The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[nhyone]

The MMC cassettes are finally in stock on TaoBao and the purple guy (*) is on its way to me now. Despite knowing the price prior, I still got a sticker shock when paying for it: US$57 (excluding shipping) for one smallish figure.

(*) Since no one can agree on his name.

[Kuma Style]

 

[M'Kyuun]

On ‎3‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 8:20 PM, nhyone said:

The MMC cassettes are finally in stock on TaoBao and the purple guy (*) is on its way to me now. Despite knowing the price prior, I still got a sticker shock when paying for it: US$57 (excluding shipping) for one smallish figure.

(*) Since no one can agree on his name.

Sticker shock is kinda the norm for third party- stuff's expensive, so I'm choosy about what I buy. I've always liked the cassettes, so these are appealing enough for me to drop some cash. MMC did a good job on their Rumble/Frenzy mold; I recommend. I can't say the same for their take on the condors; the quality of my copies varies between them, with Buzzsaw (Buzzard) being tighter and less floppy than their Laserbeak (Volture). Had they sold them only in singles and I had gotten just Volture as my representative of the mold, I couldn't recommend it in good conscience. Even with the better quality, Buzzard is still looser than you'd want at the neck connection. If you haven't put in an order, I'd recommend passing on them. 

[Kuma Style]

The full Review and Gallery for Iron Factory's Booster Spear is up: Link in sig

Honestly, these two pieces are killer. Well made, good looking, and about the best articulation I've seen in Legends-classed figures. Only looking at Booster Spear in this half, but Spin Vulture is coming up shortly as well as War giant in combined mode. Check out a few pics from the gallery portion:

 

[M'Kyuun]

That's a really clean transformation on Boosterspear (where do these 3P guys come up with these names?). They integrated the arms nicely. The closest analog I have to this is Shuttle Robo, who's kibble-tastic. But yeah, as usual Iron Factory does wonders at the Legends scale.

[JB0]

Having had time to sit on things, and with the novelty of a Slag big enough to judo-flip Unicron having worn off, I think I can offer a real list of things I would change on Grassor. It isn't a long list, honestly. I've ordered it from easiest to hardest changes.

 

1: Missile launcher holes on the shoulders where they belong instead of dinohip/roboshin. I don't understand why they aren't there already, it is a trivial modification. Only reason I haven't fixed it myself is fear of taking a drill to something this expensive.

2: Make the smoked plastic pieces on the tail permanently affixable instead of just a dino-mode accesory.

3: I'd swap the dino head for the one off Scoria. From pics I've seen, Scoria's dinohead is far closer to the original toy's, with the frill being damn near perfect, and it is the one place I prefer Scoria to Grassor. The frill angle is a significant issue as-is, but with change 4, it isn't.

4: The dinosaur head would be on an extendable neck piece. This would be less toy-accurate, but the added articulation would be worth the deviation, and it'd improve humanoid head and arm posability because you can get the dinohead and frill out of the way more easily. Also makes it more real-triceratops-accurate.

5: Individually-articulated fingers are cool as heck, but these are loose and potentially dangerous to the toy as designed during transformation. The first needs to simply retract into a channel like the original toy(a channel prevents finger snagging), something needs to be done to lock the fingers in place during transformation, or the arm needs to open far enough that the hand can't get stuck inside. Opening the entire forearm seems like the easiest modification, and cosmetically pleasing due to the design, but I may be overlooking some engineering details.

6: Humanoid feet. I'm not sure entirely what to do here(hence why I filed it as the most difficult change), but they are huge even by Slag standards. I've seen a mod to make the dinotail stash inside the feet to reduce the bulk, and it is a trivial engineering change that reduces the boots to G1-Slag proportions. But you lose the ability to hide the dinosaur rear legs in there, and a lot of people like their Slag with the legs hidden(even though it is wrong). This may just be an unavoidable cost of Gigapower offering people the choice of toy-accurate or wrong dino-legs.

[Kuma Style]

17 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

That's a really clean transformation on Boosterspear (where do these 3P guys come up with these names?). They integrated the arms nicely. The closest analog I have to this is Shuttle Robo, who's kibble-tastic. But yeah, as usual Iron Factory does wonders at the Legends scale.

