The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[Kuma Style]

Got the full review up for Iron Factory's IF EX-28 Burning Slug. http://kumastyledesigns.com/iron-factory-burning-slug-review/

 

Burning Slug is a very straightforward piece in that it's well-done per Iron Factory's high standards but unlike the recently released Cygnus doesn't do anything that really changes the game. The review on site gives it a full break down and here are a few pics from the gallery:

 

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

5 hours ago, Kuma Style said:

Got the full review up for Iron Factory's IF EX-28 Burning Slug. http://kumastyledesigns.com/iron-factory-burning-slug-review/

 

Burning Slug is a very straightforward piece in that it's well-done per Iron Factory's high standards but unlike the recently released Cygnus doesn't do anything that really changes the game. The review on site gives it a full break down and here are a few pics from the gallery:

 

 

I love the picture in front of Bruticus.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Hikaru Ichijo SL

[Kuma Style]

Thank you, friend.

[mikeszekely]

These guys came in Tuesday, but I've been really busy lately.  Better late then never, eh?  This would be Lashlayer, UT's ridiculously-named Blast Off (so ridiculously-named that I'm going to stick to calling him Blast Off).

Now, the complaint I've been hearing the most is that Swindle and Brawl were really G1 cartoon accurate and that Blast Off isn't.  I don't think that's exactly true, though... in their separate reviews I talked about where and how Swindle and Brawl weren't totally cartoon accurate, just a lot closer than previous attempts.  And I think that's true for Blast Off, too.  I mean, he's got the landing gear on his shins.  He's got the curved "my forearms are made of cockpit" forearms.  He's got the purple panel in the middle of his chest with the trio of black ovals.  That purple is flanked by some black paneling, although it could have been wider.  He's got the forehead crest of the cartoon.  And, best of all, he eschews the purple toy torso for a more cartoon gray.

Of course, like the others, the cartoon accuracy isn't perfect.  His chest is a little too wide, and the bottoms of his pecs have translucent windows that fill in for molded vents on the original toy.  His large shoulder pads are a departure from the cartoon's simple blocks... they're oddly reminiscent of Warbotron's version, if you ask me.  But mostly, I think the biggest problem is the colors, which are sort of muted or washed out.  The gray on his legs and torso should be nearly black.  The browns should be a dark near-olive and dark chocolate, not this pale grayish-brown and extra creamy milk chocolate.

Oh, and he's got feet.  But...

You can spin then 180 degrees and he can totally have cartoon-style booster feet.  They've got some silver in them that's not entirely accurate, but I kind of dig that.  The booster feet are a little smallish, but I think they actually work better.  His legs are kind of heavy, and the boosters don't work as well as heel spurs.  I was having trouble keeping the feet flat.  But rotated around, the feet provide lots of support for heel spurs and the round boosters look fine even if they're not totally flat.

On the subject of aesthetic options the shoulder pads are on a pin, so you can have them close to his arms or flared out like the Warbotron version.

Anyway... Blast Off comes with few accessories.  He's got a gun, a combined-mode hand, a set of painted red eyes, and a cockpit.  The eyes are replacement's for the ones already in the combined mode head.  Now, some people are saying that they got some loose in the box, and some people are saying they didn't get them at all.  Apparently UT is saying that that the painted eyes are a random gift, and you may or may not get them.  All I can tell you is that mine where in the bag with the instructions. 

Blast Off's head is on a hinged swivel, and he can look up or down about 30 degrees.  His shoulders rotate, and they can ratchet laterally a little under 90 degrees.  The shoulder is assembly is nominally pegged into the torso, but you can unplug it and use a friction joint for transformation to increase the lateral range to nearly 180 degrees.  His biceps swivel.  He's got double-jointed elbows that get him 150-ish degrees.  His wrists can swivel, and his fingers are pinned at the base knuckle with the index finger being separate from the rest.  His waist can swivel, and due to his combined mode he can bend his torso to his left.  His waist can swivel.  His legs can move forward 90 degrees and backward nearly that much on a ratchet, although getting the full forward range means you have to move the entire front of his pelvis since his hip skirts aren't separately hinged.  Squeaky friction joints get him 90 laterally at the hips.  His thighs swivel over the hips, which limits them a bit but still gives him a very natural range and looks better than a thigh cut.  His knees bend nearly 90 degrees; it's just a small tab on the backs of his legs that prevents them from going the full 90.  His toes, weather you're using the feet or the boosters, can tilt up and down a little, plus a dedicated hinge gives him 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

Although it looks a little big for him, Blast Off holds his gun just fine.

As for the extra cockpit, there's nowhere for it to really go in robot mode.  If you leave it in the same place as alt mode it prevents a hinge from allowing the cockpit to fold onto his back.  Best I could come up with was fitting it around the hinge for the nose and hooking the top over his backpack, then using tension from the nose to hold it in place.  It'll stay, but it's not secure.

Speaking of cockpits, there's his alt mode.  The stubby wings are actually accurate to both cartoon and G1 toy.  One again, the big problem is really color.  Again, the lighter gray on the wings should really be almost black, and the dark lavender should be more closer to the rich purple of an eggplant.  For cartoon accuracy the black and brown on the nose should be flipped, although this pattern is necessary for brown forearms in robot mode and still toy-accurate.  The biggest problem is the two browns clashing.  It's not totally inaccurate for there two be two browns, but the lighter brown should only be aroudn the boosters, not the back half of the fuselage.  The black painted windows on the cockpit don't exactly match the purple of the cartoon and toy, but black does make them stand out against the purple.  The shape is a little different.  In the cartoon it was one solid window, and the G1 toy looked like it was intended to be solid but was broken by a seam.  It's almost like Unique Toys decided to treat the toy's seam as a split and painted the window as two panes.

Aside from color, my biggest gripe with the shuttle mode would be all the seems and gaps around the cockpit.  This is easily remedied by dropping in the extra cockpit piece.  Not only does it fill in the gap, but it gives the cockpit area a more realistic appearance.  Just be warned, before putting the cockpit on him you might want to take a file and file down all the inside edges on the cockpit piece.  Tolerances on Blast Off are a little off.  In fact, I also filed down a few tabs and the inside surfaces of his shoulder pads.

On other little gripe... his booster feet are the only engine exhausts on the shuttle, which puts him three short of an actual space shuttle.  Granted, he could arguably be a fictional military spaceplane given the fact that he's a Combaticon, but it still looks very odd (especially with the flared spaces for boosters on the fuselage) and I don't think it's cartoon accurate.

Anyway... he does have working landing gear with rolling wheels, although the rear landing gear have a tendency to fold back in.  The instructions suggest plugging his gun into the top of the shuttle, but the hole is slightly too wide and the gun spins loosely in there.  A peg under the shuttle works a bit better, although I'd guess that peg is maybe meant for a flight stand.

Blast Off is by no means perfect.  In fact, he's kind of frustrating because my biggest complaints, the colors and the tolerances, are things that could have been fixed.  That said, the transformation is pretty pleasant, his articulation is good, and for all his flaws he's closer to the cartoon than the competition.  I like him.  I think the only thing that's holding me back from giving him a full recommend is that I'm a big Combaticon fan, and while this Blast Off is closer than efforts like Fansproject's, Warbotron's, or Zeta's, I'd still really like to see another company take a stab at them and really get it right.  Unique Toys' Blast Off is good.  For some people that's good enough, and if you think you'll like him then go ahead and get him.  If you expect a great Blast Off, though, this one isn't quite there.

[M'Kyuun]

At least in shape, and with that forward fuselage add-on, they achieved a well shaped shuttle that looks closer to the real thing than many competitors. Shame they didn't give it the third main engine bell and OMS. Colors aside, it would have made him feel 'complete'.

