The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

That's a sweet looking Volcanicus! If it makes a more stable combiner, I'm in for a set.

[tekering]

Still can't beat Shuraking, though!  

Edited April 19, 2018 by tekering

[JB0]

Sure can't. Shuraking's limbs are better limbs, and he wears Swoop's wings on his back for maximum awesome. Also chrome. So much chrome.

And Swoop is red, which helps the color cohesion. Makes Swoop feel like part of the team instead of "that one weird dinobot."

 

 

On the other hand, I am a cheap mofo. Shuraking is like a bajillion dollars.

[mikeszekely]

38 minutes ago, JB0 said:

Shuraking is like a bajillion dollars.

I just sold mine a like two weeks ago for $400.  My opinion of him hasn't really changed since I reviewed him; he looks cool, but he's full of odd design choices and winds up being no fun to handle.  They're less stable, but I'm keeping the ToyWorld ones for my combiner and Gigapower for my MP Dinobots.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

1 hour ago, tekering said:

Still can't beat Shuraking, though!  

For spectacle and presence, there is no doubt.  I just have a feeling that I would have more fun transforming Volcanicus and an add on kit compared to the beastly Shuraking.

[valhary]

Fans hobby rules!!!!!!!

[mikeszekely]

Huh, I go spend some time in the official TF thread talking about the Studio Series and this thread vanishes to the second page.  @Kuma Style where all your pictures at?

Well, I picked up something kind of interesting.  This is Supreme Leader, from a Chinese company called JuJiang.

And yes, Supreme Leader is an oversized knock-off of the original Classics Optimus Prime.  Or, more accurately if you're already noticing the some aesthetic differences, he's a KO of the Japanese release of Henkei Convoy, as the deco is a two Autobot tampographs and some vac-plated chrome away from being a perfect copy of that deco.  As for the oversized part, JuJiang basically scaled it up to the same size as MP-10.  But, they didn't stop there; Supreme Leader has a number of little tweaks, all of which we'll cover.  For now, though, the big aesthetic tweaks are twofold; one, the fact that his pelvis and thighs aren't silver-painted plastic like the old Henkei toy, they're actually diecast, possibly natural and unpainted silver, probably painted silver.  The diecast gives him a significant heft- he weighs about 758 grams, compared to MP-10's 412g.  Two, he's got an entirely new head.  The head is the one thing that I might consider a downgrade.  The outward-angled ears are, perhaps, an attempt to look more anime... I'd prefer more them straighter, but I'll let it slide.  The chinstrap has got to go, though.  Don't know why they didn't just OS the original head; I always kind of dug it.

There are other, more subtle differences.  On the original toy the truck kibble on his arms were molded in translucent blue plastic with all the red being paint in addition to the silver stripes and the headlights being painted.  On Supreme Leader, the truck kibble is red plastic with the translucent blue windows being a separate piece attached on the inside, so the edge showing against his arm is read instead of translucent blue.  If you look closely at the Classics/Henkei toy you'll see a little groove on the outside of the forearm, near the wrist, and a tab above the pinned swivel on the truck kibble that sits inside it.  That connection is much more snug on Supreme Leader.  Additionally, there's a groove on the other side of that pinned swivel that a tab on the inside of the truck kibble sits in.  Again, much tighter on Supreme Leader, as is the pinned swivel itself.  Finally, Supreme Leader has an extra hinge in the truck kibble, just next to the headlights, that lets it fold in.  This allows the whole kibble section to sit a little more flush to his forearm.  It also has a little tab, right on the hinge, that fits into a little slot on his arm.  The end result is that the truck kibble locks neatly in place and doesn't rotate freely like it does on the original toy.  If I'm being honest, though, one more hinge just below the windows on the truck kibble that could have allowed them to fold flat against the back of his forearms would have gone a long way toward improving the design even further.

Now 12 years ago, when I got my Classics Prime, I was so glad to have a modern, articulated, semi-G1 Optimus Prime toy that I was able to overlook a lot of things like the short torso and long legs, the truck kibble on his back and forearms, and his black fists.  On an MP-sized figure, though, some of those issues are a little more magnified.  Even though he's as big, heavier, and possibly has better joints than figures like MP-10, MPM-04, Op Ex (GT's IDW Optimus), or Gunfighter II (Fans Hobby's G2 Laser Optimus) he looks rather out-of-place with them.  As much as I hate it when people label everything that doesn't fit their narrow aesthetic criteria as "CHUG" I can't really say that Supreme Leader looks like a Masterpiece.

Supreme Leader comes with the same accessories Classics Op/Henkei Convoy came with, just smaller with a few minor tweaks to their handles.  You've got your "I've never seen smokestacks that look like this" smokestacks that turn into a gun, and your air deflector that turns into another gun.

He does come with one other accessory, or accessories, depending on how you look at it.  This is a sprue with fully-articulated hands that you can cut out and assemble, Gunpla style (although the only assembly is putting the backs of the hands on and then attaching the hands to a figure; all the fingers are already put together and attached to the hands on the sprue).

Compared to Classics Prime the articulation on Supreme Leader has been improved to be more in-line with what you'd expect from an MP toy.  His head, previously a swivel, is now a ball joint that can turn as well as look up and down and tilt to the side a bit.  His shoulders rotate, but the joint is ratcheted now.  He can move his shoulders laterally 90 degrees, no change there.  He has the same bicep swivels.  His elbows, one of the joints that were ratcheted on the original toy, are still ratcheted here (and more strongly).  Unlike the original toy, Supreme Leader has wrist swivels and hands more like what you'd expect from an MP figure with a fixed thumb, an individual index finger pinned at the thumb with an additional mid knuckle, and the remaining three fingers molded as one piece pinned at the base for opening and closing.  His got a swivel in his chest, more for transformation than articulation, and a soft-ratcheted waist swivel.  His hips can kick forward 90 degrees and backward about 45 degrees on soft ratchets that, despite their softness, have plenty of clicks with no play between them and can support the weight of the figure to the point that picking him up and giving him a little shake doesn't cause his hips to so much as jiggle. Outward movement is also on a ratchet, with six positions between stock-straight and 90 degrees (and a 7th that actually pushes them past 90).  The thigh swivel that was just above the knee on the original toy has been replaced with cuts in the thigh right below the hips.  Speaking of knees, the slightly-over-90-degrees single-jointed friction knees of the original toy have been replaced with double-jointed ratchets that let him bend his knees 180 degrees.  His feet can still tilt down, because they transform the same way, but Supreme Leader's feet can also tilt also tilt up a little bit and a swivel was added to give him a little over 45 degrees of ankle pivot.  To top it all off, JuJiang added rubber pads to the front of his feet and his heel spurs.