Iron Factory are pretty much wizards to me at this point... their amount of releases with the ability to keep things up creatively and continue to actually improve on q.c. is really unlike any other company I've seen. I haven't done the numbers but it feels like over the past couple of years they've released enough to average out to a toy per month. It's baffling.

And I've really got to give more time to the Machine robo small-scale stuff. I appreciate the reminder here too. 

@JB0 - Thank you for the rundown there... overall even with the things you'd rather see would you still prefer it to the FansToys offering? I have the FT Grimlock and really love it but with it being my only MP dino I'm still open to starting fresh with Giga because I really like their design take.

[Kuma Style]

[Kuma Style]

The review for Iron Factory's Spin Vulture is up: http://kumastyledesigns.com/iron-factory-spin-vulture-review/

Honestly this is pretty much a reskinned Booster Spear in terms of functionality which means it's also pretty damned great. The review looks into the details more, but overall I honestly think this set is some of the best work that Iron Factory has done period and unlike the other three really make a case for buying another set as their own display. Here are a few pics from the gallery portion:

 

 

 

[M'Kyuun]

In the process of watching your review for this guy. Another nice entry from IF. If I have a critique, it's that the windshield separates to form his weapon, which means if you lose or misplace that weapon, then his vehicle mode remains incomplete for perpetuity, unless you get a replacement. However, in terms of styling, color, and just overall look of all three of his modes (IF's figures make better looking limbs than Has/Tak's, IMO), this looks great. It doesn't hurt that Bruticus is my favorite of the Combiners, and a legends scale version done this well just really piques my interest.  'Preciate the photos, Kuma.  I'm looking forward to the final combined review. Let's see what kinda crazy poses you can pull off with him.

As for Machine Robo, overall, I've liked what Action Toys have done with the line. Along with Shuttle, I recently got Missile Tank, and he's a pretty impressive figure overall: homages the original toy very well, but with an innovative transformation that mirrors aspects of the original, while employing some updated techniques ( including a full 360 rotatable missile launcher, as well as the standard up and down), judicious use of die-cast, and some great poseability. Some may dock it due to the lack of little wheels within the faux treads, as he doesn't roll- he just slides across a smooth surface. It doesn't bother me, but YMMV. IMHO, he's one of the best designs in the line. My copy had nice tight joints (I remember Kuma's mentioning his Shuttle was floppy), but  with toys with so many moving parts and close tolerances like these, I think they're often the luck of the draw. All it takes is one slightly crooked pin installation to give you a bad experience, and I've had instances of this nature with both official and 3P toys. Unfortunately, these things aren't cheap, so an issue with one figure can often color one's perspective towards a whole line. While they're not flawless, I've had pretty good luck with my MR figures thus far, enough to keep throwing money at them. I'm hoping Supercar (Turbo) will eventually get released, as we've seen his protos. Harrier is the guy I want, though- hope he's the next new design teased.

Edited March 7, 2018 by M'Kyuun

[JB0]

10 hours ago, Kuma Style said:

 - Thank you for the rundown there... overall even with the things you'd rather see would you still prefer it to the FansToys offering? I have the FT Grimlock and really love it but with it being my only MP dino I'm still open to starting fresh with Giga because I really like their design take.

Dino head aside, I find Scoria to look kind of awful.  And not just in a "toy supremacy" way.

He is mis-shapen and ill-proportioned in dinosaur mode, and the humanoid legs have none of the puffy moon-boot look that Slag should have.  He just looks like he has unusually boxy legs.

 

Cesium isn't TECHNICALLY Fanstoys, but everyone knows it really is, so... Cesium is STILL a misshapen lump in dinosaur mode, but robot mode looks fine. Just a bit too "cartoon supremacy" for my tastes, as I'm very biased towards the toys on the dinobots.

And it looks like the dino mode's lumpy proportions and awkward legs are to make it more closely match the animation model, so "toon-accurate" is my entire problem with him, I guess. As I said, with the dinobots, I want a new iteration to hew close to the original toy aesthetic.

