The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[nhyone]

The Wei Jiang gray is too dark, but it looks okay for the blue guardian variant. Very tempted.

(Can't afford to buy FT-20G.)

Edited July 29, 2019 by nhyone

[anime52k8]

well, this decision has gotten harder to make.

BTW, Big Firebird (the guys who are making the best arcee figure ever) are doing a Windblade next. Yay sexy robot girls! (also; it's so hard to keep up with these since the TFW2005 mods apparently hate both fun AND art.)

[Scyla]

I still don‘t understand why MP Black Arachnia is ok but this isn‘t. 

[M'Kyuun]

3 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

well, this decision has gotten harder to make.

BTW, Big Firebird (the guys who are making the best arcee figure ever) are doing a Windblade next. Yay sexy robot girls! (also; it's so hard to keep up with these since the TFW2005 mods apparently hate both fun AND art.)

Looks pretty good- certainly a step up from previous official releases. It looks like they took a page from Kawamori's  MP Seeker design by connecting her wings to her hips rather than her back, which makes a bit of sense given her usually backpack heavy nature and small feet. Those wings can help prop her up. I think it'd be cool if they made her body akin to the VF-25, with the forward fuselage forming her torso negating a lot of that backpack. I guess we'll see.

For the record, while I'm more partial to MMC's Azalea as my Arcee, I like what Big Firebird did with their Arcee; it's a different take, but IMO, executed well. As a further observation, I limit my time on TFW boards, as I've never seen so much invective thrown about by people who are supposed to be fans. It's a tough, profane, and pejorative, crowd over there, both towards the hobby and their fellow fans.  Kudos to Shawn, Graham, the Mods, and the majority of members, for keeping the peace. 

2 hours ago, Scyla said:

I still don‘t understand why MP Black Arachnia is ok but this isn‘t. 

B/c she was officially drawn that way in the toon, even if her toy was miles away from being an anthropomorphic feminine ideal. In the world of Transformers these days, the toon is lord of all.  Arcee wasn't as sexually accentuated in the toon, hence the negative feedback both for FT Rouge's alternate chesticle plate, and for Firebird's Arcee. I vaguely remember how Windblade was depicted in Michinima's toons, as I've only watched a handful of eps a year or two ago, but honestly, other than moving her wings to her hips and her delineated breasts, the shaping isn't that far off from Hasbro's.

Personally, I like the more 'Animated' style employed by both Sarah Stone and Sara Pitre-Durocher for Windlade.  However, Firebird's wouldn't look out of place on the MP shelf. IMHO, anyway.

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by M'Kyuun

[Chronocidal]

It's nice being a casual fan who just enjoys fancy transforming robot vehicles for their individual merits, devoid of any notion of "canon" or "accuracy."

That being said, I love that design, partly because it looks like something out of Phantasy Star.  The Firebird Arcee definitely has shades of that as well, and while I get that they've taken liberties with the original character designs, I think they just work well aesthetically.

[mikeszekely]

If you read my post here, where I talked about the various official Grimlock toys Hasbro has released and which might work with the Siege line, you'll already know that I picked the old Voyager-class Fall of Cybertron Grimlock as the best of the official bunch but still wasn't really satisfied with it.  I wondered if a third-party might be able to deliver something better.  And where better to start than with Planet X's Vulcan, an unofficial version of the same Fall of Cybertron design?

I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed when I first took Vulcan out of the package.  Maybe I'm a little spoiled by "premium" MP-style figures, but Vulcan isn't particularly hefty as he contains no diecast, and the paint applications are for the most part delegated to pinkish accents here and there, plus a little "gold" on his shoulders, shins, and feet.  The light-piped head is practically identical to the Hasbro one, and while they're a bit more caramel than Hasbro's khaki his gold parts aren't actually gold.  After reviewing things like FT's Roadking and XTB's Stunticons, which are still sitting on my desk, there wasn't anything that jumped out at me as saying "this is a $125 toy."

Regardless of whether or not Vulcan's improvements over the Hasbro version are worth $100, side-by-side those improvements become immediately obvious.  He isn't covered in paint, but there are definitely more paint apps on him.  He's a bit taller and much beefier, and that extra beefiness is more game-accurate.  Likewise, his black fists and thighs and his red midriff and pelvis are also more accurate.  I'd say that he could still stand to be slightly taller to scale how I'd like with Prime, but I think we're finally hitting the lower end of "correct" scaling.