Given that he has articulated hands instead of molded fists with 5mm ports, the way he holds his guns has changed from the original toy.  The smokestack gun works like your usual MP weapons; there are tabs on the handle, and they fit into slots on his palms.  While the tension in his fingers seems to be enough to keep the gun in his hand, the tab doesn't really like to stay in his palm and it pops out very easily.  It's the kind of popping out that feels more like the connection is too tight than too loose, if that makes a difference.  The air deflector gun doesn't have tabs on the handle.  Instead, there are a pair of tabs, one slightly longer than the other, behind the handle.  These tabs fit into matching slots near his wrists, locking the gun in place.

His wrists aren't the only place with those slots, though.  On the original toy, there's a hinged piece on his back with a 5mm peg hole that the air deflector can plug into.  There's still a peg hole and a corresponding peg for Supreme Leader, and you can still store the air deflector on his back in deflector mode if you want.  However, the piece with the peg hole isn't one piece; the sides are rotating bits with slots that match the ones on the back of the gun, allowing you to tab it on and have him wear it like a shoulder cannon.

The slots have another use, too, if you don't mind a little partsforming.  If you don't like the big truck kibble panels on his forearms they can be detached.  You'll find the same pair of tabs, one longer and one shorter, on both of the panels.  This allows you to instead tab them to the rotating bits on Prime's back like little wings.  While I kind of prefer this look, you can't store the air deflector on his back like this because they stick out enough that the peg on the deflector can't really reach the hole.  Oh well, I suppose the kibble on the forearms covers the screws, which are on the outside (like the original toy).  And it is a more "Classic" look. *ducks in case of thrown produce*

There's no instruction inside Supreme Leader's box, just a piece of paper with QR codes with YouTube and Youku video links.  It's not really a big deal, though, as the transformation is more or less identical.  There are only two small differences; you have to rotate his wrists 180% for them to fit properly in truck mode, and you can't rotate his head 180% or it won't fit properly.  That one in particular might not be an official deviation from the original instructions (which I've long since lost or thrown out after two moves), but I always did it on the original toy so his face wouldn't be showing if I didn't put the air deflector on him.

He's also a big truck.  He doesn't just dwarf the original version, he's actually slightly bigger than MP-10 in this mode.  Oh, and because he's nearly identical to the original toy he's not compatible with MP-10's trailer. I will note, though, that there's a tab near his foot in the bottom inside edge of each shin.  These tabs sit snugly together, making a large peg.  These tabs are actually copied from the original toy, which makes me wonder if at some point a trailer was being planned for Classics Prime?  It also makes me think JuJiang could make an OS KO of FansProject's Commander trailer armor for this guy.  Or maybe even the newer TFX-06 armor.

Aesthetically, the deco is again straight copied from the original Henkei Convoy, minus the vac-chrome on the bumper and grill which instead have the same silver paint used on the rest of the figure and therefore a better aesthetic match as far as I'm concerned.  He's got real rubber tires, and they're nice and wide.  Beyond that, I mean, he looks nice enough, but with the obviously-turns-into-a-gun smokestacks and the overall "I'm a toy, not a real truck" aesthetic he again doesn't quite fit in with the other Primes in my Detolf.

At the end of the day, that's really Supreme Leader's sticking point.  I mean, the plastic is as good as any that HasTak uses, there's plenty of diecast, and the joint tolerances put HasTak to shame.  On build quality alone MP-10 feels like it should be the much cheaper toy.  But at the end of the day, MP-10 and other MP-style Prime's have a level of detailed aesthetics and engineering that Supreme Leader just doesn't have.  For all his improvements, he's still ultimately a oversized copy of a 12 year old Voyager.  Because of that he won't be for everybody.  He's not going to replace MP-10 on anyone's shelves.

Aesthetic issues aside, though, he's a really good toy with excellent quality and a price tag that's only around $70.  If you collect Primes, especially MP-sized ones, then you should absolutely get this guy.

Oh yeah, one final thing about those hands.  Basically, both sets of hands fit over mushroom pegs on Supreme Leader's wrists.  In theory, you're supposed to just pop off the default hands then pop on the articulated ones.  The default hands are on pretty tight, though.  I really don't care if this particular Prime toy has articulated fingers enough to even minimally risk stressing or damaging the mushroom pegs, so I didn't bother to install them.

However, they're pretty nice hands.  Generally speaking, if a figure the size of a carbot can open his hands and a figure MP Seeker to MP-10's size has a separate index finger so he can point that's enough for me.  While I've had some decent fully-articulated hands on figures this size (Sovereign, for example), I've had a lot more that were looks, crappy ball joints that flop about and fall apart if you sneeze (pretty much anything this size from X-Transbots/KFC).  I have to say, though, that these hands were pretty good once I built them.  Each joint felt nice and tight, and while the fingers were attached with ball joints at the base on the thumb's ball was exposed enough for it to even be possible to fall out.  I hated for them to go to waste...

And they didn't!  Turns out that the connector is just the right size to fit on Maketoys' Despotron, with no modification needed.  Although they are a little larger than his original hands, s long as they're oriented properly, with the fingers curled in as tight as possible and the thumb along the outside, they still fit for transformation.  This pleases me greatly.  This actually pleases me more than it probably should, since I didn't really have a problem with his original hands.  It's just that I replaced my MP-10's with the KFC hands, not because I wanted articulated hands but because I wanted the KFC ion rifle and the fit was a little too tight in the original hands.  But once my Prime had articulated hands it seemed like my Megatron should, too.  And now he does, so they can make rude gestures at each other and balance is restored.

[JB0]

I still really like how Classics Prime looks, so this is pretty awesome to me.

The upgrades to the arm shields are sorely appreciated, though not as much as the ability to just hang 'em off his back instead. Be nice if they covered up the spare radiator when used as a backpack, but I guess that's too much to ask.

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

These tabs sit snugly together, making a large peg.  These tabs are actually copied from the original toy, which makes me wonder if at some point a trailer was being planned for Classics Prime? 

If I recall, Classics Prime was originally designed as a smaller toy, to be sold with trailer. Then they decided to put that part of the budget into a bigger and better robotruck, sold at the same price point without a trailer. So they upscaled him, and then tweaked the design and paint job to be more fitting for the new scale.

I think that's why the goofy armshields happened in the first place. It was a sacrifice needed for the smaller version, and was too hard to get rid of it without rebuilding him from scratch.

[slaginpit]

On 4/19/2018 at 2:30 AM, mikeszekely said:

I just sold mine a like two weeks ago for $400.  My opinion of him hasn't really changed since I reviewed him; he looks cool, but he's full of odd design choices and winds up being no fun to handle.  They're less stable, but I'm keeping the ToyWorld ones for my combiner and Gigapower for my MP Dinobots.

I had both. I sold my Shuraking. I prefer the Toyworld Look and the wings do attach the same way for the ToyWorld version.