Edited March 8, 2018 by JB0

[Kuma Style]

17 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

In the process of watching your review for this guy. Another nice entry from IF. If I have a critique, it's that the windshield separates to form his weapon, which means if you lose or misplace that weapon, then his vehicle mode remains incomplete for perpetuity, unless you get a replacement. However, in terms of styling, color, and just overall look of all three of his modes (IF's figures make better looking limbs than Has/Tak's, IMO), this looks great. It doesn't hurt that Bruticus is my favorite of the Combiners, and a legends scale version done this well just really piques my interest.  'Preciate the photos, Kuma.  I'm looking forward to the final combined review. Let's see what kinda crazy poses you can pull off with him.

As for Machine Robo, overall, I've liked what Action Toys have done with the line. Along with Shuttle, I recently got Missile Tank, and he's a pretty impressive figure overall: homages the original toy very well, but with an innovative transformation that mirrors aspects of the original, while employing some updated techniques ( including a full 360 rotatable missile launcher, as well as the standard up and down), judicious use of die-cast, and some great poseability. Some may dock it due to the lack of little wheels within the faux treads, as he doesn't roll- he just slides across a smooth surface. It doesn't bother me, but YMMV. IMHO, he's one of the best designs in the line. My copy had nice tight joints (I remember Kuma's mentioning his Shuttle was floppy), but  with toys with so many moving parts and close tolerances like these, I think they're often the luck of the draw. All it takes is one slightly crooked pin installation to give you a bad experience, and I've had instances of this nature with both official and 3P toys. Unfortunately, these things aren't cheap, so an issue with one figure can often color one's perspective towards a whole line. While they're not flawless, I've had pretty good luck with my MR figures thus far, enough to keep throwing money at them. I'm hoping Supercar (Turbo) will eventually get released, as we've seen his protos. Harrier is the guy I want, though- hope he's the next new design teased.

- With Spin vulture's cockpit piece... honestly, I like it as a weapon... like... a lot so I can't agree there. I guess personally, Even if it's an accessory piece that has nothing to do with the aesthetic nature of one of my collectibles, I'm fairly "anal" about keeping things complete and not losing anything as I feel we all should. There's not really an excuse for us not to be responsible for this stuff which isn't really cheap, and there's no real reason to misplace something, particularly on items like the IF guys to where you can store their accessories on one of their 10 (exaggerated) peg holes throughout if you don't want to put them away when they aren't holding them. For example, with Spin vulture, if he's not holding the gun, peg it into his forearms like a shield. Personally, I just through accessories and instructions into either sandwich or freezer bags for each items and have tubs full of said baggies. 

- I appreciate the feedback on the Machine Robo stuff... at smaller scales, faux wheels and treads don't really bother me much but when you get to voyager+ in Classics figures along with Masterpiece stuff in general, I have some higher expectations. Turbo is a favorite of mine so definitely hoping to see him at some point. The one I want to see most is "Dive Dive" because for some reason I remember having that particular one as a kid and playing with it alllllllllll the time. 

 

13 hours ago, JB0 said:

Dino head aside, I find Scoria to look kind of awful.  And not just in a "toy supremacy" way.

He is mis-shapen and ill-proportioned in dinosaur mode, and the humanoid legs have none of the puffy moon-boot look that Slag should have.  He just looks like he has unusually boxy legs.

 

Cesium isn't TECHNICALLY Fanstoys, but everyone knows it really is, so... Cesium is STILL a misshapen lump in dinosaur mode, but robot mode looks fine. Just a bit too "cartoon supremacy" for my tastes, as I'm very biased towards the toys on the dinobots.

And it looks like the dino mode's lumpy proportions and awkward legs are to make it more closely match the animation model, so "toon-accurate" is my entire problem with him, I guess. As I said, with the dinobots, I want a new iteration to hew close to the original toy aesthetic.

I really appreciate the feedback. 

Finally got to start on the combined mode for this thing. It's honestly so fun to play with that I can't even. 