When you spin him around Vulcan still has a pretty large backpack, but everything is actually sitting against a solid back.  Vulcan doesn't have the super hollow torso of the official.  The insides of his shoulders, biceps, and thighs are similarly solid.  And while the front of his shins do have hollow spaces the parts that sit in them do a much better job of filling those spaces than on the official.

Vulcan comes with the same accessories the Hasbro version does- a game-accurate sword and shield.  Like the Hasbro versions they're largely done with a translucent orange plastic, but unlike the Hasbro one the gray parts aren't just painted over the translucent plastic, they're separate pieces.  They're also bigger.  I couldn't find the sword for the Hasbro version, but you can see that the Vulcan's shield dwarfs the official.  It's been a long time since I've played Fall of Cybertron, but I feel like the shield in the game was pretty large.

Now, I know Grimlock didn't use a gun in Fall of Cybertron, so it makes sense that Planet X wouldn't have included one.  I still would have liked having Grimlock's double-barreled rifle, though.

Vulcan's head is on a ball joint, so he can look up a little and tilt his head sideways a bit.  His chin prevents him from looking down, though.  His shoulders can rotate, and he can extend them laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps can swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed.  Due to the size of his shoulders and forearms, though, he's still limited to bending his elbow a little over 90 degrees (which is fine.  His wrists can swivel, and a pin through the base knuckles of his fingers allow them to open and close like an MP carbot's.  His waist can swivel.  His hips can move forward, backward, or laterally a little over 90 degrees on friction universal joints; I do kind of wish they'd used ratchets for at least the forward/backward joint.  His thighs can swivel.  He's got a pair of ratchet joints at each knee, but you really only need the top one.  No matter how you configure them you're only going to get 90 degrees of bend.  The front of his foot is on a hinged ball joint, which allows it to bend down and provide about 45 degrees of pivot before the heel starts banging into stuff.  I'm not convinced folding out that heel is necessary, though, so the faux pivot is essentially unlimited.

Unlike the official version there's no peg holes on Vulcan's forearms.  He holds both of his accessories via 5mm peg holes shaped into his hands.  The hand guard on the sword even hinges open so you can slide the sword into his hand before closing it back up.  The 5mm grip also means that he's theoretically compatible with other Siege weapon gimmicks like Battle Masters and Weaponizers, although in practice you may find the claws on his wrists and the overall bulk on his forearms kind of gets in the way.

Vulcan's not stuck carrying the accessories in his hands, though.  A peg on the sword allows it to be attached to the shield, then the whole the can be pegged onto his back.  If you're not a fan of sticking stuff on his already-large backpack, or if you just don't like the shield, Vulcan also peg holes on both hips that you can peg the sword into.

OK, so I was maybe a little underwhelmed by Vulcan's robot mode.  Well, Vulcan's dinosaur mode totally makes up for it.  Seriously, the engineering Planet X came up with is borderline witchcraft.  While the Hasbro version seems to shrink as its legs fold up to cover the thighs and most of the torso to become an awkward-looking tail Vulcan somehow expands and seems larger in dinosaur mode.  His forearms extend and the shoulders slide up to make the arms longer, and the backpacks absolutely unfurls before locking back together as everything from the dino rib cage up.  An actual tail explodes out of his calves like clowns from a tiny car.

Panels fold out and lock down so everything feels solid.  He's free from the entirely hollow underside that the Hasbro version suffers from.  In fact, his robot chest is properly at his underbelly instead of his butt, which is made from his shins.  His knee pads are hinged to reveal little rocket thrusters, and that's a game-accurate detail.  And everything sits together in such a way that the dinosaur body feels like a continuous piece.  Aside from a little of his thighs and pelvis being visible from some angles the robot-mode parts aren't immediately apparent.