My interest lies more in how Magic Square's MP Optimus is going to compare to TT's V3. From pics, it already looks like it's going to clean up better in bot mode, and aside from having a chunky back end, makes for a lovely truck mode as well. If the V3 ends up being kibbly and way overcomplicated to achieve its bland bot mode, I may go with MS. Very curious to see reviews of this guy.

[Kuma Style]

So tomorrow BadCube's Sideswipe and Red Alert come but of course it's a day where I'm not going to be around until a bit later. Gotta' love it.

[M'Kyuun]

Curious to see those guys, too. If you've got them coming or plan to get them, Kuma, I'm looking forward to your review. Sorry to hear you'll be delayed, though. Been there. 

I'm wondering if TT are going to go back and do an update, since Sideswipe feels dated next to his shiny new bro in all his articulated glory. Honestly, though I wouldn't mind an update, there are so many characters I'd rather see TT do that haven't yet received official MP treatment. Jazz and Hound top my list.

[Kuma Style]

Yea. I'm doing some job trainings this week in a whole other city so it puts things in a whack hobby-wise... and I feel like Takara will certainly be anouncing a "redo" but the original still looks fine in the sense that it's a great toy homage; just horrible when put next to the new toon-accurate direction.

[mikeszekely]

Rounding out the Unique Toys "Stellar Warriors" (aka Combaticons), we have Rage Winterchill, the ridiculously-yet-awesomely named Vortex.

Vortex, much like Blast Off, skews more toward the cartoon than the toy but isn't quite perfect.  The most immediate thing is that he's mostly gray, including his head, eschewing the blue head and purple torso adorned with red and gold stickers the G1 toy sported.  Likewise, the blue on his legs and chest are more of a steel blue than the G1 toy's turquiose.  Of course, it's not just the colors.  Vortex has the little guns on his forearms (although they could have used some blue), the little intake above the blue on his chest, two dark molded circles on his chest, intakes on his shoulders, dark patches on his shins where the copter windows are, and wheels on his heels.

Due to sharing some engineering with Blast Off he's got the same overly-broad torso and even some shoulder pads, though.  His forearms also lack the cartoon's round shape because they're made of the copter's tail.  His left arm even has the tail rotor hanging off the back of his forearm.  Those nose of the copter is split and just chilling on the sides of his legs.  And I'd have liked more gray on his pelvis.

Note that while I have his rotor blades arranged in a cartoon-style X as best I can Unique Toys actually means for them to fold up sort of like movie Blackout's.  I don't have a problem with that in theory, but in practice the pins that hold the blades on are pretty loose.  I have the strongest pointed up and the floppiest resting against his packpack, but I'll probably glue them into a permanent X.

It's also worth pointing out that the intakes on his shoulders is a bit of partsforming, as they're moved from his back and tabbed onto his shoudlers.  If you're against that sort of thing you can leave them on his back, though.  The little forearm guns are also removeable, but as you'll see later it's not necessary for his transformation.

Since they're removable, should we count the forearm guns and the shoulder intakes as accessories?  Additionally, he also gomes with a combined-mode hand, a large gun, a pair of smaller guns, and another painted eye replacement for the combined-mode head.  Again, mine was in the bag with the instructions, others have reported loose ones or not receiving any at all, UT says the eyes are a random gift, so if you should purchase Vortex you may or may not find them in the box.

With similar engineering, Vortex's articulation is basically the same as Blast Off's.  His head is on a hinged swivel, and he can look up or down about 30 degrees.  His shoulders rotate, and they can ratchet laterally a little under 90 degrees.  Unlike Blast Off his shoulders don't tab into the torso, so the transformation hinge is even easier to use as a friction joint to increase the lateral range to nearly 180 degrees.  His biceps swivel.  He's got single-jointed elbows, but they still get him 150-ish degrees.  His wrists can swivel, and his fingers are pinned at the base knuckle with the index finger being separate from the rest.  His waist can swivel, and due to his combined mode he can bend his torso to his right.  His waist can swivel.  His legs can move forward 90 degrees and backward nearly that much on a very soft, almost non-functional ratchet.  As with Blast Off, getting the full forward range means you have to move the entire front of his pelvis since his hip skirts aren't separately hinged.  Squeaky friction joints get him 90 laterally at the hips.  His thighs swivel over the hips, which limits them a bit but still gives him a very natural range and looks better than a thigh cut.  His knees bend the full 90 degrees since the backs of his legs don't have the same tabs Blast Off does.  Due to transformation he has another swivel below the knee, should you want to make use of it.  His toes and heels can bend down, and a hinge gives him 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

Well, the intakes tab into his shoulders fine, but I'm sorry to say that he can't hold his weapons well at all.  The guns spin around fairly freely in his hands; I was barely able to get them in place for this photo.  A slight vibration would knock them loose.  Meanwhile, his forearm guns are even looser.  You can see in this picture that I wasn't even able to keep the one on his left wrist in place for the photo as the barrel would immediately droop toward the ground.  Should you decide you don't want them on his forearms there are small peg holes on both the sides and the top of his guns that they fit into.

The larger gun has a handle with tabs on it that fit into the hands of Unique Toy's Onslaught.  The ratchet joints in his shoudlers will support it if he you want him in a firing pose, but it's a little too heavy for the friction joints in his elbows.

Vortex's alt mode is a helicopter that's a bit more realistic than either the G1 cartoon or the G1 toy (although if it's supposed to be a real helicopter I couldn't tell you what it is).  And yet, it's not really that far off from the cartoon.  It's missing the blue stripes, and the second gray tone, but I have no idea how they'd work that in without them being visible in robot mode.  The front of the copter has more realistic molded and painted windows than the single wrap-around window on the cartoon, but it's still black (in this case, dark translucent) on gray.  He's still got a row of (painted) windows down the side, and another on his tail. The engine housing lacks the scoop of the cartoon, but again strikes me as more realistic, but it does have the intakes on the side.  You can even upeg them and turn them around, setting them a little further back and pointing the black ends backward.

As I alluded to earlier, if you leave the forearm guns pegged into his wrists they'll lie along the tail in coptor mode.  Again, they should probably be blue, but this placement on the tail is cartoon accurate.  Tehcnically toy accurate toy, if they were way bigger.  That does leave Vortex missing the gun on his nose, though.

You can, sort of, mimic that look by removing the guns from the tail and plugging them into the copter's chin.  Unfortunately, you can't get just one symmetrically on the nose, though, and that does leave him missing the tail guns.

Vortex's hand held weapons can be used in this mode as well.  Using some hinges you can bend the guns around and plug them into the sides of the coptor, forming wings with mounted rocket launchers similar to an Apache's.  Honestly, I'm not keen on the look, though.  I feel like Unique Toys would have been better off if they'd just given Vortex a single blue rifle that could have fit between the legs/halves of the cockpit area with just the barrel sticking out of the nose.

Blast Off and Vortex both felt like they were rushed out, perhaps to complete their Bruticus before Zeta did.  Between the two, though, I definitely feel like Vortex suffered worse for it.  Like Blast Off I had to file down some tabs that were way too tight, and even then I still have a little gap between the halves of his nose.  But the thing is, a little tight is easy to fix with a file and some patience.  Vortex has the opposite problem, with guns and copter blades that are far too loose.  It was difficult to keep them in place for photographs.  They're so loose that I'm not sure how well floor polish is going to work, which is why I'm thinking about glueing the rotors.  To make matters worse, one of the ends on the central piece of the main rotor is bent so the blade pinned into it is always drooping, although that may be a YMMV sort of thing.  Another YMMV thing to worry about is breakage.  I've been pretty careful with mine, making sure to hold him by the midsection, but I've heard of a couple people ripping him in half at the waist trying to pull out the extending section for transformation.  The struts for the landing gear are also fairly thin and I know of at least one person who broke theirs.