[M'Kyuun]

Concerning Spin Vulture's weapon/windshield combo, since you actually own the figure, it's cool that you enjoy that aspect. I approach it with a bias towards perfect transformation, and having the alt mode be complete without add-ons. Personal preference, although, given the hundreds of TFs I own, including MP Cheetor, whose tail becomes his weapon, I'm quite certain I've violated my own bias on occasions too numerous to count over the last 30+ years of collecting these things. At the end of the day, it is what it is, and if I was closer to buying these guys, honestly, it wouldn't even register as a concern. At this kind of pricepoint, overall quality becomes the driving concern. Anyway, the final result is a really nice looking Bruticus. Looking at my Takara Legends (CW) version, IF manages to clean up their limbs by better integrating the bots' arms- even at legends scale, it's pretty svelte. I really like the color palette here, too- catches the eye. Their Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are sweet little figs in their own right. Pretty cool. Thanks, Kuma.

Oh, and on the topic of MP Slags, I have Cesium, and proportionally, for a salad shooting dino, he's a bit obese. Cesium's got back, with a tail slapped on, so they didn't quite get the G1 toy's proportion, which transitions into tail almost immediately after the back legs, which looks good to my eye. Even the PotP Slag pulls off a better looking tail, although it's not a nice round transition like the G1, but a step-down. Anyway, I think what hurts both of FT's efforts are that, in profile, they have too much ass hanging out behind the legs before the tail. Concerning  Grassor, despite a little bit of ass behind the legs, Giga's mold provides a more appealing slope to the body as well as a very natural transition into the tail section. Grassor, overall, enjoys a very nicely proportionate body with suitably beefy looking legs. Of the 3P Slags, Giga wins for their Triceratops mode, IMO. In bot mode, Cesium has nice big clompy feet, perfectly apropos to the character, if a bit limiting due to the very limited toe articulation. Par for the course with these guys, really. Perfect Fusion incorporated a nice mechanism where the entire shoulder section can rotate into positions favoring the dino mode or the bot mode. It's pretty tight, but it works effectively. Another feature they tried to work in is a slightly extending neck joint for dino mode. There's so little travel afforded by it, though, that it really offers no appreciable head movement, and is subsequently moot. Shame, really; if they'd given it perhaps another cm or so of extension, it may have allowed for some appreciable head articulation. Wasn't to be, though. I'd caution any new owners to take care the first time extending the head; it's mounted on a mushroom joint, and I actually pulled the head off trying to extend the damned thing. Lemme tell ya, it was a royal PITA trying to get that head back on, as there's very little room to work, and the joint wants to recede back into the body cavity , so just pressing it back on doesn't work. I had to use a screwdriver to keep the joint extended, and then I put tape on the end of some twine and used that as a wedge to keep the halves of the mushroom joint retainer open enough to allow me to press the head back on. No fun at all. One other 'issue' I have with him is trying to snap his curved backplate into place in dino mode-really tough to get it to snap into place, and it usually separates from its double hinge before any success is gained.Always a 'grrrr' moment.  Size-wise, in bot mode, Cesium seems just a bit too tall to me in relation to his fellow dinos, otherwise, I think he captures the look really well. He has nice tight joints, almost all ratchets, with decent articulation (knees and elbows both about 90 degrees, no double hinges), and a bit of heft due to his size and the use of die cast in both his bot and dino toes, as well as the plate around his bot head and his horns). He's definitely a huge step up from Scoria, but Grassor makes for the better looking Triceratops. 

Looking once again at Grassor, I'm trying to nail down what about it is so appealing, and I think there's almost an SD element to it- small body with large head and legs, plus the body shaping is just so. It just looks great. Cesium looks like he swallowed Swoop, and needs some Milk of Magnesia.

[locidm]

Does anybody know where to pickup TF 3rd party merchandise in Hong Kong? Any tips are appreciated

[mikeszekely]

19 minutes ago, locidm said:

Does anybody know where to pickup TF 3rd party merchandise in Hong Kong? Any tips are appreciated

Action Robo has a physical store in Kowloon, but they have strange hours.

[Kuma Style]

Still plucking away at this galla:

[M'Kyuun]

Even ghosts can dream.

Nice shot, Kuma.   

Pertaining to just about every combiner that's come out, I wish the feet were scaled at least to the width of the bots forming the legs, or the toe, anyway. The wide legs and skinny feet always look awkward to me. That said, if the leg bots had some kind of side skirts that unfolded on either side of the foot, or at least on the outside, it would present a nicer aesthetic than the tacked-on look most of them have. I'll give Perfect Effect a nod here- I bought their CW Bruticus add-on set, and the feet are nearly the same width as the legs, which looks so much better to me than all these thin feet under wide legs. Not sure if it bugs anyone else, but it bugs me.  