Planet X didn't spend all their dark magic on looks, either.  Vulcan's dinosaur head has about 90 degrees of up/down range, and it can swivel around so he's tilting his head, sure.  But Planet X also put the head on a slider, allowing it to extend forward enough to give clearance to another swivel that allows him to also turn his head to the side a bit.  His jaws open wide (and stay open, unlike Hasbro's) to reveal a tongue-like flamethrower and some legitimately sharp teeth inside.  His little arms are on swivels for rotation and a pinned hinge so they can extend 90 degrees outward.  The elbows can bend, and the claws can open and close.  His shoulders are now his hips, with all the rotation they had before, although lateral movement is limited to maybe 30 degrees.  His bicep swivel becomes a thigh swivel, and his double-jointed elbow is now a double-jointed knee.  Plus, in the process of extending an additional joint is reveal in the forearm to give his dino legs a bit of digitigrade forward bend.  It's too bad they couldn't have magically worked in an ankle pivot, too, but even sorcerers must have their limits.  Finally the tail has a trio of hinges.  He can't really bend his tail up or down, but he can get a bit of curl going.

Weapon storage is identical to the Hasbro version, which is to say that they use pegs to plug into the dino hips.  It doesn't look great, especially given how big the shield is, but it's something.

While, subjectively, I might want more of a premium feel for my money I can't deny that Vulcan is an excellent figure.  My only big complaint is that his tail is connected to his calves via these armatures, and they have to swing past his hips and around his knees as his legs fold up.  One side, for whatever reason, really doesn't have the clearance to do that, and you're really forced to bend the plastic armature to force the tail past.  Now, the the armatures are made from a sturdy, flexible plastic for this reason, but it's still not the kind of thing that gives you the warm fuzzies.  Aside from that one detail and a desire for more metallic paint (especially for the gold), you've got a big, burly robot that turns into one of the best T-Rex modes I've seen on a transforming figure.  He's a good size for Siege.  And he's very game-accurate, although that could be a two-edged sword if you're looking for something with more of a G1 vibe.  It's an easy recommend from me; the dino mode is something that needs to be experienced first hand.  He's my reigning champ for a CHUG-style Grimlock, for sure, but is there an even better option?  Tune in later this week when I look at a few more options and decide who gets the crown.

[tekering]

I bought the other four Planet X Dinobots, but never bothered with "Vulcan."  I didn't see a significant reason to upgrade.  Of course, I only looked as far as the robot mode.  

That alt. mode is fabulous!  

[technoblue]

I’m a big fan of Planet-X. Their dino collection was the first group of third-party dinos that I completed, so they hold a special place on my shelves. For Vulcan, they haven reissued him in red and metallic too which gives Grimlock-only collectors more options.

Would be nice if we got a G2 blue one as well, but I digress.

[mikeszekely]

On 7/30/2019 at 1:31 AM, tekering said:

I bought the other four Planet X Dinobots, but never bothered with "Vulcan."  I didn't see a significant reason to upgrade.  Of course, I only looked as far as the robot mode.  

That alt. mode is fabulous!  

I haven't decided if I'll go after the other Planet X dinos or not.  Slag and Sludge look pretty good, Snarl looks ok, but their Swoop looks so doofy (game accurate or not).

And it looks like my last Grimlock review might be held up, since TFSource sent the wrong thing.   At least there's other goodies in the box I can talk about.

[mikeszekely]

Well, taking a break from Grimlocks, the one character I might have more of (besides Optimus) would be Seaspray.  And while there are more Seasprays than you'd probably think, for quite some time your choices for an MP Seaspray have been ToyWorld's Wavebreak (and now the shinier Zeta version, Deepsea) or Fans Toys' Spindrift.  Both, in my opinion, were kind of mediocre.  Wavebreak had poor articulation and an alt mode that's nearly as wide as it is long, and Spindrift was over-engineered and looked like he'd been spending too much time at the gym.  So I've really been looking forward to this guy: X-Transbot's Neptune.

So in the cartoon Seaspray was basically a refrigerator with stumpy limbs and a beer gut, and if you look at Neptune and want to say that he's still kind of slender I wouldn't say that you're wrong.  But my mental image of Seaspray is colored as much or my by the G1 toy, which is one of the few toys that I had as a kid that I still have to this day.  And the G1 toy definitely has that beer gut, but it isn't quite as stumpy as the animation model.  I'd argue that Neptune's a happy middle ground between the cartoon and the toy.  His torso is still mostly a box, and he does have that beer gut.  His feet even do some extra folding I've never seen on a Seaspray to bring his boat feet down in size to be more like the animation model.  But yes, he's a little taller and narrower than animation model would suggest.