Poor QC makes me even more hesitant to recommend Vortex than I was with Brawl.  And yet, despite the QC and despite the liberties taken with the design this is still the most cartoon-accurate Vortex you can buy right now, and if a cartoon-accurate Vortex is a must for your collection this is your best option.

[JB0]

Is there a reason UT used World of Warcraft names for everyone? Also, I gotta say I like not-Blastoff's shuttle mode.

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, JB0 said:

Is there a reason UT used World of Warcraft names for everyone?

I assumed someone there is a fan of the game?  If there's more to it than that I'm not privy to it.

Anyway, no point putting this off, since the combined modes are what people are usually in for.  Behold, Ragnaros, Unique Toys' Bruticus.

Out of the gate, there's a temptation to say that Ragnaros is more toy accurate than cartoon.  I mean, he's got a big silver chest plate over a blue torso and blue thighs, with gray feet.  Technically, you could even turn his left forearm and wrist each 180 degrees and have Vortex with his wheels pointed away from Ragnaros' body.  However, there's a lot of differences, too.  Obviously, even though you could turn the forearm 180 degrees, this is the official transformation for Vortex in arm mode.  Rangaros' shoulder runs into the bottom of Blast Off, not the top.  The front of Brawl's tank mode doesn't fold over; technically, the bottom of the tank is at the ankle, the back of the tank is at the knee, and the turret is rotated 180 degrees.  And Swindle is sort of inverted vs the toy, with the top facing forward and the front facing down.  And he's a jeep!  Plus the feet, while not as stylized as Warbotron's, are still stylized and actually narrower than the vehicles above them.

Slightly stylized, not quite the toy, not quite the cartoon.  It'd be easy to write Ragnaros off as pleasing no one aesthetically, but I actually think the result is very pleasing.  Compared to Warbotron or the Combiner Wars version Ragnaros has a somewhat streamlined form.  You can still see that he's made up from a jeep, a tank, a helicopter, a space shuttle, and (kind of) a truck, but there's not a lot of kibble.  He doesn't have chunks of Onslaught around his collar.  He doesn't have obvious feet on his wrists, or wheels all over his thighs.  Blast Off's wings and tail tuck in close and don't extend much beyond the rest of Ragnaros' forearms.  Swindle's windshield locks down over the seats.  No part of him is overly chunky.  If anything, he may be too svelte.

As much as I dig the aesthetic, I find the size to be a bit of an odd choice.  Most 3P combiners are similar in size to Warbotron (I'd count Ordin, both Warbotrons, Gravity Builder, Poseidon, Havoc, ToyWorld's Dinobot Combiner, ToyWorld's Throttlebot combiner and Hades as that size, with GT's Defensor almost certain to be about that size and Uranos, Feral Rex, Ares, and Prometheus a little shorter but still taller than Combiner Wars).  While the engineering and aesthetics or Ragnaros are far superior to Warbotron's, I'd say that Ragnaros is too tall for people wanting a Bruticus for that sort of collection.

At the other end of the spectrum are the people who insist that Constructor is the standard that all MP-style combieners should be judged against.  Both DX9 and X-Transbots have suggested that their Menasors will be around this height.  Zeta's Superion will be around this height, and word is that FansToys' Superion could be even bigger.  And, perhaps most damning, Zeta's Bruticus will be this tall.  Ragnaros standing as straight as he can and Constructor is still a head taller with a relaxed A-stance, and the people who want a Bruticus that's as big as Constructor have that option available.

To the head, Ragnaros is actually about the same size as Combiner Wars Devastator.  Was this UT's intention?  I mean, I do think I read an interview with CW Devy's designer where he suggested that CW/UW Devy was about as close to an official MP Devastator as we're likely to get.  And I'm sure that there are plenty of people who want their combiners to be roughly the same size... but how many of them decided that CW Devy was too big for the rest of the CW combiners and picked up a cheap used Hercules instead?  How many decided that they don't want CW combiners at all, they want MP-style, and CW Devy isn't cutting it?  Are there really that many people who are using CW Devy as the standard for combiners in their collection, people who actually think that Ragnaros is neither too big nor too small?

I digress.  There's no new accessories to cover, but we can finally talk about what to do with some of the accessories we already looked at.  For starters, out of the box Ragnaros' eyes are translucent, as if they were meant to be light piped, but there's no windows in the head to allow light to pipe in.  As a result his eyes are as dead as GT's larger figures with their eye lights turned off.  Fortunately, if you have the painted eyes from Blast Off or Vortex swapping them is a cinch.  Ragnaros' face is just pegged on, so you simily pop it off, push the eyes out of the face, put the replacement eyes in, then peg the face back on.  Immediate improvement, if you ask me.

One nice thing about Ragnaros is that UT gives you options, but whichever way you go you can still keep all the parts attached.  In his default toy mode you've got a big gray chest plate, and all of Vortex's and Brawl's parts stay where they are in their alt modes.  But, you can take the chest plate off, and separate it into pieces.  Then, take the cockpit and wings off of Blast Off and the intakes off of Vortex.  they can be arranged to make a cartoon-style chest plate for Bruticus.

But you don't just put aside the gray one.  The part that covered Ragnaros' abs still goes over his abs.  Then the center of the chest plate folds up and sits between the guns on Ragnaros' back.

The bulk of the sides hook over the top of Onslaught's thigh armor, then fold over to cover Ragnaros' butt.  Those flaps that go over the butt have small pegs, and the rest of the chest plate fit onto those pegs, turning the bulk of the chest plate into hip skirts for Ragnaros.

All the invididual guns can get used up, too... if you want.  The simplest gun for Ragnaros is to fold the handle for Onslaught up into the gun, revealing a larger handle for Ragnaros.  But, you'll see that there are plenty of peg holes and even a few pegs on the gun, plus the top can open so the barrel can fold 180 degrees inside, revealing a less gun-like tip.

Beyond that, it's just a matter of figuring out ways to arrange the other weapons.  First we have just Onslaught and Blast Off's gun, which looks ok but also like it's missing a piece (A).  Turns out Swindle's arm cannon fits pretty neatly under the tip of Onslaught's gun (B), but the barrel looks a little small for a combiner.  You can remedy this by sliding Blast Off's gun over the barrel of Swindle's (C).  Then it's just a matter of finding other places for Brawl and Vortex's guns, plus the Swindle's missile and the part that holds the missile and cannon on his jeep mode.  This is just one of the combos I came up with (D); you'll see another in the next picture.  I will say that I think the Onslaught/Swindle cannon/Blast Off combo looks best, as the rest of the stuff doesn't integrate as neatly.  Of course, you can always store their weapons in their alt-mode places; Swindle and Brawl's are especially unobtrusive there.  I'll also say that while the rest of Swindle and Brawl's stuff does at least attach snugly Vortex's guns are as ridiculously loose in any of the pegs here as they are in Vortex's hands.  They're so frustratingly wortheless in alt mode, robot mode, and combined mode that rather than try to thicken the handles I'm probably just going to toss them in the box and look for a different gun for Vortex.