[Scyla]

Maybe PlanetX will do a Fall of Cybertron Bruticus. This one has feet that are as wide as his ankles:

One would say he has cancles.

[Kuma Style]

I've always felt that the offest of leg to foot width in modern homages has been in part to keep a visual representation of the fact that these are combiners. Since it's so specific to combining robots in transformers I've always kind of accepted it as their "thing" especially since it doesn't bother me aesthetically in the slightest. 

... and PX doing Bruticus would be sick. There was a company that started doing legends FOC stuff that had stated they wanted to do Bruticus and then they kind of fell off the map.

[mikeszekely]

Quick heads up, if you wanted MMC's Jaguar and missed the boat- Planet Steel Express is taking preorders for a reissue. Price will be HKD 470, (70 deposit, 400 when it ships) or around $60 USD. The cutoff is March 31, and they expect to ship in May.

[Kuma Style]

https://youtu.be/ZdQDlUx2e0o

The full review and galla for Iron Factory's War Giant in combined mode is up; http://kumastyledesigns.com/iron-factory-war-giant-review/

Check out the review for depth, but overall it's a great looking and well-built piece that is overall really fun but I feel has a few things that would have made it fantastic. Here are a few pics from the gallery section:

 

 

[Kuma Style]

[Kuma Style]

[Kuma Style]

 

 

[Kuma Style]

[mikeszekely]

I've really liked the Fans Hobby stuff I've bought, and I wouldn't mind a trailer for at least Archenemy (Scourge).  MB-09 looks very well-designed and well-made.  But that price tag... yeesh!  $99 at most American stores.

I'm really jonesing for some new toys.  I'm guessing it's been nearly a month since I reviewed anything here.  But, holding off on purchases while I moved and some of the stuff I did want to purchase being delayed, I got nothing.

[Kuma Style]

Yea... I'm glad they think enough of me to send these over my way but once I was told that the retail was $100 I took a double take and even looked it up on a retailer to confirm. I admittedly haven't done anything besides sticker it up and take a pic but realistically I'm not quite seeing $100 in it yet. Maybe  some of the engineering, gimmicks, or accessories will shed some more light once I get to actually messing with it.

Reviews on this and Thunder Manus this weekend.

[Kuma Style]

[no3Ljm]

Hey everyone. Is there any news when will the TFEvo Hot Fire will get released? Thanks!

 

[sh9000]

https://tfsource.com/x2-toys/bg-a2-big-computer/

This looks cool.

[Kuma Style]

8 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

https://tfsource.com/x2-toys/bg-a2-big-computer/

This looks cool.

It really does. It'd make an impressive diorama display, even. 

[sh9000]

It can probably go well with many different Transformers lines.

[Kuma Style]

The written review for Thunder Manus is up! http://kumastyledesigns.com/maketoys-thunder-manus-review/

I break it down in the review but overall it's a good piece that really could have been great with some minor changes and q.c. fixes. Here are some pics from the gallery section (over 30 pics; )

[ScrambledValkyrie]

So I recently discovered some of the cool 3P legends scale Transformers out there, like those from DX9 and Generation Toy. Here are some recent acquisitions:

 

Edited April 7, 2018 by ScrambledValkyrie

[mikeszekely]

I'm not entirely settled in yet, but after what feels like forever I'm in the new house and I got a new toy!  This is FansToys' Lupus, their Masterpiece-style Weirdwolf.

It's not the most exciting design, but yep, that's Weirdwolf alright.  I'd say that based on the silver head and silver panels on his abs that FansToys was aiming more at the Japanese series The Headmasters than the US "The Rebirth" episodes, but that's fine with me.  And FansToys did try to spruce him up a bit with some molded lines on his shoulders and thighs that hearken back to the G1 toy.  Additionally, he's got some molded and painted details on his shins and knees that are inpsired by the G1 toy's stickers.  Ultimately, I guess it's not really FansToys' fault that Lupus looks a little bland if they're working with a pretty bland character.