It's been suggested that the blue paint that XTB used is too dark or too metallic.  Yeah, you can definitely see that it's a bit darker than Spindrift (or the G1 toy), but I don't think it's necessarily too dark, especially depending on the episode you're using for reference.  And while it photographs as a very shiny metallic it's really not that shiny in hand, and I can't emphasize that enough.  In hand, it just has enough of a sheen to look wet, which is totally appropriate for the character.  A bigger color complaint for me would be around the eyes, which is kind of a dark silver.  I'd prefer it to be a darker gray or gunmetal.  Anyway you shake it, though, I feel like Neptune's a big upgrade over Wavebreak and Spindrift.

Neptune comes with a ton of accessories.  There's a set of red eyes you can use with the default head, or a whole new toy-style face (although a proper toy face would have black eyes), and a screwdriver for opening the head to do the swapping.  There's gun, done in blue but otherwise similar to a number of other figures.  Then there's also some effect parts, waterskis, a handle on some rope, a beach ball, a bucket, and a shovel.  My skis came oriented like this, which seems to be backward.  The water effects on them are just tabbed in, so it's easy to switch them around.

Neptune's got pretty great articulation, even for a figure this small.  His head is on a hinged swivel that can look up and down just enough to visually convey that he's looking up or down.  His shoulders can rotate and extend laterally slightly over 90 degrees, and he's even got a bit of forward and backward butterfly.  His biceps swivel, and he's got double-jointed elbows that curl 180 degrees.  His wrists swivel, and his fingers are molded as a single piece hinged at the base knuckle like an MP carbot.  His waist swivels, although the swivel point is slightly behind his pelvis.  I think it's fine for most poses, just know that it can look a little weird if he swivels too far.  His torso is actually connected to his pelvis on a double hinge, so he has an ab crunch, and he can arch his back.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward, backward, or to the side.  His thighs swivel just below the hip joint, and his knees are a single hinge that still gets you over 90 degrees.  His feet can tilt up and down a little, and his ankles can pivot up to 90 degrees.

There's no gimmicks when it comes to holding his gun.  The handle is a simple square peg, and his closed fists naturally make a square hole.  Nothing but the friction in his finger joints secures the gun in place, but the gun is small enough and the friction tight enough that it's not a problem.  You'll notice that there are some rectangular panels on his forearms.  Those open to reveal some red-painted gizmos that, if I'm not mistaken, were communicators he used in the episode "Make Tracks."  His tummy opens up, too.  It's necessary for one of his gimmicks, but what wasn't necessary was that XTB molded some circuits in there that are vaguely reminiscent of a scene in "Sea Change" where Seaspray "adjusts his dial" to pick up Deceptitran's distress signal.

As for his bucket, shovel, and beach ball I can't recall them appearing in an episode of the cartoon, but you can certainly pose Neptune playing with them like he's having a day at the beach.  His hands can hold onto the shovel and bucket; posing with the ball is a little trickier.

Neptune's alt mode is a thing of beauty.  More than any other Seaspray I own it looks like the G1 cartoon or (especially) the G1 toy, but upscaled.  The upper decks have the right shape and that bit of overhang at the back, and the roof is dominated by bright yellow rectangles.  XTB added some nice details, though.  The windows are translucent blue, and there's molded windshield wipers above the front windows and below the upper deck windshield.  And if you look closely there are some silver-painted dock cleats molded near the front of the vehicle.

Even better, the transformation is pretty smooth and intuitive.  It really makes you wonder why Spindrift was so complicated and came out looking so wrong in both modes.  I guess it makes Fans Toys wonder the same thing, though, since they're apparently re-doing him.

Neptune has four little wheels on the underside so he can roll.  The propellers can spin, and during transformation Neptune's belly flips around to reveal the little gun seen on his roof in the episode "The Golden Lagoon."  A nice side effect of this is that if you put an Autobot insignia on his tummy in robot mode it'll be hidden in alt mode.  Likewise, notice the squared-off section on the blue roof, just in front of the yellow rectangles.  That square splits in half, and each half rotates to the inside of the foot for bot mode.  If you put an insignia there you'll have cartoon-accurate placement in both modes that doesn't show up in the other mode.

Now, as far as accessories go, there's nothing really to do with the bucket, shovel, and beach ball except let someone else play with them.  He does, however, have storage for his gun.  And, notice the notches on the white part of his underside?  And the black ring sticking out the back?