[Kuma Style]

On 4/25/2018 at 1:47 AM, mikeszekely said:

Huh, I go spend some time in the official TF thread talking about the Studio Series and this thread vanishes to the second page.  @Kuma Style where all your pictures at?

 

Maaaaaaaaaaaan I've been getting in a bunch of non-TF stuff lately. Really looking forward to the FP Monstructor and hopefully getting a PerfectEffect Gorira Prime soon. Next week I've got a nice little package with MP-36,  FT Sovereign, and the MT visualizers in it. Sweet price of $360 too!

Re: That Prime; that thing is freaking awesome, man. The ooooooooooooonly thing I wish is that they'd kept the head the same. I appreciate you taking some actual side-by-side pics with stuff because it's honestly the first I'd seen with any comparisons.

[Tking22]

MakeToys just announced on Twitter that their upcoming MP Skywarp(Skycrow) will come with both black and the sweet, sweet purple hands fans were requesting! Hurray! I would've bought him either way, Meteor is leagues above MP-11, but still, this is nice news, they must have gotten quite a few messages and requests about those.

[JB0]

4 hours ago, Kuma Style said:

Really looking forward to the FP Monstructor

Someone's doing Monstructor? Color me surprised.

Not that it is a bad idea, just that it was from a fairly dark time for the franchise and I didn't think anyone was looking for this.

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, JB0 said:

Someone's doing Monstructor? Color me surprised.

Not that it is a bad idea, just that it was from a fairly dark time for the franchise and I didn't think anyone was looking for this.

FansProject is finally getting around to doing a Monstructor version of their Dinoking.  I dunno, I don't want to be too hard on FansProject because they were one of pioneers of the whole 3P thing and one of the few who are still releasing non-MP, non-Legends stuff, but this is too little, too late for me.  Their designs just seem like they're from five years ago.  Their Dinoking wound up getting sold in bundles for huge discounts.  

[slaginpit]

15 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

FansProject is finally getting around to doing a Monstructor version of their Dinoking.  I dunno, I don't want to be too hard on FansProject because they were one of pioneers of the whole 3P thing and one of the few who are still releasing non-MP, non-Legends stuff, but this is too little, too late for me.  Their designs just seem like they're from five years ago.  Their Dinoking wound up getting sold in bundles for huge discounts.  

Wow They are still around. They barely release anything anymore

[technoblue]

23 hours ago, Tking22 said:

MakeToys just announced on Twitter that their upcoming MP Skywarp(Skycrow) will come with both black and the sweet, sweet purple hands fans were requesting! Hurray! I would've bought him either way, Meteor is leagues above MP-11, but still, this is nice news, they must have gotten quite a few messages and requests about those.

I wasn't expecting to pick up any seekers after I sold off my MPs, but once I researched Maketoys Meteor I took another chance. I also picked up the shin/chest parts to add back in the missing toy greebles. And boy did I cave. Hard. Now I have Skycrow and Lightning on order too. I love the engineering and the toon accuracy. It's great that Maketoys is including extra stuff in the retail box, but I'm also glad that there are mod options out there, because I love having choices. 

On a related note, I'm also really into MAAS Toys' take on the Tetra Jets. There goes my plan to keep the number of seekers down to three.

And now for something completely different:

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/73304

I'm liking this Rodimus better than MMC's version. Since I missed MMC's pre-order that's lucky, but *ouch* the price smarts.

Edited April 27, 2018 by technoblue

[mikeszekely]

1 minute ago, technoblue said:

I wasn't expecting to pick up any seekers after I sold off my MPs, but once I researched Maketoys Meteor I took another chance. I also picked up the shin/chest parts to add back in the missing toy greebles. And boy did I cave. Hard. Now I have Skycrow and Lightning on order too. I love the engineering and the toon accuracy. It's great that Maketoys is including extra stuff in the retail box, but I'm also glad that there are mod options out there, because I love having choices. 

On a related note, I'm also really in MAAS Toys' take on the Tetra Jets. There goes my plan to keep the number of seekers down to three.

And now for something completely different:

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/73304

I'm liking this Rodimus better than MMC's version. Since I missed MMC's pre-order that's lucky, but *ouch* the price smarts.

The SXS Rodimus has a thinner, more Nick Roche style than MMC's.  MMC's totally kills it for vehicle mode, though.

[Scyla]

17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

FansProject is finally getting around to doing a Monstructor version of their Dinoking.  I dunno, I don't want to be too hard on FansProject because they were one of pioneers of the whole 3P thing and one of the few who are still releasing non-MP, non-Legends stuff, but this is too little, too late for me.  Their designs just seem like they're from five years ago.  Their Dinoking wound up getting sold in bundles for huge discounts.  

I'm super interested in the Monstructor but I feel like the price is too high. At $250 I would buy it without a second thought. I will probably wait for some reviews and see if it goes on sale around Black Friday.

[Scyla]

3 minutes ago, technoblue said:

I wasn't expecting to pick up any seekers after I sold off my MPs, but once I researched Maketoys Meteor I took another chance. I also picked up the shin/chest parts to add back in the missing toy greebles. And boy did I cave. Hard. Now I have Skycrow and Lightning on order too. I love the engineering and the toon accuracy. It's great that Maketoys is including extra stuff in the retail box, but I'm also glad that there are mod options out there, because I love having choices. 

On a related note, I'm also really into MAAS Toys' take on the Tetra Jets. There goes my plan to keep the number of seekers down to three.

And now for something completely different:

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/73304

I'm liking this Rodimus better than MMC's version. Since I missed MMC's pre-order that's lucky, but *ouch* the price smarts.

But MMCs Rodimus is a joy to transform.

[mikeszekely]

57 minutes ago, Scyla said:

I'm super interested in the Monstructor but I feel like the price is too high. At $250 I would buy it without a second thought. I will probably wait for some reviews and see if it goes on sale around Black Friday.

I think I'm in the same boat.

[JB0]

I have a soft spot for Monstructor. He was my only G1 combiner, and I was old enough to actually read the bios so I appreciated some of that detail(his guys were my introduction to "G1 bios are crazy"). But he was stupid small, and just not very good. 

 

I'm just really not sure I want a new one for the price.

[mikeszekely]

Tonight I'm going to tip my hat to @Kuma Style, because I'm not into Beast Wars and I was seriously thinking about passing on this guy, but Kuma's enthusiasm won me over.  This, then, is Gorilla, Generation Toy's Optimus Primal.

Two things we're going to get out of the way.  First, Gorilla is bigger than the official MP-32/38 Optimus Primal.  I don't know if MP-32 is supposed to be in-scale with MP-10, given how much smaller the Maximals and Predacons were than the Autobots and Decepticons, but Gorilla is the same size as MP-10 or GT's version of Optimus Prime.