In any case, as you'd expect from FansToys, Lupus has plenty of yellow and green plastic in his arms and legs, but his feet are yellow-painted diecast, and most of his torso is also yellow-painted diecast.  The silver on his face and chest is alos painted.  His neck connector and visor have are painted metallic red, while his face has an interesting red finish that somewhere between metallic and satin.  It all looks very good.

What doesn't look good, right from the start, are his feet.  Basically, the knee for his rear wolf legs is set in his robot toe, and the wolf leg folds into mostly-hollow feet to form his heels and soles.  Which would be fine, except the wolf legs sit a bit lower than the joint, so his yellow robot feet don't quite touch the ground.

Oh, and for a size comparison, I could just tell you that he's sort of MP-10-sized.  But I'm going to show him next to his rival, Chromedome (in the form of Maketoys' Cupola).  Despite the different design aesthetics each company uses I think they look pretty good together.  Which is good, if there's any truth to the rumor that MT and FT have a gentlemen's agreement in place where FT is only doing the Decepticons and MT is only doing the Autobots.

Lupus doesnt' come with a ton of accessories.  Basically, you've got his sword/tail, his rifle, his Headmaster, and an alternate face.  For the record, the alternate face is what came installed, but I thought it looked a little too narrow.

As for the Headmaster, I quite like him.  His transformation is indentical to the old G1 Headmasters, so he's go tthe more traditional waist and lower legs, and I think he looks a little more natural for it.  On the flip side, he lacks the collapsing face gimmick that the Maketoys Headmasters have, so he is basically running around with a big face on his back.  At maybe just a shade taller than a Maketoys Headmaster but still slightly shorter than FansHobby's Ginrai/Hi-Q, the size works perfectly for me.  His articulation works pretty well, too.  His head and waist are fixed.  His shoulders can rotate and move about 45 degrees laterally on ball joints.  No wrist or bicep swivels, but his elbows can bend 90 degrees.  His hips are ball joints that can bend 90 degrees forward, slightly backward, and rotate out to give a slight thigh swivel.  His knees bend 90 degrees.  And, in a rarity for a figure this this size that's more of an accessory than anything else, he's got little ball-jointed ankles so he has some tilt up and down and 45 degrees of pivot.

Unlike his Headmaster, Lupus' own articulation is a bit sub par.  The red neck allows for his head to rotate and look up a taste, and look down a decent amount.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, but are limited to a little under 45 degrees laterally.  He has bicep swivels.  Although his elbows are double-jointed they can still only get about 45 degrees.  His wrists can swivel.  His wrists also have a little bit of up/down play, but that's more a function of his forearm not locking together solidly than intention.  (For that matter, the flaps that make up his calves don't really lock in, either; it's just friction that hold the back flap closed, and the flap not clearing the lip around it while it's closed is all that keeps a transformation joint fron engaging).  He has individually-articulated fingers, which I don't think are particularly necessary on a figure this size who's mostly going to be holding weapons anyway, but at least they're the good kind where the fingers are pinned at the base with one extra knuckle.  Only the thumb is on a ball joint at the base, with one additional pinned hinge.  His waist can swivel.  Flaps on the front and sides of his hips hinge out of the way, and his hips can move forward almost 90 degrees and backward maybe 60 degrees on a ratchet.  They can also move over 90 degrees laterally on friction joints.  His thighs can swivel.  His knees are double-jointed and ratcheted, with the upper joint being a little stronger than the lower one, and can bend a little over 90 degrees.  His feet are barely articulated.  There's a decent amount of downward tilt, and if you move a flap at the bottom of his shin he can get a little upward tilt, but he really only has enough ankle pivot so that I have to say that the joint is there.  Seriously, you can forget wide A-stances, as standing even casually has the pivots at their limits.

Both the sword and the gun have slots on the handles that, in theory, fit into his palms.  In practice, both weapons fit into his right hand, but will come out very easily and really rely more on tension from his fingers to stand in place.  His sword fits similarly into his left hand, but the gun wouldn't stay in his left hand at all for me.  It's also worth noting that the sword has a trio of hinges for his alt mode.  The hinge closest to the hilt on mine is too weak to support he weight of the blade, so any poses where gravity isn't pulling the weight toward the front will cause the joint give and the blade to droop backward.