The effect parts clip into those notches, making it look like Spindrift is kicking up a spray of seawater as he zooms along.  And the rope can hook onto the ring.  Meanwhile, those skis that he comes have a number of bumps can grooves that the wedge around the tires under MP Bumblebee's feet and clip over the bumpers on his toes.  With the skis securely fastened to Bee's feet, you can stick the handle at the other end of the rope into Bee's hands to recreate the scene of him waterskiing with Seaspray at the beginning of "Sea Change."

Now, I'm not going to tell you that Neptune is perfect.  I can find at least some flaws with just about any given figure.  In addition to the minor color issues I've already mentioned, I'll say that I wish the double hinge in his waist was a little tighter.  I wish there was a way to get the lined toy face to work with the cartoon eyes.  When the upper deck swivels around for robot mode I wish there was a way to lock it in place.  But I think they're all pretty minor complaints on a figure with good articulation, a good transformation, loads of accessories, and an overall good sculpt with proportions that strike a good balance between the cartoon and the toy.  He is, by a wide margin, the best Seaspray you can buy, but I'll go one further than that and say that he's probably the single best release from X-Transbots to date.  I highly recommend this figure.  If you don't have a Seaspray for your MP collection, this is the one to get.  If you do have a Seaspray in your MP collection Neptune is good enough and inexpensive enough that I think it's even worth upgrading.

[tekering]

I agree "Neptune" is the best Seaspray option we've got, but he's just too off-model for me to justify buying, knowing that a better option will likely be available in the future...

Of course, this constant competition always leads to analysis paralysis, and I never end up buying any version as a result.  (See MP Stunticons, Aerialbots, and Combaticons for more examples of difficult choices I've thus far refrained from making.)  

16 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I haven't decided if I'll go after the other Planet X dinos or not.

Being the only available option for Fall of Cybertron Dinobots (or "Dynobots," in Aligned continuity), that choice was an easy one for me.  Their War For Cybertron Omega Supreme, "Genesis," was one of the most satisfying third-party purchases I'd made, and Planet X has proven themselves to be a consistently reliable manufacturer of very accurate figures.  

They scale extremely well with HasTak's WFC/FOC line as well, of course.  

[technoblue]

6 hours ago, tekering said:

Being the only available option for Fall of Cybertron Dinobots (or "Dynobots," in Aligned continuity), that choice was an easy one for me.  Their War For Cybertron Omega Supreme, "Genesis," was one of the most satisfying third-party purchases I'd made, and Planet X has proven themselves to be a consistently reliable manufacturer of very accurate figures.  

<snip>

They scale extremely well with HasTak's WFC/FOC line as well, of course.  

That's what I'm talkin' about. Nice group photo, @tekering!

I have an early release Summanus with loose leg joints that I mean to fix, but he's in dino mode at the moment so I keep putting it off.

[vlenhoff]

7 hours ago, tekering said:

I agree "Neptune" is the best Seaspray option we've got, but he's just too off-model for me to justify buying, knowing that a better option will likely be available in the future...

Of course, this constant competition always leads to analysis paralysis, and I never end up buying any version as a result.  (See MP Stunticons, Aerialbots, and Combaticons for more examples of difficult choices I've thus far refrained from making.)  

Being the only available option for Fall of Cybertron Dinobots (or "Dynobots," in Aligned continuity), that choice was an easy one for me.  Their War For Cybertron Omega Supreme, "Genesis," was one of the most satisfying third-party purchases I'd made, and Planet X has proven themselves to be a consistently reliable manufacturer of very accurate figures.  

They scale extremely well with HasTak's WFC/FOC line as well, of course.  

Such perfect picture, it almost look like a 3D rendering. Bravo!

[mikeszekely]

7 hours ago, tekering said:

I agree "Neptune" is the best Seaspray option we've got, but he's just too off-model for me to justify buying, knowing that a better option will likely be available in the future...

Of course, this constant competition always leads to analysis paralysis, and I never end up buying any version as a result.  (See MP Stunticons, Aerialbots, and Combaticons for more examples of difficult choices I've thus far refrained from making.)  

Being the only available option for Fall of Cybertron Dinobots (or "Dynobots," in Aligned continuity), that choice was an easy one for me.  Their War For Cybertron Omega Supreme, "Genesis," was one of the most satisfying third-party purchases I'd made, and Planet X has proven themselves to be a consistently reliable manufacturer of very accurate figures.  