Second, unlike MP-32, Gorilla isn't striving for show accuracy.  Instead, the design comes from a book of reimagined Beast Wars and G1 characters with robotic animal alt modes called T-Beast.  And, in robot mode at least, Gorilla is extremely faithful to the T-Beast design.  There's a few spots on the drawing that are a gunmetal color that are left black on Gorilla, but I supposed the gunmetal color could feasibly be shading on the drawing and not intentionally gray, and he's missing some red on the backs of his hands.  His eyes, not that you can tell from the picture, are red instead of yellow (but that actually might be a nod to the cartoon). Gorilla isn't quite as curvy as the art, and his chest protrudes a bit more.  But that's the reality of making a transforming toy and not just drawing one, I'd say.

The point is, I like this design.  Owing to the simplicity of CGI at the time, Optimus Primal's character model was kind of smooth robot biceps and thighs with smooth gorilla parts on his body, arms, and shoulders.  The T-Beast design takes a lot of cues from that version of Primal, but makes the entire thing much more robotic in appearance.  While it's clear from the Beast Wars show that Optimus Primal is a separate entity in the G1/Beast Wars canon, the T-Beast design is almost like it's from a universe where Optimus Prime is Optimus Primal.

Gorilla comes with a pair of swords that seem to be very similar to the ones Primal had in the show, if a bit less curved.  Rather than connect together to make a double-bladed weapon, the blades come off their hilts and attach to a second handle designed to look like the two swords stuck together.  And, if you're not a fan of mouths on characters named Optimus, there's an alternate toy-style mouthplate sans mouth hole, which I'm immediately swapping to.

Gorilla's articulation is good, when he's not getting into his own way.  His head is on a hinged swivel, so he can turn it, look up a ton, and look down a good bit.  The swivel is mounted on another swivel, though, so he can also tilt his head to the sides even though his head isn't on a ball joint.  One thing I don't like here, and I don't know if this is my copy or if they're all like this, but there's a certain range that's unfortunately right around the looking straight ahead position where his head wants to pop down, almost like a ratchet.  Speaking of ratchets, his shoulders rotate on ratchets, and they can move laterally a little over 90 degrees on ratchets.  He's got dedicated forward butterfly joints.  His biceps swivel, and he's got 90 degrees of ratcheted elbow bend.  His wrists can swivel, and they can also bend inward (toward the red part of his forearm).  His thumb is on a ball joint, with one pinned hinge.  His first two fingers are individually articulated, pinned at the base with two additional pinned knuckles.  The other two fingers are molded as one piece, pinned at the base with one more pinned knuckle and a molded curl where the other knuckle would be.  He's got a waist swivel and a ratcheted ab crunch.  His hips can go forward and backward 90 degrees on ratchets, and 90 degrees laterally on stronger ratchets.  His thighs have a swivel, but due to the way his thighs are molded and fit over the hips the range of the swivel is very limited.  His knees are double-jointed, ratcheted at both ends, and good for 130-140 degrees.  His feet can tilt up and down, with a little extra tilt at the toe, and although the pistons on his shins don't actually work when you move his foot they do slide up and down on his shin, which sort of creates the illusion that they work.  Finally, he has ankle pivots, but it's fairly restricted as well.

He holds his swords just fine, eschewing the traditional tab on the handle that goes into a slot on the palm for a very similar peg on the handles that fit peg holes on his palms. The cannons on his shoulders have hinges so they can be aimed up and down.  If you don't want them deployed, it is possible to transform them back into his backpack.  

Speaking of his back, there are tabs on his backpack.  They fit into slots on the blue part of the swords, allowing you to store the swords on his back.  As previously noted, the blades can be removed and fit into a special handle that accommodates both blades.  The peg isn't centered between the blue ends, though, and I think it looks awkward in his hand.  Although the double-blade handle has the same slots as the regular handles the double-bladed weapon is too long to hang on his back.

BTW, if you're wondering how I knew Gorilla's dead eyes are red and not yellow, well, they light up.  The battery isn't included and the instructions don't even mention them, but I had some CR1025 batteries laying around (maybe for the Gigasaur's swords?) and they fit, so there you go.

I don't have any other Optimus Primal toys so I'm not super familiar with a "normal" transformation for Primal.  What I will say is that Gorilla's transformation is pretty clever.  It's pretty obvious that the big squarish center of his chest becomes his gorilla head, minus the flap that folds down over his gorilla crotch.  His gorilla chest unfurls from inside his robot chest.  His backpack doesn't just hide away his shoulder guns, it' unfurls and expands, with the thrusters at the base of his robot back coming down to form his gorilla butt cheeks.  His legs compactify, and his forearms get longer and expose new joints even as his shoulder pads fold down to cover the old ones.  It's one of the more simple tranformations GT has come up with, although you may find yourself needing a tool to push out some panels if your fingers are as fat as mine.

Now, aesthetically the beast mode isn't perfectly T-Beast accurate... his arm is obscuring a lot of his torso, but we can clearly see a black chest and a head that blends into a larger humped back.  Proportionally I think he actually looks a bit more like MP-32 or the cartoon, except instead of an organic gorilla he's a robotic gorilla.  And, I have to say, a huge part of the reason I wasn't interested in Beast Wars in the first place was because I was turned off by the organic alt modes.  If this had been Primal's alt mode in the show I might not have waited over a decade to actually watch it.

For a size comparison I left Op Ex in robot mode, as I think that's a more useful gauge of size against a gorilla than a truck.  If you guys really want to see a gorilla with a truck, though, just let me know.

Gorilla's ape head can look up, but not really down, and it can swivel.  His mouth can open.  His shoulders are identical to his robot mode, and the butterfly joint is extra helpful getting him into a knuckle-walking position.  As I mentioned, his shoulder pad folding down over the bicep locks his robot elbow and bicep swivel, but extending his forearm for ape mode reveals a new bicep swivel just below his robot elbow and single-hinge friction elbow good for 120 degrees or so, exposing some silver-painted mechanical detail in the process.  His wrists and hands are the same.  Properly transformed, with the flap pegged into his crotch and the backpack fully in place to form his gorilla butt does eliminate the ab crunch and waist swivel, but you can unpeg and move them to fake a pose.  Thigh swivel is still limited.  Technically there's nothing locking his hips or knees in place, but too much movement will start to decompress his legs.  Ankle pivot is still limited, but he's still got some up/down tilt on his feet with some additional up/down tilt on the toes.  His big toe/thumb can rotate at the base, and there are a pair of hinges along its length.  It's actually pretty fun getting some gorilla-esque poses in this mode.

Because his gorilla hands are his robot hands, he can still wield his swords in ape mode.  The only catch is that the gorilla elbow bends so that the side of his robot arm, with the wrist guard, would be the back of his arm.  As such he has to hold the sword at an angle so that the pommel can get around his wrist guard.  The tabs on his backpack are still available for storage as well.  And, just like you can store the shoulder guns for robot mode, if you really want to you can deploy them in ape mode (although they don't have a lot of room to get around his head).