Well, the cartoon-style chest plate doesn't really make him that much more cartoony; he's still got a blue thighs and a blue torso behind the chest shield.  Swindle isn't a pair of purple-striped yellow boxes unrecognizable as any vehicle.  Brawl didn't turn into a block with a tank turret on one side and half a set of tank treads on the other.  The feet are still gray.  Vortex's tail didn't somehow turn into a pair of large wings.  He's still got helicopter intakes on his torso instead of wheels.  Then again, I'm already not sure if I'm on board with XTB's plan to make Motormaster essentially turn into Menasor all by himself with the Stunticon cars tacked onto the calves and shoulders like an afterthought; I'm not sure I'd want to guess what kind of engineering you'd need to make a totally cartoon-accurate Bruticus.  In any case, I'm glad that UT included the option to make a cartoon-style chest plate, but I think I prefer the toy-style.

Articulation-wise, Ragnaros' head is on a hinged swivel.  He can look up about 35 degrees, but only a little bit down.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets.  The lateraly motion is double-jointed, both ratcheted; one at the combiner peg in Onslaught, one at the combiner port in the arm-bot.  Practically, he still can't get much better than 45-50 degrees, though, because his shoudlers are so tall that they start bumping into his head.  His ratcheted elbows get close to 90 degrees.  His forearms can swivel below the elbow.  He does have a little bicep swivel above the elbow, but on both arms it feels like something inside is resisting in a way that might break something when you try to turn them.  Practically, you'd be limited anyway as the parts that make up their robot-mode backpacks would block you from turning them more than 45 degrees or so.  The wrists can swivel.  Each finger and the thumb are individually articulated with ball joints at the base and two pin-hinged knuckles.  His waist can swivel; as designed it should be ratcheted but the ratchet was apparently poorly designed or poorly constructed and has failed on almost every copy.  This is definitely the case with my copy.  Fortunately, I'm not sure a waist ratchet is necessary.  His hips can move about 60 degrees forward and 45 degrees backward on ratchets that are probably way too tight, and laterally about 60 degrees on a ratchet that's probably too soft.  He doesn't have a thigh swivel, but he does have swivels below the knees.  His knees bend about 45 degrees on ratchets that are ok, but with a little play between clicks.  His toes can point up and down, but that's on a friction hinge that can't really support the weight of the combiner.  His ankles likewise can pivot, about 45 degrees on Brawl and a little less on Swindle, but again they're friction joints where you really needed ratchets.  Plus, the ankles themselves are rather thin pieces of plastic given how much weight they're supporting. 

On paper, his articulation isn't super hot, but it should be adequate for a combiner.  In practice the knees are just wobbly enough and the ankles thin enough that you're going to get some lean.  Depending on how you have his weight distributed with his arms the lean could be slight, or it could be severe enough that he wants to tip over backward.  Or, more likely forward, and his toe joints aren't strong enought to stop it.  Plus, he stands best with his legs straight.  I used the pads that came with Brawl and Swindle, and on my desk he'll stand with his legs one click apart (45-degree A-stance), but on the base where I shoot my review pictures he kept doing the splits.  Even on my desk once I started trying to get a pose with some forward motion on a hip and the arms not just at his sides balance issues with the knees and weakness in the lateral hip ratchets became an issue that kept knocking him over.  This is likely why you're not seeing him in a ton of dynamic poses in online pictures; I'm afraid he might fall off my display shelf if I pose his limbs too much.

With that in mind, he holds his gun fairly securely.  A tab on the handle fits into either palm, although if you curl his fingers too tight around it they'll actually push the tab out.  Even if you have it securely tabbed, though, you'll find the extra weight of it, especially the more Combaticon weapons you use, will just add to the challenge of posing him.

And there you have it, folks.  Five Combaticons that are good enough to be my MP Combaticons, but not quite good enough to keep me from thinking they might be placeholders until someone else (oddly enough, I keep thinking X-Transbots) does them.  A too-big or too-small combined mode with cartoon and toy options that looks great, as long as you don't try to give him a pose that's too dynamic.  A set that hits some notes incredibly well but brings enough aesthetic, engineering, and QC issues that I can't entirely recommend it.

I'll say this much... if you're set on only buying one set of Combaticons, and you want them to perform in all three modes, this is the set to get.  I think the alt modes are all fine, I think the robot modes range from good to good enough, and even with its problems I like the combined mode more than I thought I would.  It beats Fansproject, it beats Warbotron, and it beats Combiner Wars/Unite Warriors all around.  As for Zeta... well, we're actually going to get into Zeta a little later, but for now let's say while the combined mode might be worth considering I don't think the individual members are particularly appealing.  However, there's also MMC's on the horizon.  I'm a little skeptical, as MMC plans to integrate all of the combined mode parts into the bots, so the hands will be part of Vortex and Blast Off, the feet part of Brawl and Swindle, and the head, chest, and pelvis armor will be part of Onslaught.  Prototype pics of their Vortex do look fairly promising, though, and arguably more cartoon-accurate that UT's.  And, if you're really just in it for combined mode then maybe Zeta's not totally out of the running, either.  Ultimately, Ragnaros gets a recommend as the best Bruticus available right now, but you really might as well wait another month until after TFcon Toronto, check out Zeta's combined mode, see if there's any updates on MMC's, get an idea of whether or not you might prefer one of them, and then decide if you really want to pull the trigger on Ragnaros.

[JB0]

And thus did the stubby little wings on Broodlord Lashlayer(lol) start to make sense. I was wondering why they were a different scale than the rest of the orbiter.

Any larger and the combiner arm would look pretty goofy(unless they added another hinge so they could wrap around, which introduces other problems), they would probably obstruct the elbow, AND they'd be too big for the chestplate gimmick to work. So trade some more vehicle accuracy for wins in the combiner mode.

 

 

 

And no, I don't know why "wings coming out the back of the leg" doesn't strike me as goofy looking but "wings coming out the forearm" does.

[Kuma Style]

[mikeszekely]

19 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

As for Zeta... well, we're actually going to get into Zeta a little later

Yeah, about that... before my preorders for UT's Blast Off and Vortex came in I was already hearing about some of the issues I'd run into trying to pose Ragnaros in combined mode.  Although my impression of the combined mode wound up being better than I expected my concerns about it and his size, plus the relatively low price of the Zeta limbs kind of motivated me to to check them out, too.  So with (some of) the UT Combaticons fresh in your minds, this is Zeta Toys' Take Off, better known as Blast Off.

Next to UT's Blast Off my gut reaction is to say that Take Off is based on the G1 toy.  He's got the purple torso.  He's got translucent panels on his pecs where the toy had stickers, and similar molded vents under that.  But... that's kind of it.  I mean, he's got black shins and the wings are folded on the sides of his legs, but the cartoon (arguably) did, too.  His forearms are more cartoon (from the front), with the nose folded into his forearms instead of twisting into his hands.  Much of the cockpit area is sitting on his back instead of his shoulders.  The gray face plate is cartoon, the trio of ovals on his chest are cartoon, and the booster feet are cartoon, although they're a light gray instead of purple.  Interestingly, they fold away for alt mode and don't transform into actual boosters, so the booster feet are purely an aesthetic choice.  The shape of the arms and the booster feet aren't really Studio OX, either, although the brighter, coppery brown definitely is.  If his purple torso and shoulders were black/dark gray and brown instead I'd actually say he's a cartoon Blast Off.

Ultimately, though, it's not the purple torso that's holding Take Off back, it's the panels.  Panels everywhere.  Panels on his back.  Under his chunky forearm is a panel folded onto a panel.  His black shins are actually panels folded over the front of his lower legs.  On the outside of his lower leg is a panel folded over, and on top of that are the shuttle wings, whcih are folded over on themselves three times.  He's even got some panels folded and tucked inside the backs of his legs.  UT's Blast Off might be a bit barrel-chested, but sheer volume of kibble Take Off is wearing is an eyesore.