They scale extremely well with HasTak's WFC/FOC line as well, of course.  

That's a Hasbro Grimlock in the middle, yeah? Did you paint it yourself? It is that a Takara?

[tekering]

That's TG-19, the stock TakaraTomy release.  You can see why I passed on the $125 "Vulcan" (despite the superior alt. mode).

[nhyone]

11 hours ago, tekering said:

Of course, this constant competition always leads to analysis paralysis, and I never end up buying any version as a result.  (See MP Stunticons, Aerialbots, and Combaticons for more examples of difficult choices I've thus far refrained from making.)

These 'wars' are still ongoing, so you still have time. 

I'm now waiting for some re-issues that may or may not come.

[mikeszekely]

While I like Zeta's Superion a good deal there have been a few things on my mind.  For one, as good as the gestalt is, the four Aerialbot limbs aren't so hot.  And while I think their Silverbolt is the best single-release they've done I remarked in my review of Fans Toys' Motormaster that Zeta's Silverbolt seemed a little cheap by comparison.  Combine that with the fact that Fans Toys figures usually sell out pretty quickly and that Motormaster was a noticeable improvement over a lot of their other recent releases and I was wrestling with FOMO by the time they released Maverick, their Silverbolt.  Ultimately, I caved in and bought a copy.  Did I make the right call?  Read on to find out!

If I'm going to give credit where it's due, Maverick is the more cartoon-accurate of the two.  He's thicker.  There's a recess above his feet.  He's got gold kneepads, a thick, diaper pelvis, a "U" shape in the middle of his torso, the protrusion at his collar, black behind his little shoulder wings, and the diagonal lines on his forearms.  And he's definitely feels like he's got better materials than Zeta's, with loads of diecast and paint on nearly every surface.

Yet for all of the vaunted "Fans Toys Quality," I think Zeta's actually looks cleaner or more refined.  I'm not a fan of the red stripes on the tops of Maverick's thighs.  Actually, I would have preferred if they used either a paler yellow or a metallic gold instead of the yellow they used, which is nearly identical to what they used for their Weirdwolf.  The pair of white tabs flanking his head are a little unsightly, but not as much as the visible mushroom swivels and diecast joints in his lats, or his asymmetric forearms where his left arm has a big tab and his right has a large notch.

I think it's worse from other angles, too.  Yes, they both have backpacks, but Zeta's folds up so that he's got cartoon-accurate wings.  Maverick's got that part of the wings on his legs, with a section more toward the front faking it and the nose hanging off his back like coattails.  Plus, Zeta's looks like it's sitting snug, while Maverick again has noticeable diecast joints including a large diecast bar sticking out of his back and hanging like a bridge over his backpack.

Maverick comes with a gun.  It's one of the smaller Silverbolt guns I've seen, and it feels the most cartoon-like.  He's also got an entire second head with a yelling face, and an extra face that looks kind of like the default but it has a chin strap.  I'm not sure why the yelling face comes with a second head but the third face doesn't; there doesn't seem to be any difference in the actual heads.  Like their Motormaster, Maverick doesn't come with any combiner parts.  The latest word I'm hearing is that the next three each of Aerialbots and Stunticons won't either, that everything needed for combined mode will come with the last member of each team, and that the last member of each team will be priced around the same as Maverick and their Motormaster.  In an era where combiners have been coming down in price that'd make Fans Toys' close to $700 a piece.

Not only does Maverick look a little unpolished to me, I'm sorry to report that his articulation is fairly poor.  His head is on a hinged swivel and can look up an ok amount but not so much down.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets and can technically only extend about 45 degrees laterally on another ratchet.  You can get more, up to a little past 90, but doing so involves partially pulling the shoulder apart like you would for transformation.  His biceps swivel.  His elbows are single hinges, and they fall a bit short of 90 degrees of bend.  His wrists swivel.  His thumbs are on ball joints at the base with a single hinge above it.  His fingers are individually-articulated with a pin hinge at the base and a second hinge mid-knuckle.  He has a waist swivel, but he can only turn about 15 degrees before it's blocked.  His hip skirts can swing forward, pulling the sides along with them, so that his hips can bend about 90 degrees forward and a little less than that backward on a ratchet.  His hip skirts can't move up out of the way for lateral movement, but they can fold in like they do for alt mode.  With the skirt out he gets a little under 90 degrees, with the skirt in he can reach 90.  Those joints are just friction joints, too, which seems a little inadequate given the diecast weight of the legs.  His thighs swivel around his hip joints, and his knees bend 90 degrees on ratchets.  If you move the slide-down covers above his feet out of the way his feet can tilt up, but not down.  His ankles do pivot, but only about 15 degrees (you're looking at about the maximum in the above picture).