I have some issues with Gorilla.  In terms of quality it's not one of GT's better releases.  The plastic, while solid, has a different feeling to it that I don't want to say is objectively worse or cheaper but subjectively feels worse and cheaper.  The black panels on the insides of his thighs keep popping off.  There's no diecast.  If you're really into Beast Wars you might want something smaller and more show accurate, in which case MP-32 is probably already on your shelf.  And all of that is without touching on the controversy around using the T-Beast design in the first place.

Despite his flaws, I'm finding that I'm having more fun with him than, especially in ape mode, than I expected.  He's a great figure if you're looking for something to keep on your desk and mess around with.  And I think I liked the Beast Wars story enough, and I think Optimus Primal is iconic enough, that I'm glad to have a representation with a robotic ape mode instead of an organic one, but that might just be me.  All I can say is that if the design isn't working for you than you can probably pass on this figure without any regrets, but if you like the design then I'd recommend the toy.

[Kuma Style]

... I didn't really like Gorilla at all off the bat. Gave it a 6.5 of ten and an 8.5 post modifications. It can definitely be a good piece but takes some work. I'm an articulation whore and your verbage of "gets in its own way" was a very perfect way of describing what it unfortunately does too much for me.

--------------------------------------

Looks like Iron Factory Cygnus is coming either tomorrow or Monday. Pretty damned excited for it. The interchangeable parts with Optimus are a cool feature.

 

[mikeszekely]

If you're not tired of Optimuses yet, this is Spark Toys Alpha Pack, their version of a War Within Optimus.

Like I just said, this toy is based on Optimus' pre-Earth form seen in Dreamwave's War Within series, and it's very accurate to Don Figueroa's artwork down to the too-large arms and the too-small head.  Seriously, finding discrepancies comes down to nitpicking little things like some gray panels that were red in the comics, or Alpha pack having two little yellow bits on his chest that weren't in the comic.

(Also, is it just me or a lot of Optimuses based on Don's work? There's this, the GT IDW Optimus, some evidence that Don worked on Classics Optimus, and TFC is doing one based on a design Don did for a GI Joe crossover that was never used.)

The toy has a lot of paint apps, including almost all the red parts having a metallic finish.  However, I find his size sort of an odd choice on Spark Toys' part.  At a head smaller than MP-10 (or MP-10-sized figures like Gunfighter II here), he seem a little short next to the other MP-ish Primes on the market.  And yet, he's taller and much bulkier than even a large Voyager like Striker Manus or Planet X's Jupiter, so I don't see him working with CHUGs.

Alpha Pack comes with his ion rifle, an axe, and a Matrix.  The rifle is done in gray instead of the usual black, with an interesting light piping effect.  The axe, which I don't recall him using in the comic, has some blue and silver paint.  The Matrix is a single piece of plastic with gold and blue paint, and far smaller than MP-10's.

Pack's head is on a ball joint so he can tilt his head sideways and look down a little, but he can't look up.  His shoulders rotate on soft ratchets, but he can only move his shoudlers about 45 degrees laterally.  He has a bicep swivel and, due to his transformation, another swivel just below the elbow.  Those elbows, by the way, can bend 90 degrees.  His wrists can swivel.  His thumb is fixed, his index finger is is independently articulated with a pin at the base and a second pinned knuckle mid-finger.  The other fingers are a solid piece, pinned at the base and molded in a curl.  His waist can swivel.  His hips can bend about 45 degrees backward, 60 degrees forward, and 45 degrees laterally, all on ratchets.  His thighs can swivel.  His knees bend just short of 90 degrees on soft ratchets.  His feet can tilt up a little, and his toes can bend down, plus he's got 90 degrees of ankle pivot.  All told, his articulation isn't the best, but I think you have enough to work with.

His weapons use the typical style of having tabs on the handles that fit into slots on his palms.  Both weapons aren't particularly secure, and the axe looks especially odd in his hand without more of the handle coming through the bottom of his fist.  Alternatively, both weapons have peg holes that fit over pegs on his back for storage.  The axe even folds up.

As for the Matrix, there's a little nub inside Pack's chest and a matching divot in the back of the Matrix for it to plug in.

Pack's alt mode is, again, fairly accurate to the source, or at least as accurate as the old Titanium figure.  It doesn't have a trailer like he used in the comics, and his arms with are angled more up than back.  In the comics his red shoulders kind of disappeared, but on the toy they had to go somewhere.  But the position of the arms and shoulders are more or less the same as the Titanium version's. 

Size-wise he's tough to compare with MP-10, because MP-10 does a better job of compatifying.  He's definitely shorter in length and height than Gunfighter II, though.

Again, there's plenty of paint apps on this guy.  There's even some in places you're not going to see often, including silver patches on the underside of the vehicle.   The stars of the show here are the large rubber tires, especially the front wheels.  I'd have maybe liked some paint on the rim to help it stand out more from the tire, but I can't say that it's wrong.  The wheels do roll, and the whole alt mode does give off a nice "runs over Decepticons" vibe.

The back of his rifle has a small flip-out tab.  This tab mates with a slot on the top of the vehicle, allowing his rifle to be stored in alt mode in a fashion similar to the Titanium version.  However, I can't find any place to store his axe.  Considering how awkward it looks to me in robot mode anyway, I'm thinking I'll probably put the axe back in the box and into storage.  The cockpit does open in this mode, although I don't know if it's intentional or just something that was necessary for transformation.  Regardless, they put some effort into creating some molded detail in there, and they even painted it, something they didn't really need to do since that spot is covered in robot mode.

I'm ultimately torn on this guy.  Spark Toys definitely put some love into this figure, and he makes a good (if short) display piece.  Limited articulation, trouble holding his weapons, and trouble keeping his torso tabbed together in robot mode make him a little less fun to handle than I'd like, though.  When I ordered this guy I was originally thinking that I'd pick up Spark Toys' Megatron to go with him, but now I'm not so sure.  I think if you're like me and you have one Detolf with nothing but Primes (or Primals) he's going to look good with them, but I wouldn't really recommend him otherwise.

[tekering]

8 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I find his size sort of an odd choice on Spark Toys' part.  At a head smaller than MP-10 (or MP-10-sized figures like Gunfighter II here), he seem a little short next to the other MP-ish Primes on the market.  And yet, he's taller and much bulkier than even a large Voyager like Striker Manus or Planet X's Jupiter, so I don't see him working with CHUGs.

There have been several awkwardly-scaled Cybertronian figures released over the past several years -- too big for CHUG, and too small for Masterpiece -- and I'm very grateful that Spark Toys has given us an Optimus (and Megatron!) to suit that scale and aesthetic.  