Despite being a combiner arm, Take Off doesn't come with a hand.  He does come with three guns, though.  I guess the G1 toy did, too, but by my count that's one more than he actually needs.  Maybe I already found one to give to UT's Vortex?

Take Off's head is on a ball joint, with limited up/down tilt, good sideways tilt, and rotation.  His shoulders rotate, and there's a ratchet that moves the shoulder laterally inside the purple part 90 degrees.  There's a transformation joint connecting the whole arm to the the torso you can use to get the lateral motion up to 180 degrees, and since it's friction it tends to move before the ratchet does.  His biceps swivel, and although his elbow is double-jointed his forearm is so chunky you can't bend it more than 90 degres.  His wrists can swivel, but you actually have to unpeg the fist like you're going to transform it to clear a tab right above it.  Unlike the ToyWorld Constructicons or the Zeta Aerialbots, Take Off doesn't have individual fingers.  Instead, the thumb is fixed and the fingers are all molded as one piece that's hinged at the base knuckle, like an MP car.  He's got a waist swivel.  Presumably for combined-mode arm articulation he also has a swivel just under his chest, and he can bend to his right almost 90 degrees at the waist on a stiff ratchet.  His hip skirts hinge up and out of the way of his hips, which move about 90 degrees forward or backward on a friction joint and about 90 degrees laterally on a soft ratchet.  His thighs swivel a limited but natural amount over the hip joint, and his knees can bend about 60 degrees on ratchets.  His toes can bend down, and there's seems like there's a little up/down wiggle on his foot but the weight of the figure tends to push the foot flat.  A dedicated hinge gives him nearly 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

Although all three of his guns have little slots in them like the ones that come with Zeta's Aerialbots Take Off doesn't use them for anything.  Rather, the handle is basically a 5mm peg, and his palms and thumbs are molded into 5mm ports.  All three guns slide in fine and he holds them fine.  If you unfold the wings a little you can also (barely) peg the gray guns onto his legs like the G1 toy.

Forget the cartoon, forget the toy... in shuttle mode Take Off is neither.  No cartoon purples.  No single-pane purple window.  Aside from a few gray accents Take Off looks to my untrained eye like a Boeing/Rockwell space shuttle orbiter painted brown instead of white.

Basically none of the robot mode shows in shuttle mode, because Take Off is kind of a shell former.  All those panels on his legs and forearms unfurl and to cover over his thighs, torso, shoulders, head, and forearms.  If it weren't for soem hinges and peg holes you might not even know it transforms.  While that's kind of neat on one hand, generally speaking I'd rather make sacrifices in alt mode to make a great robot mode, and a robot with chunky limbs covered in extra panels to make a great shuttle mode is pretty much the opposite of that.  Still, combined mode is closer to shuttle mode than robot mode, so maybe it'll ultimately work out for that.

About those peg holes... there's five on the bottom of the shuttle and one on either side near the rear.  You can peg any gun into any of them, although only the gray ones have pegs on the sides instead of just the handles.  The shuttle also has working landing gear.

Unlike Unique Toys it even has the right number of engine nozzles, although as I said earlier none of them are made from his feet.

Zeta did a lot of things right with Take Off.  He feels very solid in both modes, and the materials feel better than UT's.  Take Off makes for a pretty cool shuttle.  But, his robot mode is a kibble-laden mess.  Anyone looking for an MP Blast Off is much better going with Unique Toys', even with its own flaws.  I can't recommend Take Off as an MP Blast Off figure on his own.  However, it remains to be seen which is the better Bruticus.

[JB0]

Hot damn, that shuttle mode. That's what I'm talkin' about!

I mean, the robot mode is a mess on multiple counts, and there were clearly large sacrifices made for the sake of vehicle mode (those legs...) But I can forgive a lot for a shuttle that looks like that.

 

I mean, objectively, Broodlord Lashlayer(lol) is by far the better converting robot. He makes a good robot and a good shuttle.

But Take Off makes a GREAT shuttle, so who cares if the robot mode is crap?

 

Next up: An Omega Supreme that turns into an STS fuel tank, rocket boosters, and launch pad to mount him on!

Who cares if it isn't even remotely logical? A man can dream, dammit!

[mikeszekely]

11 minutes ago, JB0 said:

Hot damn, that shuttle mode. That's what I'm talkin' about!

I mean, the robot mode is a mess on multiple counts, and there were clearly large sacrifices made for the sake of vehicle mode (those legs...) But I can forgive a lot for a shuttle that looks like that.

 

I mean, objectively, Broodlord Lashlayer(lol) is by far the better converting robot. He makes a good robot and a good shuttle.

But Take Off makes a GREAT shuttle, so who cares if the robot mode is crap?

 

Next up: An Omega Supreme that turns into an STS fuel tank, rocket boosters, and launch pad to mount him on!

Who cares if it isn't even remotely logical? A man can dream, dammit!

Imagine if Zeta does a Movor repaint, and the shuttle is actually white...

[JB0]

I AM imagining a white repaint. Believe me.

Honestly, if they do a white version, I'll probably buy it just for the vehicle mode.

[Kuma Style]

 

 

[M'Kyuun]

Working on a video review, Kuma?  Curious to see how he compares to MP Sunstreaker, and just plain curious. Looks good just from what's been shown thus far.

Even before seeing a review, my apprehension is off-scale high for getting this figure, as it'd be my luck TT would announce Sideswipe V2 with all the bells and whistles that define his brother, minus the additional car transformation. While I have a couple third party duplicates in my MP collection, I try to keep them to a manageable low.

[Kuma Style]

2 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Working on a video review, Kuma?  Curious to see how he compares to MP Sunstreaker, and just plain curious. Looks good just from what's been shown thus far.

Even before seeing a review, my apprehension is off-scale high for getting this figure, as it'd be my luck TT would announce Sideswipe V2 with all the bells and whistles that define his brother, minus the additional car transformation. While I have a couple third party duplicates in my MP collection, I try to keep them to a manageable low.

I prioritize the written/pictorial reviews but yea both will be up Thursday morning (as always, appreciate your support kind sir!)

And honestly, I think it's worth the "hype" (using loosely because the figure is actually damned good.) Whether it's because you want a more fitting piece to pair with Streaker or just like toon looks better in general, there's a lot of positives to switching over to this one from Takara, IMO (even though the Takara is "fine.")

[M'Kyuun]

Cool, lookin' forward to Thursday. Fig looks good (nice pic of the Lambo Bros, Kuma). BC def going the toon direction- those legs are pretty plain, even with the silver trapezoids on his shins. Could do with a little more texture, IMHO, but overall, he still looks good-unmistakably Sideswipe. And, he certainly fits right in with Streaker.

Edit: Just noticed his car windows hanging off his arms; funny they didn't try to fold those into his arms somehow.

Edited June 20, 2018 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

Of all Zeta's Combaticons, this was the one I was most interested in.  This is Whirlblade, their version of Vortex.

With his turquiose thighs and head and his purple torso the instinct again is to suggest that Whirlblade is a toy-inspired Vortex.  The red vents on his chest are even G1 sticker details.  And yet, with his large, kibbly shins, cockpit feet, purple shoulders, and giant backpack I'm forced to conclude that, yes, he's kind of toy inspired, but he's also largely an original design, and that's due to him having entirely the wrong alt mode.

And yes, with all of that kibble he does suffer aesthetically in much the same way that Take Off does.  If I'm being totally fair, though, Whirlblade isn't quite as bad.

Before we move on to accessories, I want to show him with Studio Series Leader Class Blackout.  Hmm...

