one glaring omission of this toy.

[Kuma Style]

The full review for Origin Leonidas is up. http://kumastyledesigns.com/pe-origin-leonidas-review/

Some pics from the galla:

[Kuma Style]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valhary]

I'm waiting for the zeta toys aerialbots seems to have the 1/60 scale

[mikeszekely]

I wonder why people insist the Aerialbots have to be the same size as MP Starscream (even though, in actuality, the Aerialbots' alt modes aren't even in-scale with each other), but they're ok with Powerglide being an itty-bitty plane.

Anyway, yeah, there's a good chance I'll get Zeta's Aerialbots.  Not because I like the size (I actually don't; I prefer my combiners to be Warbotron/GT/TFM-sized), but because the only alternatives are still Combiner Wars or TFC.

[Smiley424]

So my Spark Toys ST-02 Spartacus (War Within Megatron) came in.  The figure is nice and near perfect replica of Don Figueroa's design.

[Kuma Style]

 

[Kuma Style]

[Kuma Style]

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Good to see FP's Warbots getting some love.

[Kuma Style]

[Kuma Style]

[Kuma Style]

[Scyla]

On 9/13/2017 at 2:23 AM, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Good to see FP's Warbots getting some love.

I really like the design and looks if the early FT/MT bots. I need to get me a Green Giant and a Ryu-Oh Dinoking to complete my Combiner Series collection.

Sadly these lines seem to be dead. Which is a bummer since I would buy a Bruticus or Superion in that style.

[mikeszekely]

OK, a lot of my posts here have been getting downvoted.  And I've been like, "OK, whatever, someone's a critic."  But I see Kuma getting downvoted.  And someone gave Scyla a downvote for replying to VHD.  So I'm curious now, what's up?  Is someone confused by the like/upvote/downvote thing?  Is someone just anti-3P (because I'm not seeing the downvoting in other threads)?

Mysterious Mr (or Ms.) Downvoter, would you care to talk about it?

[JB0]

Trolls gonna troll. At least this is a pretty innocuous form of trolling.