[JB0]

11 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

If you're not tired of Optimuses yet, this is Spark Toys Alpha Pack, their version of a War Within Optimus.

This is now the "Third-party Optimus Primes" thread.

 

If I remember right, the big bot used the axe in War For Cybertron. Though I guess that was a different Optibotimus.

[mikeszekely]

@tekering What Blaster is that? I have the KFC one coming...

6 hours ago, JB0 said:

This is now the "Third-party Optimus Primes" thread.

No more from me... at least until TFC or Unique Toys'.

 

6 hours ago, JB0 said:

If I remember right, the big bot used the axe in War For Cybertron. Though I guess that was a different Optibotimus.

Yes, but also yes. And G1 Prime has his Energon Axe, so it's not without precedent. I just don't recall that particular Options having that particular axe.

[tekering]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

What Blaster is that?

That's Transformer Legends LG27, Broadblast.  He doesn't fit the Masterpiece aesthetic nearly as well as KFC's, but he's too big for CHUG... as are the War For Cybertron Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, Legends Topspin and Twin Twist, and GCreation's "Rebel," which is why I'm so happy to have a cool pre-Earth Optimus to scale with the rest of 'em.   

[JB0]

8 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Yes, but also yes. And G1 Prime has his Energon Axe, so it's not without precedent. I just don't recall that particular Options having that particular axe.

It just looks really familiar, but I can't place it.

[mikeszekely]

On 5/4/2018 at 10:53 AM, mikeszekely said:

I have the KFC one coming...

Since I mentioned it, this is KFC's Transistor, their version of an MP Blaster.

Heads up, before we start, there are two versions of this figure going around.  This version is the red plastic version.  There's another version where all the red is a metallic paint.  I have no idea if there's any other differences.  From what I've seen the metallic paint looked gorgeous, but was apparently very prone to chipping.

At a glance, KFC definitely appears to have made a Blaster to match with MP-13.  To be sure, there's some deviations from the G1 toy or the cartoon model.  The most obvious his that he doesn't have the big, angled hips of the cartoon, although KFC did paint red lines on the hip skirts in a vaguely evocative fashion.  The buttons on his chest have been moved down to his abs, too.  This changes his proportions a bit, and makes them more dynamic.  The rest is a matter of little details, like the yellow triangles on his shoulders (sort of simplified sticker detail, I guess), the yellow marks on his chest (they seem to have made that up entirely), some silver on his knees (made up), and some yellow on his shins (sticker detail, but should be silver).  He's got more red on the sides of his lower legs than he strictly needs, too, but it's largely a necessity due to how he transforms.  That's also the excuse for the extra panels folded up on his forearms.  Not really sure about the bumps on his collar, though.  His arms also have an odd design in that, when his arm is perfectly straight, his forearm is a little behind his bicep, and it looks like there's a joint that's angled back a little.  That's not the case, though.  In any case, as of this writing Transistor is probably the most cartoon-accurate Blaster you can get (although I do still have a soft spot for Unique Toys' smaller Soundmixer figure).

You get quite a few accessories with Transistor.  There's an alternate toy/Marvel comics-style head, a cassette and a purple cassette case, two gold speakers, two tiny gold blasters, two large rifles, and a bag with two alternate heads for the cassette, and alternate light-piped eyes for the cartoon head.  The rifles' butts can fold down, and their barrels can be removed.  More on that in a bit.  They seem to be very G1-accurate, down the toy-style holes in them.

The cassette, which the instructions name as Hi-Fi, is a sort of Masterpiece Rewind.  He's the same size as MP Rumble or Frenzy, and like the Decepticon tapes one side is painted to look like a cassette while the other is left alone so as not to mess with his robot looks.  Looks, by the way, that are pretty fine.  I mean, if you saw him on a shelf next to the Decepticon tapes you probably wouldn't think twice about him being there, although a closer look would probably have you thinking that the face is a little muddy.  The default face seems to be based on the cartoon.  The ones in the little bag are G1 toy and IDW, both of which I think look better, although only the default head has paint on the back to match the cassette label.  Personally, I'm going to swap the head out for the toy-style head.  It's super easy to do... the neck is just a little post, and the head slides right off.  Indeed, the head slides off far too easily. 

Hi-Fi's head swivels on its post, and you can use the transformation joint to tilt his head up.  His shoulders are on hinges in his torso for lateral movement and can do 90 degrees, and they can swivel without any issue. A ball joint inside the shoulder pad gives him his bicep swivel as well as another 90 degrees of lateral motion.  His elbows are double jointed and can nearly curl 180 degrees.  His wrists can swivel.  No waist articulation, but his thighs can swivel.  His hips can move about 45 degrees laterally, then they're weirdly double-jointed for forward and backward motion so he can get something like 150-160 degrees.  His knees can bend well over 90 degrees.  His ankles are ball joints that allow for swivels, lots of downward tilt, slight upward tilt, and pivots.  His guns peg very securely into his fists.  His big issue (aside from his head being rather loose) is that his shoulder joints are pretty loose.  I think, depending on what I paid, I probably wouldn't recommend Hi-Fi were he a standalone figure, but as an accessory for Transistor he's fine.

As for Transistor, his head is on a hinged swivel so it can rotate as well as look up and down a little.  You can cheat a little more upward tilt by moving the flap his head is on like you were transforming it.  In fact, you might anyway because it doesn't really lock down.  His ears also swivel in and out.  His shoulders rotate and can extend laterally a hair over 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel.  Although his elbows almost look double-jointed there's just a single bend good for 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel.  His hands are, of course, KFC hands, so each finger and the thumb are individually-articulated and have ball joints at the base plus two additional knuckle hinges.  Generally speaking I'm not a fan of KFC hands, but comparing Transistor to a more recent release like Paean makes me think that their ability to make hands has gone downhill, because Transistor's aren't too bad.  The thumb's a little loose, but the other fingers seem adequate and they haven't fallen apart or gotten caught up on anything while transforming him.  Moving along, his waist swivels.  His front hip skirts fold up to allow for about 60 degrees forward and 45 degrees backward on ratchets.  He could actually go farther forward than that, but it's not far enough to click the ratchet again and the leg will quickly drop back to where it did click.  Lateral motion is also ratcheted, and the six clicks from straight to nearly 90 degrees is enough that he doesn't jump right into a wide A-stance.  His thighs swivel, a little too loosely for my tastes.  Ratcheted knees bend a little over 90 degrees.  His feet can tilt up just a hair, down as far as you want, and pivot a little over 45 degrees.  All told, I have no issues with his articulation.  His guns have tabs on the handles that fit into slots on the palms, MP-style, and compare to other KFC/XTB stuff I have he actually holds his guns quite securely.