So accessories... Whirlblade comes with a gun that, while not turquoise, is molded with a general shape that reminds me of Vortex's gun from the cartoon.  He's also got two of these missle pods.  The tips are spring loaded and can be launched by pressing a button.

Whirlblade's articulation is pretty similar to Take Off's.  His head is on a ball joint that can look up and down slightly and tilt sideways a good bit.  His shoulders can rotate, and like Take Off he's got a joint inside his shoulder that can move laterally 90 degrees and a transformation joint that connects his arm to his torso that'll give him another 90, but on Whirlblade they're both friction joints with similar tolerances.  His biceps swivel.  His elbow is only a single hinge, and due to the size of his forearm he can't even get 90 degrees out of it.  His wrists swivel, and due to their transformation he's got a little in/out bend on his wrists as well.  His hands are identical to Take Off's.  He also has swivels under his chest and at the waist, and a ratcheted bend to his right.  His hips can move about 60 degrees forward or backward, and a little short of 90 degrees laterally on soft ratchets.  His thighs can swivel, and his ratcheted knees get about 45 degrees of bend.  His feet can tilt up quite a bit, but not really down.  His ankles can swivel as well as pivot about 45 degrees.  Like Take Off, his gun is a 5mm peg that fits into his hand, which is molded into a 5mm grip.  I haven't found a use for the launchers in robot mode short of leaving them were they go in alt mode.

One thing to note is the intakes on his back.  The instructions indicate that the black part goes up, so the triangle points down.  This has them sit a little lower and it looks a bit more streamlined from the front, but they can't be pushed back as far.  The box are has them inverted.  They push back further out of the way of his shoulders, but they also stick up higher.  They do have swivels, though, so you can kind of angle them so they look like cannons.

Sorry for the double negative, but his backpack kibble is never not in the way.

So that alt mode... Whirlblade turns into Blackout in alt mode.  That is, he turns into a  Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low, and that's just wrong.  I mean, if I'm being totally fair, Vortex's G1 toy looked like it was designed to not really look like whatever helicopter inspired it (I've heard it suggested that it's a Kaman SH-2 Seasprite or one of its variants), and the cartoon even less so (I thought UT's Votex looked kind of like the cartoon, and I think it looks most like part of the Black Hawk family).  But it's safe to say that Vortex is probably meant to be an attack or a search and rescue heli, not a transport helicopter that weighs over three times more empty than a Seasprite's maximum takeoff load.  Some designer at Zeta just thought that since they were making a helicopter transformer they might as well use the helicopter from the movie even though that'd be like making a Starscream toy that turns into a C-130 Hercules.

Actually, the reason I was first interested in Whirlblade wasn't as a Vortex toy; I wanted to make a G1-style Blackout.

Speaking of Blackout, here's Whirlblade with Blackout again, and when they're together you can see some problems with the proportions.  Whirlblade is shorter from nose to tail, but wider and taller.  The struts on the sides are smaller, and the cockpit area looks pushed in on Whirlblade.  It's almost like a chibi Pave Low.  I wonder if the weird proportions are because of the combined mode and trying to maintain arm proportions?  If so, that just reinforces the notion that this was the wrong helicopter to use for Vortex.

From underneath you can see that, much like Take Off, Whirlblade is kind of a shell former with panels on his arms and legs unfurling to almost completely cover the robot parts.  Again, the is an example of making sacrifices in robot mode for the sake of the alt mode, which isn't my preferred way of doing business, and honestly with the extra rotor blades I'm not even sure if that'll play out any better for arm mode.  He does have working landing gear, and the "missiles" peg into struts on the side of the helicopter.  Maybe someone should have told Zeta that those are supposed to be fuel tanks?  If there's a spot for his gun in this mode, though, I can't find it.

He does have flip out landing gear.  I think it's accurate to a real Pave Low, and it does roll.

Whirlblade again feels like a solid, well-made figure.  On material quality and tolerances he's better than UT's Vortex.  And from some poses his kibble even seems less obstrusive than Take Off's.  However, that's just because a lot of it was moved to his back, and it's actually more in the way there.  I think Take Off also benefits a bit from looking more like Blast Off, with a Blast Off-appropriate alt mode, than Whirlblade looks like Vortex.  So I'm forced to say basically the same thing I said about Take Off: as a solo figure meant to represent Vortex in your collection he's a failure and I can't recommend him.  But time will tell if he's worth picking up just for their Bruticus.

[mikeszekely]

Of all Zeta's Combaticons, this was the one I was most interested in.  This is Whirlblade, their version of Vortex.

With his turquiose thighs and head and his purple torso the instinct again is to suggest that Whirlblade is a toy-inspired Vortex.  The red vents on his chest are even G1 sticker details.  And yet, with his large, kibbly shins, cockpit feet, purple shoulders, and giant backpack I'm forced to conclude that, yes, he's kind of toy inspired, but he's also largely an original design, and that's due to him having entirely the wrong alt mode.

And yes, with all of that kibble he does suffer aesthetically in much the same way that Take Off does.  If I'm being totally fair, though, Whirlblade isn't quite as bad.

Before we move on to accessories, I want to show him with Studio Series Leader Class Blackout.  Hmm...

So accessories... Whirlblade comes with a gun that, while not turquoise, is molded with a general shape that reminds me of Vortex's gun from the cartoon.  He's also got two of these missle pods.  The tips are spring loaded and can be launched by pressing a button.

Whirlblade's articulation is pretty similar to Take Off's.  His head is on a ball joint that can look up and down slightly and tilt sideways a good bit.  His shoulders can rotate, and like Take Off he's got a joint inside his shoulder that can move laterally 90 degrees and a transformation joint that connects his arm to his torso that'll give him another 90, but on Whirlblade they're both friction joints with similar tolerances.  His biceps swivel.  His elbow is only a single hinge, and due to the size of his forearm he can't even get 90 degrees out of it.  His wrists swivel, and due to their transformation he's got a little in/out bend on his wrists as well.  His hands are identical to Take Off's.  He also has swivels under his chest and at the waist, and a ratcheted bend to his right.  His hips can move about 60 degrees forward or backward, and a little short of 90 degrees laterally on soft ratchets.  His thighs can swivel, and his ratcheted knees get about 45 degrees of bend.  His feet can tilt up quite a bit, but not really down.  His ankles can swivel as well as pivot about 45 degrees.  Like Take Off, his gun is a 5mm peg that fits into his hand, which is molded into a 5mm grip.  I haven't found a use for the launchers in robot mode short of leaving them were they go in alt mode.

One thing to note is the intakes on his back.  The instructions indicate that the black part goes up, so the triangle points down.  This has them sit a little lower and it looks a bit more streamlined from the front, but they can't be pushed back as far.  The box are has them inverted.  They push back further out of the way of his shoulders, but they also stick up higher.  They do have swivels, though, so you can kind of angle them so they look like cannons.

Sorry for the double negative, but his backpack kibble is never not in the way.

So that alt mode... Whirlblade turns into Blackout in alt mode.  That is, he turns into a  Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low, and that's just wrong.  I mean, if I'm being totally fair, Vortex's G1 toy looked like it was designed to not really look like whatever helicopter inspired it (I've heard it suggested that it's a Kaman SH-2 Seasprite or one of its variants), and the cartoon even less so (I thought UT's Votex looked kind of like the cartoon, and I think it looks most like part of the Black Hawk family).  But it's safe to say that Vortex is probably meant to be an attack or a search and rescue heli, not a transport helicopter that weighs over three times more empty than a Seasprite's maximum takeoff load.  Some designer at Zeta just thought that since they were making a helicopter transformer they might as well use the helicopter from the movie even though that'd be like making a Starscream toy that turns into a C-130 Hercules.