Like Maketoys's Headmasters, Lupus does have a panel that you can open on his chest to see his stats.  Also like Maketoys, those stats are molded and painted in, and will show with our without the Headmaster installed.

Lupus's wolf mode is fairly good.  It's again mostly accurate to the cartoon, minus some white on his butt.  His head and neck are painted silver with metallic red paint for his eyes.  Aesthetically my only real complaint is that his rear seems a little wide. I like how both the Titans Return and the Fansproject versions managed to to take his robot profile and slim it out for wolf mode, but if anything Lupus gets wider.  I also appreciate how, especially coming after Sovereign, that his transformation is pretty straightforward.  It's worth noting that there are some clearance issues unfolding the legs, though, where moving parts kind of rub and scrape up against other parts.  Contrary to reviews like Emgo and Bobby Skullface, who were working from a review sample, my copy does not have the issue of the sliding cockpit collapsing back into the body.  It takes some effort to slide it out, and once it's out it stays out.  The translucent red lid is a little loose, but unless you're turning him upside down I think that's a pretty minor issue.  Oddly, there are flaps that fold over and peg onto the side in front of his rear robot hips.  Those flaps extend over his waist, and there are tabs on the parts of the flap that hang over the waist and what should be corresponding slots on his waist.  Unless I'm seriously screwing up his tranformation, though, those tabs don't reach the slots.  And not in a "they peg in, but shallowly and tend to pop out," either.  I mean they're probably 2mm short of even making it to the slot.  

Is that how a robot wolf shoud scale with a car that's already way bigger than other cars?  You decide.

The wolf mode does have some pretty good articulation.  The middle section of his neck is sort of angled, and a hinge at the head-side lets him tilt his head down.  Rotation at both ends lets you bend it around 180 degrees so he can look up instead.  Or, you could just rotate his neck 90 degrees to allow him to look sideways.  Make use of just one rotational joint and he can tilt his head sideways.  His jaws can open.  His front hip/shoulders are the same ratchets as his robot shoulders for rotation and even more limited lateral spread.  His elbows still bend 90 degrees.  His front paws have a hinge so they can bend up and down, and another hinge gives those paws 45 degrees of ankle pivot.  His rear hips can rotate, and they can spread a little laterally but along the wrong axis.  His rear knees are double-jointed, and his rear paws are identical to his front paws.  The joints in his sworld-tail allow it to curl upward.  Or, a mushroom swivel in the hilt lets to turn the blade so the tail can bend down or sideways instead.  Since those aforemationed tabs don't fit into his waist slots you also have a bit of waist swivel.  An unfortunate side-effect, though, is that without those tabs to lock everything in place his robot legs have a tendency to want to unfold, leaving a little gap on his back.

As mentioned, the translucent red cockpit door can open to reveal a little cockpit with some painted details and a steering wheel.  Amusingly, the details look like the d-pad, B, and A buttons on an NES controller.  The steering wheel has a hinge so you can move it up, but the fit for the little Headmaster is a little tight.  I wound up popping his leg off the ball joint trying to get him out.

With Lupus, I think you get a lot of what people have come to expect from FansToys- a lot of diecast and paint that give a figure a premium "feel" and a price tag to match. Unfortunately, a premium "feel" doesn't always translate to actual quality, and I think that Lupus is plagued with a lot of little issues that people simply wouldn't tolerate from any company but FansToys, especially if some of that diecast and paint in the chest had been yellow plastic.  Much like Tesla, I think if another company like DX9 or Maketoys wanted to they could make a better Weirdwolf, and probably do it cheaper to boot.  Lupus isn't a great figure, he's just ok.

That being said, if you want MP Headmasters in your collection you should probably pick him up anyway.  He might not be great, but he's not bad, either.  He's also taken a bit longer to sell down than most of FansToys' other figures.  Consider, also, that Maketoys and KFC's Headmasters are still readily available.  In a world where we have three competing Omega Supremes but only three companies have done MP Headmasters and none of those companies have done the same characters as the others I think it's a safe bet to say that MP figures of characters who weren't in the first two seasons of the US G1 cartoon or the '86 movie just don't generate as much interest or sales.  To be frank, this could be the only MP Weirdwolf we're likely to see, at least for some time.