The gun is your standard MP fare; tabs on the handle fit into slots on either palm.  He holds it securely.

Maverick's alt mode does look better than Zeta's.  It's got the black nose, gold cockpit, and gold windows that Zeta's was lacking.  It's also a big longer, and the proportions seem better as long as you can ignore the humps just past the midpoint of the fuselage.  The vertical stabilizer has a simple cartoon-accurate yellow stripe instead of Zeta's goofy "Cyper Mission" mark.  And yes, there's some large red chunks sticking out from under the wings.  They're not Concorde-accurate, but they are cartoon-accurate.

An interesting thing here is that Maverick is significantly thinner than Zeta's Silverbolt.  This is because Zeta, like pretty much everyone else who ever made a Silverbolt toy, formed most of the plane from the backpack and squished most of the robot into a block stuck on the underside.  Fans Toys tried to stuff more of Maverick into the actual plane.  His head, the middle of his chest, his midsection, and his pelvis are actually jammed into the fuselage, his calves unfurl into much of the wings and tail.  His pecs and collar move some of their mass to the sides, and his forearms split in half.  Those pecs and shoulders swing around on diecast arms to sit near his hips.  The thing is, while Maverick does ultimately end up with a thinner block of robot on the underside, he still ends up with a block of robot on the underside.  Plus, trying to stuff his thighs partly into the fuselage is why he's got the humps on the other side.  And this is all at the expense of a transformation that, while not as frustrating as Rouge or Quietus, isn't particularly elegant or fun.  Oh, and you notice that there's a red bit sticking off on one side that's lying flat on the other?  That's because the pin hinge that part is on is super loose on both sides of my copy.  Ultimately, shaving a few millimeters of thickness doesn't really feel worth making his transformation so much more complicated than it otherwise needed to be, especially because his shifting pecs and shoulders are the direct cause of his shoulder articulation issues.

Maverick doesn't do much in plane mode, anyway.  He does have rolling landing gear on diecast pieces.  His nose can tilt down, but the droop is too far away from the cockpit and doesn't have a visor.  As near as I can tell there is no storage for his gun in alt mode.

Well, as I said at the beginning of this review, I like Zeta's Superion just fine.  I don't need to replace it with Fans Toys', but I thought that I might use Fans Toys' individual releases as the non-combined Aerialbots.  But if I'm being honest Maverick isn't giving me a lot of confidence.  Fans Toys would do well to figure out that there is such a thing as too much diecast, especially when you're going to jam it into the torso of a 20" combiner.  They need to stop overdoing it with the engineering when a simpler solution exists, especially when that engineering interferes with articulation.  The fact that Fans Toys' stuff sells out so quickly and you're worried you might miss out on this guy if the other four and/or the combined mode turns out to be good is the only reason I can suggest for buying Maverick, otherwise feel free to pass.  While he's not the worst figure Fans Toys has released in the last few years he's a major disappointment after their Motormaster, and I'm not convinced that he's actually better than Zeta's Silverbolt.

[David Hingtgen]

PSST----just use FT's engineering on an XB-70.  Pretty sure they could make it kibble-free at that point.  The space they used for the shins/calves/thighs is "actually there" on an XB-70, and I'm sure they could fold the shoulders into a triangle-shaped-spot to make the tip of the intake.     

[JB0]

I love how the nose drops"just like a real Concorde" and then misses the entire purpose of the nose-droop by placing it too far forward.

[David Hingtgen]

Yup.  And considering how few moving parts/hinges are in the area, and how 30-year-old $3 Corgi diecast Concordes get it right, there's really no excuse not to do it properly.  (not expecting a moving visor, but simply hinging in the proper location would make it 10x better) 

Question of the day---why does the FT one that weird kink in the tailfin, near the front edge?  Has bugged me since early grey proto pics. 

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, David Hingtgen said:

Question of the day---why does the FT one that weird kink in the tailfin, near the front edge?  Has bugged me since early grey proto pics. 