Actually, the reason I was first interested in Whirlblade wasn't as a Vortex toy; I wanted to make a G1-style Blackout.

Speaking of Blackout, here's Whirlblade with Blackout again, and when they're together you can see some problems with the proportions.  Whirlblade is shorter from nose to tail, but wider and taller.  The struts on the sides are smaller, and the cockpit area looks pushed in on Whirlblade.  It's almost like a chibi Pave Low.  I wonder if the weird proportions are because of the combined mode and trying to maintain arm proportions?  If so, that just reinforces the notion that this was the wrong helicopter to use for Vortex.

From underneath you can see that, much like Take Off, Whirlblade is kind of a shell former with panels on his arms and legs unfurling to almost completely cover the robot parts.  Again, the is an example of making sacrifices in robot mode for the sake of the alt mode, which isn't my preferred way of doing business, and honestly with the extra rotor blades I'm not even sure if that'll play out any better for arm mode.  He does have working landing gear, and the "missiles" peg into struts on the side of the helicopter.  Maybe someone should have told Zeta that those are supposed to be fuel tanks?  If there's a spot for his gun in this mode, though, I can't find it.

He does have flip out landing gear.  I think it's accurate to a real Pave Low, and it does roll.

Whirlblade again feels like a solid, well-made figure.  On material quality and tolerances he's better than UT's Vortex.  And from some poses his kibble even seems less obstrusive than Take Off's.  However, that's just because a lot of it was moved to his back, and it's actually more in the way there.  I think Take Off also benefits a bit from looking more like Blast Off, with a Blast Off-appropriate alt mode, than Whirlblade looks like Vortex.  So I'm forced to say basically the same thing I said about Take Off: as a solo figure meant to represent Vortex in your collection he's a failure and I can't recommend him.  But time will tell if he's worth picking up just for their Bruticus.

[Kuma Style]

13 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Cool, lookin' forward to Thursday. Fig looks good (nice pic of the Lambo Bros, Kuma). BC def going the toon direction- those legs are pretty plain, even with the silver trapezoids on his shins. Could do with a little more texture, IMHO, but overall, he still looks good-unmistakably Sideswipe. And, he certainly fits right in with Streaker.

Edit: Just noticed his car windows hanging off his arms; funny they didn't try to fold those into his arms somehow.

The windows making up the underside of his forearm is a pretty standard sideswipe attribute. I dig it but I guess i'm also used to it since it's common. 

For me when it comes to a lot of the fine detailing can stay gone on these. I want a shelf full of things that look like the cartoons have jumped out of the TV onto my shelf so i'm team plain Jane all day lmao 

[mikeszekely]

Arms done, we'll move on to the legs with Racket, Zeta Toys' version of Swindle.

Ok, this time Racket really does look like the G1 Swindle toy.  The front of the vehicle is folded onto his back like the toy.  His torso is mostly purple like the toy.  Molded black and blue details match stickers on the toy.  The blue pelvis is a G1 sticker.  The black yellow molded detail on his shins are toy stickers.  The chunky thighs and broad but flat feet are even pretty reminiscent of the toy.  I think he's even a little less kibbly than the previous two, athough he's definitely got some folded-up panels on this legs, forearms, and shoulders (although maybe it's a help this time, since he's a little back heavy and you can fold down some panels on the backs of his legs like pseudo heel-spurs).  I'm not really a fan of the goofy face, either.  I mean, the expression is sort of appropriate, and similar to the Warbotron one, but the sculpt just looks weird.

If you really want a more cartoon-style Swindle, well, you're not going to get as close with Racket as you do with Unique Toys' Swindle.  But Zeta did include a fairly interesting gimmick where you can pull out his chest and pelvis and spin them around.  His chest goes from purple with molded sticker detail to looking like a jeep's windshield, and his blue pelvis becomes a jeep grill complete with headlights.  It's a neat feature and I'm glad that they included it, but I think if you really care about cartoon accuracy you're better off just picking up the Unique Toys's version.

Racket comes with quite a few accessories.  You've got a cannon, two missiles, a pistol, two antenna and a trio of windshield wipers.  The barrel of the cannon can slide in and out so you can change the length, but at least on my copy the slide is loose and doesn't lock in anywhere, so the barrel usually winds up at it's maximum length.

Head's on a ball joint, which swivels fine but has limited up, down, and sideways tilt.  His shoudlers can rotate, and double-hinges allow for about 120 degrees of lateral movement.  His biceps swivel.  He has a single hinge at the elbow and another hinge just under his bicep swivel, but his chunky shoulders and forearms still limit him to 90 degrees of elbow bend.  His wrists can swivel, and like the others in this set his hands are molded into a 5mm grip with a fixed thumb and the other four fingers molded as a single piece pinned at the base.  For reasons I'm not entirely clear on he has some of the sideways bend at the waist that the arms did, although it's not ratcheted.  His waist swivels.  His hip skirts move out of the way so that his hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward on friction joints and 90 degrees laterally on a soft ratchet.  His thighs can swivel around the hip.  His knees can bend 90 degrees on a ratchet.  His feet can tilt up a lot, down a little, and maybe 75 degrees of ankle pivot. 

He holds the pistol by its 5mm peg grip, no issues there.

The cannon and the missiles have pegs that are too short to get around his chunky forearms and into his hands, so he can't really hold them.  But he's got peg holes on the fronts of his shoulders and the outside of his forearms, plus the cannon itself has a peg hole on each side.  There's also a pair of holes behind his head, but it's less practical to use them because whatever you put there has to be angled around his head.

Should you decide to install the wipers and the antenna you don't have to worry about them getting in the way in robot mode.  The antenna fold down on his shins, and the wipers wind up on the sides of his shoulders.

Zeta continues the trend set by Fansproject of ditching Swindle's jeep mode for a Humvee.  To be fair to Zeta, it's a pretty decent Humvee.  I mean, there's not a ton of paint on it, and it's still not the correct alt mode if you care about cartoon accuracy, but as near as I can tell the molded detail is pretty accurate to an AM General Humvee.  The transformation is fairly simple and pretty similar to the Warbotron one, with the front flipping over, the arms moving onto the back, and the legs folding around.  The big difference is the way the panels unfold from his shoulders, forearms, and pegs to make up the lion's share of the sides and roof instead of a backpack.

With the missiles attached to the cannon you can store all of Racket's weapons on his roof.  His tires are rubber and roll well.  A gimmick Zeta included is the linkage between the front wheels, so they can turn together as if being steered.  Just don't press down too hard; the front of the alt mode likes to collapse.

As with the other Zeta bots, a lot of those panels are unfolded on the bottom to really hide the robot in all modes.  Do note that for alt mode you can have the pelvis in either the cartoon or the toy style, but the chest kind of has to be in toy mode.  The molded bits on the toy side don't allow the chest to sit flat enough to close.  That said, even if it's not closed the whole way it won't interfere with anything, so you can get away with leaving the cartoon chest out.  I do believe that the bottom of the vehicle will be the front of the shin for combined mode, and I kind of prefer the toy-style for that.

Racket is definitely an improvement over the arms, and in a vaccuum he might have even gotten a recommend from me, as he's definitely an improvement over the Warbotron version and the Warbotron Swindle was probably the best of the Warbotron set.  But at the end of the day, UT's Swindle was probably the best UT Combaticon, too, and much better than this one.  We're right back to the same place we were with the others; pass in favor of UT if you want an MP Swindle, but we'll find out later which is the better Bruticus.

[JB0]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

But Zeta did include a fairly interesting gimmick where you can pull out his chest and pelvis and spin them around.  His chest goes from purple with molded sticker detail to looking like a jeep's windshield, and his blue pelvis becomes a jeep grill complete with headlights.