Folding in the hands reveals pegs on the other side, and the speakers fit onto those pegs, allowing you to recreate that one scene from that one episode.  Swapping heads is a little more involved.  You have to remove the screw, then the head breaks up into four pieces (front, back, face, eyes).  This is also how you'd swap the eyes, which I don't recommend because, like most light-piped MP-style toys, the eyes are pretty dead unless you have a strong light source behind him.  The toy-style head is just two pieces, though.  This means that the blue eyes aren't compatible with it.  Aside from yellow eyes, the toy-style face uses silver instead of white, with more sharply defined cheeks and a more expressive mouth.  It's a real shame that KFC didn't make the cartoon-style face look that good.  Even though I think the toy-style head looks a lot better, it's not cartoon-accurate enough for me to leave it on him.

Transistor turns into a boombox. While MP-13's transformation is similar to the G1 toy, just with extra folding panels to fill it out a bit, Transistor is almost a shell former.  Instead of tucking his arms in and wrapping his legs up around them his arms slide backward, behind the legs, and panels unfurl from his legs, arms, and back to fill in the space between limbs and torso.  It is interesting how his shins flip around to hide the detail near his ankle and expose fake folded-up feet, though.  From the front, it's hard to argue with the results as it does very much look like Blaster.  It also adds some thickness to the alt mode, with panels on the sides that are done up to look like a power button, volume knob, and balance knob on one side and equalizer sliders, a microphone jack, and a headphone jack on the other.  The unfurled panels even have the dark semi-circles near the cassette door seen in the cartoon.  Really, the only issues I'd cite are that the molded trapezoids with the molded triangles on them on the silver at the bottom should absolutely have been painted red to match either the cartoon or the toy, with the triangles being yellow if you want to match the toy, the fact that the handle at the top should be wider, with the base of the handle connecting over the faux feet, and that the handle itself should only be black in the middle.

Pushing the last button on your right (his left) pops open the cassette door.  Much like MP-13 the back wall can be pushed back so you can fit more tapes inside, and it's spring loaded to push them out.  Hi-Fi fits inside no problem, as do the official Decepticon MP cassettes.  In fact, they fit better in Transistor than in MP-13, where they'd often get caught up.  As with MP-13 this feature does work in robot mode as well, I just decided to save it for the alt mode.  One minor quibble would be that if KFC did sliding back wall in gray, either by plastic or paint, it's show through the translucent window as slightly more cartoon accurate.

Transistor has storage for his guns in alt mode, but you pretty much have to decide that you're going to do it before you get too far along transforming him.  Backtracking will require you to go back halfway to robot mode.  The barrels of the guns slide into molded vertical peg holes on the small of his back.  The rest of the gun folds up and stores on the unfurled back flap by pushing the hole in the gun over a peg on the flap then tucking it neatly into the hollow space inside.  Those pegs are exposed on his back in robot mode, so technically if you unfold the flap just a little, so it makes a triangular gap between it and the rest of his back instead of hugging against his back you can use it to store his gun in robot mode as well.

One of the beefs I had with Soundmixer was that from the front he looked great, but the back and bottom were a little unfinished.  It's a little disappointing that despite the greater degree of panel origami Transistor has similar problem.s  His back isn't too bad, as long as you don't mind the dark gray plastic of his biceps peaking out, especially with the tops of his guns filling in the trapezoidal gaps at the bottom.  But the underside is arguably worse, still exposing the robot thighs but adding more hollow spaces, including a very large, very empty space left by his crotch after it splits.  On the one hand, I don't think a lot of people are going to pose him without the ground he's sitting on covering up that unfinished bottom, so I don't think it's the end of the world, but on the other hand it makes me question whether all that panel-unfurling shellforming was really necessary.

I guess the only thing left to talk about is KFC's reputation, which is that they make junk.  Transistor feels like lesser quality than something you might get from Takara, MMC, Fans Toys, Maketoys, etc.  Now, I'm not an expert on plastic.  I don't have any stress marks anywhere, nothing feels fragile, and I don't feel like anything is going to break while I'm handling him (which is actually more than I can say for some FansToys' stuff I've looked at), but it does feel subjectively lighter or less dense.  There's no diecast, and he's not real heavy when you pick him up.

Subjective feelings about plastic aside, the paint on him is good where applied.  Aside from his thigh swivels and the ball joints on his thumbs none of his joints feel too tight or too loose.  I don't have trouble getting him to hold a gun or hold a pose.  Aesthetically he looks like he fits in with the other MPs, especially Soundwave.  Based on his transformation, his bland cartoon face, and the handful of minor aesthetic matters like his hips and the proportions of his torso, it's not hard for me to imagine that a company like Takara, FansToys, or Maketoys could come in and make a better MP Blaster.  The thing is, the differences I'd imagine them making wouldn't be major, earth-shattering differences the way I think something like Maketoys' Meteor blows MP-11 out of the water, they'd be pretty minor things that would make the difference between a good figure and a great one.  And that's where we really are here; Transistor is a good figure, maybe even a very good one.  He's the kind of figure that I think most people could buy, put on their shelf, cross MP Blaster off their list and be perfectly content, even if nothing better ever comes along.  And let's face it, MP-13 is five years old.  Transistor originally came out three-ish years ago.  He really might be as good as it gets for Blaster.  Recommend.

[M'Kyuun]

As a cassette fan, I think KFC did an excellent job design-wise on Hi-fi. It fits perfectly next to MP Rumble, which was also a really well done cassette figure. That's about the highest praise I can give it. Alas, KFC does have a bit of a poor reputation, and from your description, there are some joint issues with Hi-fi, which is really disappointing. I would have been sold on looks alone. As for Transistor, I've never really been much of a Blaster fan, but I have to say KFC did well here. It looks good, and the addition of a very MP looking Autobot cassette is proverbial icing.

 

Saw this over on TFW2005 and thought it too cool not to share http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/05/04/maketoys-cross-dimension-mtcd-05-buster-skywing-jetfire-skyfire-prototype-images-363379

As much as I like my Phoenix for all his huge boxy G1 self, Maketoy's design is inspired, both figuratively and literally. If you're going to pick a more realistic, yet fictional, alt for a Skyfire redesign, you could do much worse than a Quinjet. Given the new alt, I think they did a nice job capturing the main points of Skyfire's bot mode while still creating a custom look. It's one of the more interesting TF related things that's grabbed my attention recently, so thought I'd post it.

I've been anticipating early reviews for Fanstoys Rouge (Arcee), as it looks amazing to me ( I'm guessing it's mostly a shell-former, and her chest is a cheat, as the front of the car actually becomes her back. I can live with both if the quality is there). Disappointing that no-one seems to have scored an early review copy. I'm holding off on a PO until a few reputable reviewers chime in in the positive.