If you look at my pics, you can see seams where sections of the fuselage split, yeah? The last segment, with most of the tailfin, sits inside the leg. The segment right before it, with the kink, is actually the outside edge of his lower leg. The part of the wing with the thrusters is the inside edge of his leg, and the rest of the wing (that isn't on his backpack) wraps around to make the back of his leg. Now, you see those big, reinforced slits near the tips of the wings? When you fold the wings around the fuselage to make his legs those slits slide over the kinked bit of tailfin to lock it all together. Presumably, if the geometry of the tail was more accurate, the slits in the wings would have to be larger, perhaps infeasibly so.

[sh9000]

I might still get Planet X Triton to go with the rest of the Dinobots.

Hopefully I’ll find a Superion that I like to go with XTB’s Menasor.

Waiting for the release of XTB’s Motormaster.

[David Hingtgen]

19 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

If you look at my pics, you can see seams where sections of the fuselage split, yeah? The last segment, with most of the tailfin, sits inside the leg. The segment right before it, with the kink, is actually the outside edge of his lower leg. The part of the wing with the thrusters is the inside edge of his leg, and the rest of the wing (that isn't on his backpack) wraps around to make the back of his leg. Now, you see those big, reinforced slits near the tips of the wings? When you fold the wings around the fuselage to make his legs those slits slide over the kinked bit of tailfin to lock it all together. Presumably, if the geometry of the tail was more accurate, the slits in the wings would have to be larger, perhaps infeasibly so.

I see it--interesting, at least it has a purpose/reason, and isn't just "looked at a Tu-144 accidently while doing the tailfin" or something. 

[nhyone]

12 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Waiting for the release of XTB’s Motormaster.

XTB is so far ahead of its competitors, there is no urgency to release MM. They can easily release him 1 year later and still be ahead.

[sh9000]

[anime52k8]

I dig the new chest sculpt and the extra silver/blue on the arms. I could take or leave the sticker details though and the cream color still looks weird to me. I'd like to see what the other cons look like in this style.

[JB0]

It bugs me a lot that they describe him as a "berserkar". If it is a pun, it is a bad one and should be "bersercar". If it is an error, it is an offensive one and they should learn to spellcheck.

[mikeszekely]

I didn't have any of the Stunticons as a kid. My impression of them is comes entirely from the cartoon, and compared to that I find the toy heads overly generic. So this doesn't interest me at all, but it's nice that XTB is providing it for those that want it.

[nhyone]

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

It bugs me a lot that they describe him as a "berserkar". If it is a pun, it is a bad one and should be "bersercar". If it is an error, it is an offensive one and they should learn to spellcheck.

Is there anything offensive about this word that I missed?

I googled it and 'berserker' is a word. (With 'e', not 'a'.) Maybe they think 'kar' is closer than 'car'.

[nhyone]

42 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

My impression of them is comes entirely from the cartoon, and compared to that I find the toy heads overly generic.

I have the toys and I watched the cartoons. I only remember how Motormaster and Menasor look like.

It is slightly better for Aerialbots as I know there's one with orange head. 

[anime52k8]

On 7/29/2019 at 2:03 AM, nhyone said:

The Wei Jiang gray is too dark, but it looks okay for the blue guardian variant. Very tempted.

(Can't afford to buy FT-20G.)

ShowZstore Just put him on sale:

https://showzstore.com/weijiang-wj-ultima-guard-omegadrone-1-omega-supreme-blue-limited-version_p1011.html

very tempting but I just want one omega in classic colors. Still don't know if I like the DX9 sufficiently more to justify the price.

Edited August 7, 2019 by anime52k8

[JB0]

5 hours ago, nhyone said:

Is there anything offensive about this word that I missed?

I googled it and 'berserker' is a word. (With 'e', not 'a'.) Maybe they think 'kar' is closer than 'car'.

Just that the mis-spelling bugs me a lot. Not that it is a racial slur or anything.

[mikeszekely]

55 minutes ago, JB0 said:

Just that the mis-spelling bugs me a lot. Not that it is a racial slur or anything.

Does it help if you think of it as a berser-car, but in the Mortal Kombat universe?

[JB0]

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Does it help if you think of it as a berser-car, but in the Mortal Kombat universe?

Aktually, yes.

[David Hingtgen]

Thus, the Stuntikons.