But which one is Swindle, and which is Counterswindle?

[nhyone]

MakeToys MTRM-09 Downbeat (Jazz) is slated for an re-issue in August. This is a couple of weeks-old news, but my go-to seller just put up the pre-order this morning.

I gave him a pass previously because of the unpolished rear in car mode. Now I think it's an acceptable compromise.

[recon]

Thanks mike for the review on UT ragranos. Do agree that blastoff could have being designed closer to the G1 ver and sized smaller. Now the combined mode looks like a football player with ape like arms

[Scyla]

Peaughs review of BadCubes Recon:

 

That looks awesome and I need to have one.  I'm super happy that I didn't buy a MP Alert because it is so nice to have two different molds for characters that historically been always recolors of each other which I'm super into (same situation with MP Grapple and MMCs Backdraft).

Also MP Sideswipe is a pretty dated toy so..... 

...I hope that some company does a own version of MP Prowl since I only have the Bluestreak variant. Maybe MakeToys should do one so I can buy Prowl and BadCube do another one so I can buy the Smokesceen. That way I would only have unique molds for the Datsuns...

...one can dream.

[Tking22]

Yeah Red Alert looks like an absolute must have, still not entirely sold on Sideswipe, but he's paid off along with Red Alert so he's going to be mine either way. I love how BadCube got one upped by Takara when it comes to Sunstreaker, then BadCube came back and one upped Takara's original Lambo, nicely done BadCube.

[mikeszekely]

Last of the Zeta Combaticons, at least until their Onslaught comes out.  This would be Uproar, their Brawl.

As with Zeta's Swindle, I feel like Uproar is more toy-inspired than the arm-bots.  He's got the black face, no treads on the front of his arms, and the front of the tank makes for more of an angular, protruding chest than the cartoon (or Unique Toys').  I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, though.  Maybe you had the G1 toy growing up, and you're more attached to that image of him than the cartoon.  Or maybe you just like a beefier Brawl, because this guy is definitely thicker.

You can see that, compared to Unique Toys, he's got thicker forearms, thicker shoulders, a thicker chest, and thicker lower legs.  Unlike the other Zeta bots, though, it's not because he's got a ton of folded up panels all over him.  Just a little on his shoulders, and that's mostly out of the way.  The bulk of his kibble actually comes from his tank treads.  Rather than split like the G1 toy or UT's Zeta engineered the treads to fold over themselves on Brawl's legs.  The results are... kind of mixed.  I don't mind the bulk so much as the fact that the treads are made from a series of interconnecting links wrapped over the inner mechanism.  The idea was to give Uproar working treads in tank mode, but folding them over leaves them very loose.  You're supposed to feed the treads into his shins, and and there are two folding bits to hold the treads, but they still seem looser than I'd like.  Plus the links have a tendency to pop apart.

Zeta seems to expect that users may break or loose some links, because they included some extras in the box.  There's also a pair of rubber antenna and his gun.

Uproar's head his on a ball joint.  Same as before, slight up and down, adequate sideways tilt, no issue with rotation.  His shoulders can rotate.  They also have double hinges for transformation and lateral movement.  He can get 90 degrees laterally, and he can kind of shrug his shoulders.  His biceps swivel.  His elbow is a single hinge that bends over 90 degrees.  There's an additional hinge above the bicep swivel that you can use to get a little extra range if you want.  His wrists swivel, and his hands are exactly the same as the other three Zeta Combaticons.  His waist can swivel, but he lacks the sideways waist bend that his teammates possess.  His hips can move just under 90 degrees forward, but only about 45-ish backward because his treads start to collide with his backpack.  His hips can do 90 degrees latereally on soft ratchets.  His thighs can swivel around the hips, and his ratcheted knees can bend 90 degrees.  His toes (and heel spur) can bend down due to transformation.  And for some reason his ankles have a double hinge, so his ankles can pivot over 90 degrees.

His gun pegs into his hands, no problem.  Just like the others.

Uproar's tank mode looks like some model of Leopard 1 tank, which I think might be correct for the G1 toy.  It's also very detailed.  Proportionally he's taller versus his width than the UT Brawl, and correct or not that gives me the impression that Uproar's alt mode is a smaller thank than UT's despite UT being physically smaller.

As previously mentioned, the tank treads are designed to actually work.  In practice, they don't seem to get enough friction for them to actually engage.  When you add that to my earlier complaints about the large shins, loose fit of the treads in robot mode, and the tendency of the links to come apart and I have to say that I really wish Zeta had just gone with fake treads.  That's not to say that real treads never work... rubber treads that fit tightly over the wheels and don't have the bend for transformation work ok.  But these treads create a host of problems for a gimmick that doesn't even really work.

Speaking of gimmicks, the two hatches on the turret can open.  The turret can swivel, and the barrel can aim up and down; just be sure to extend it all the way.  If the barrel isn't fully extended it'll interfere with the up/down motion.

The two antenna plug into the back of turret- not that the instructions mention them.  There's also a port to plug in his gun, and it can swivel in that port so he can aim in different directions.  It doesn't integrate particularly neatly, though, and it definitely doesn't have the three-cannon look of the cartoon the way UT's or the G1 toy's can.

We still have to wait on Zeta's Onslaught, but for now I think Uproar is probably the best of the Zeta Combaticons.  His alt mode is solid, even if the tank treads don't work that well, and pretty accurate for the character.  He doesn't suffer from kibble quite as much as the others.  And while UT's Brawl is definitely more cartoon accurate, Uproar is a pretty toy-accurate and overall beefier Brawl.  If that appeals to you, then I guess I could recommend Uproar, but you should definitely go with UT if cartoon accuracy is what you want.

[JB0]

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

We still have to wait on Zeta's Onslaught, but for now I think Uproar is probably the best of the Zeta Combaticons.  His alt mode is solid, even if the tank treads don't work that well, and pretty accurate for the character.  He doesn't suffer from kibble quite as much as the others

I'm gonna agree. Really good robot and tank both. I'm tempted to grab it just because. (Holdin' out for a white shuttle that probably isn't coming on Take-off).

The thing that bugs me most about the treads, aesthetically, is that they split a wheel when they fold up. I think they should've split between wheels instead, it would look much better. Other than that, I think their solution to the tank treads looks really cool.

...

Alternatively, they could have used the wrong vehicle entirely, suffered the ire of the fans, and given me a stealth remake of Super Go-Bot Defendor. Because I had a toy of Defendor and it was awesome.

[Kuma Style]

 

[M'Kyuun]

Having watched reviews of both BC Lambos, I much prefer their take on Sideswipe. IMHO, they took too much liberty with the car mode for Recon, their Red Alert, and it affects how the bot mode looks. The engineering is great on both, however, especially the conversion of the hood pieces to accommodate each mode- well executed. weapon storage is another plus; take notes, TT. All that said, there's still something that seems off to me in the bot mode. I think it's the plainness of the shins, aside from the trapezoids at the knee on Steamroll, and the stark black on Recon. The shins just look like long black planks to me, and visually, it just doesn't appeal. But, it serves the official slavishly toon look, so I can't really fault them. It's just a case where too plain is, well, too plain. I'm visual, so I like some detail to break things up. In all honesty, I still like the way the official Sideswipe looks- the slightly chunkier proportions, the wide chest, I like it.  But, this toon-centric trend shows no sign of ending, so for now plain figures are the way, and I can at least appreciate the engineering going into them, especially from an articulation standpoint. These are the toys I dreamed of when TFs were hitting the market back in '84.

[Kuma Style]