 

 

Edited May 6, 2018 by M'Kyuun

[technoblue]

For all its G1 accuracy, I couldn't get into FT-10 Phoenix, which is saying a lot since it is regarded as one of FansToys' best releases. That's not really a criticism of the figure, it's more of an admission that I'm not a fan of Jetfire's G1 look. I think FansToys added some interesting accents with the metallic red, but it wasn't enough to get me to buy in.

I'm really excited to see Maketoys apply their Cross Dimensions creativity to more characters. Doing everything Optimus for a while was fun, but it will be nice to have someone other than Megatron to pose with all the multi-verse Optimi. Skywing looks to be a definite pre-order, but I really want to see the final color scheme. Will MT go G1-ish or will they change it up somewhat? That is something I'm very curious about.

FT-24 is something of a mixed bag for me. I think Rouge is the best looking G1 Arcee we have to date. The figure poses well, and has a very user-friendly face swap mechanism. If having a movie shelf/diorama is to your liking, she will be a star. The figure is not what I would call fun to transform though, and there are QC issues, especially with the fitment of the diecast chest pieces to the diecast abdomen. After a few back and forth transformations, I'm left wondering why Rouge has so much diecast, actually. I think she would have benefited from less, but what do I know? 

The paint flaking/rubbing on the chest pieces is the most frustrating thing out of the box. It appears that the larger chest piece (which comes pre-installed) has different tolerances than the more angular toon chest piece. Neither piece really connects to the white tabs on front of the abdomen all that well. The larger chest does a better job, but isn't 100% secure (and can come undone if you try to pose Rouge's head without holding things in place. The toon chest will often not connect at all, and forcing it to do so will cause some serious paint damage due to friction.

The body of the car is mostly tucked up away in her pylons, so in that sense she is a shell-former, but I don't take FansToys to task for that. The way everything is tucked into those pylons is clever, if convoluted. I recommend being careful with the parts the first time you transform Rouge back and forth from bot to alt to bot. Tucking everything back in for bot mode can be especially challenging if you don't note how things were oriented to begin with.

There are some other things to note: Bot mode doesn't have many tabs to secure pieces (the pylons float on her back and are poseable, for instance), but alt mode has a bunch of tabs to keep her future-car shape. Some of the smaller tabs are easy to miss. Again, those chest pieces are an annoyance here. Two tabs connect the bot chest to the trunk/bonnet of the car. Once you have that piece together, it slots into the cockpit/cabin area. If this second step is missed it will keep the front of the car from looking flush.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give Rouge a 7. She looks good, but she requires modification to fix some issues. Even if you are lucky to have a copy with no issues, I think the way FansToys uses diecast parts here does get in the way of a fun transformation. I'm looking forward to MMC's Ocular Max take on Azalea, and if Takara ever decides to do an official MP Arcee I would also be interested in seeing their take on her. In short, Rouge is okay but she clearly doesn't take the throne.

Edited May 6, 2018 by technoblue

[tekering]

9 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I've been anticipating early reviews for Fanstoys Rouge (Arcee), as it looks amazing to me ( I'm guessing it's mostly a shell-former, and her chest is a cheat, as the front of the car actually becomes her back. I can live with both if the quality is there). Disappointing that no-one seems to have scored an early review copy.

No one, it seems, except technoblue...

Oh, and Toy Dojo.

[mikeszekely]

9 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I've been anticipating early reviews for Fanstoys Rouge (Arcee), as it looks amazing to me ( I'm guessing it's mostly a shell-former, and her chest is a cheat, as the front of the car actually becomes her back. I can live with both if the quality is there). Disappointing that no-one seems to have scored an early review copy. I'm holding off on a PO until a few reputable reviewers chime in in the positive.

Do I count as reputable?  I should have her in hand next weekend.  I'll be fair with her, but early reports are making me glad MMC is still working on one.

14 minutes ago, tekering said:

No one, it seems, except technoblue...

Oh, and Toy Dojo.

That's because she's hit retail, and depending on where you ordered from and where you live people are starting to get their hands on her.  My copy came in Wednesday or Thursday, in fact, but it takes about a week for TFSource to UPS stuff to me when I use the free shipping.

If you've seen reviews for Lupus by guys like Emgo or Bobby Skullface you'll notice that they had issues with the cockpit staying in place in wolf mode.  This was apparently an issue with the review copies that were sent out.  This issue was apparently corrected before Lupus went to retail.  I don't know if it was the issue itself or the fact that the issue was fixed before retail but wasn't communicated well, but FansToys apparently decided to stop sending out review samples.

[technoblue]

 I think @M'Kyuun is looking for a good video review, and they are delayed given what Mike noted above. My review is more of an in-hand user review. I don’t know if that is reputable or not, but I do consider it legitimate since I paid for the toy and have been messing with it this weekend.  At the bare minimum, I like to think that I can pronounce Rouge as rouge instead of rogue, but that is better left to the grammar police—a job I abstain from outside of work.

As always, my opinions are my own and your mileage may vary. 

[M'Kyuun]

Cheers to Tekering for the Toy Dojo link, as well as the heads up, Technoblue for your much appreciated (and totally legit ) review, and to Mike, whose reviews are always welcome, and who has certainly earned a reputable status, especially on this forum. Humble thanks to all of you. 

Having read Technoblue's review above, and following that up with Toy Dojo's, I'm feeling a sad sense of disappointment with Rouge. I think the final modes are both well done, but that transformation seems over-complex. Moreover, stuff like those wheels being a PITA to get and keep in position for car mode, as well as other such niggles, just don't really give me good feelings about Rouge. I have my fill of fiddly and PITA transformation with X-Transbot's Eligos, even though , like Rouge, the bot and alt modes are great. Just as well, I think there's gotta be a simpler way to realize Arcee's modes with a less fiddly transformation, but without resorting to the shellformation of the Generations figure. That said, I'll keep my options open for now, esp if MMC are doing a version. I like their takes on Mirage and Trailbreaker, so I look forward to see what they come up with.

Again, thanks aplenty to you guys for making this forum such a user-friendly place, for your insights, for sharing info, and just for being good people. Cheers!

 

Edit:  I was aware of talk about MMC doing a G1 Arcee figure, but I hadn't actually seen pics until this morning (they've been out there since February, so I'm way behind the curve). Anyway, my initial impression is that it's decent, although the way her back packs attach doesn't look right (looks like lower back instead of shoulder, or shoulder blades), and her lower legs have an odd stacked appearance due to their folding on themselves for transformation. Still, overall, I think it's a nice looking figure in both modes (unlike ToyWorld's, she has a fully realized car mode like FT's). So between FT's, which I find the more striking aesthetically between the two, and MMC's, I think I'll wait to see what folks have to say about it in hand. Pictures, even ones that really present a figure in a strong light, can be deceptive, as most of you know.

Edited May 7, 2018 by M'Kyuun