The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[nhyone]

20 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

Still don't know if I like the DX9 sufficiently more to justify the price.

What's the cheapest you can find DX9 D12 for?

On TaoBao, some sellers are listing him at ~800 yuan (US$114)! It looks like they just can't get rid of him...

(This is why I'm not surprised DX9 does not release the blue guardian.)

At this price, it is really a "no-brainer", not even considering that it is the best looking OS in bot mode (YMMV).

Shipping would be very expensive, though, so be sure to check it out first.

I'm still thinking, though. I don't feel the need for OS in my collection -- yet. 

Edited August 8, 2019 by nhyone

[anime52k8]

I've never shopped on TaoBao.

[nhyone]

8 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

I've never shopped on TaoBao.

In any case, you can only ship D12 to the US via third-party forwarders.

From my post in TFW:

I've checked with them: 70cm x 50cm x 58cm, sum = 178cm.

Zhongshan EMS limit is 80cm for the longest side, 130cm in total. JCEX limit is 80cm for the longest side, 150cm in total. It won't be possible to ship DX9 D12 in its original packaging to USA using the official forwarders.

Based on the dimensions, the volumetric weight is 33.8 kg! Looks like this option is out.

[David Hingtgen]

Normally first sample pic of a high-end combiner gets a lot of attention, but TFC's Sinnertwin is kinda being ignored (maybe because of MMC's Vortex release?)

 

 

[mikeszekely]

It's nice to see that TFC is still moving ahead with that, considering that the only thing I can think of that they released this year was a repaint of last year's S.T. Commander and I was worried that they're dead.  But I don't see myself replacing Ordin with TFC's.

Anyway, TFSource might have screwed up my order and I still can't finish my reviews of CHUG-style Grimlocks... but how about an MP style one?  Yes, at long last we're finishing Gigapower's Gigasaurs with a look at Superator.

While I quite liked MP-08 ten years ago when he first came out, I seem to recall even then there were complaints that he was too small.  If I'm remembering that wrong, there were definitely complaints when MP-10 came out as the new standard for Takara's MP scale and he was still roughly the same size as MP-08.  Well, like the other Gigasaurs before him, Superator is an appropriately larger figure.  And Superator brings the other usual Gigapower trappings, including a grayish silver paint over most of the body, multiple painted accents including on the insides of his wings, luscious red chrome on his red bits, and a brilliant gold chrome on his chest and dino claws that makes my Hasbro MP-08 look positively dull by comparison.

There's been some complaints about his legs being too skinny, and I'm not sure I agree with that.  Proportionally, they look pretty similar in-hand to MP-08's, after all.  His chest is broader, though, and although his shoulders don't sit as high on his body as MP-08's his arms are thicker.  Maybe that's what's throwing people off.  Regardless, I think an improvement over both MP-08 and Fans Toys' Grinder, at least aesthetically.  My only real complaint would be that the soles of Superator's feet swivel out for transformation in a manner that's basically identical to MP-08's but they lack any kind of detailing on the sole-side, whereas MP-08 had those thrusters.

Superator doesn't come with a ton of accessories.  Like the other Gigasaurs he comes with a sword sporting a black hilt and red translucent blade, with a switch on the bottom for activating the LED.  He comes with a gun, which actually doesn't seem to have a spot for an LED.  I do dig the smoked translucent plastic for the barrels and over a gold-painted sbot between them.  Speaking of smoked translucent, there's a smoked translucent panel to go over his chest.  He, of course, comes with his crown, which seems to be standard issue for a Grimlock toy these days.  And, in lieu of a way to change the eye color on the default blue-eyed head, Gigapower included and entire second head.  The red-eyed head doesn't have exactly the same sculpt, though.  See, the blue-eyed head has smooth cheeks, ala G1 Grimlock, but the red-eyed head has fangs molded onto the cheeks, a detail that I believe was first used on Dreamwave's War Within design for Grimlock.  It's a shame that you can't mix and match the eye colors with the different faces (and no, the red-eyed head isn't lighter, it's just how my camera picked up the lighting).

I didn't count his dino arms as accessories, but it's worth noting that they are not installed in the box.

Superator's articulation is an improvement over the decade-old MP-08, but it's perhaps a tad underwhelming by 2019 standards.  His head is on a ball joint that can look down and up a decent amount (although pushing his head too far up will pop it off the ball joint), tilt a small amount sideways, and swivel.  His chin is a little long, though, and you almost have to make him look up a little for it to clear his collar when you turn his head.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and extend laterally just shy of 90 degrees on another ratcheted joint.  His bicep swivels, which are quite tight, are ratcheted.  His elbows are double-jointed and ratcheted at both ends but still only combine for 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel, and each finger is individually articulated with pins at the base and middle knuckles on each finger plus swivels to allow his fingers some splay.  The thumb also has two hinged knuckles, but the very base is a ball joint so he can swivel his thumb and fold it down over his palm.  His waist swivels, and interestingly enough there's a button on his back.  If you press it, you'll unlock a 45-degree ab crunch.  Like MP-08, his wings can be angled up on a ratcheted joint.  His hip skirts are hinged to allow his hips to bend almost 90 degrees forward, a little less than 90 degrees backward, and 90 degrees laterally, all on ratchets.  His thighs swivel.  His ratcheted knees bend 90 degrees, but they can also go one click in the wrong direction due to his transformation (which you can use to kind of cheat his lower leg into the position it'd naturally be if his hips could bend the full 90 degrees forward.  Like many of the other Gigasaurs a ratcheted transformation hinge can also allow him to bow out at the knee.  And you may need to do that to keep him flat-footed, because his ankle pivot is worse than MP-08's.  It's practically non-existent, which isn't something I should have to write on an MP-style figure in 2019.  For crying out loud, DX9's little Legends-class Grimlock has 90 degrees of pivot!

It's probably worth mentioning here that my biggest complaint with MP-08, even at the time, was just how floppy he was, especially mid-transformation.  Nothing is floppy on Superator.  Pick him up, give him a good shake, and nothing moves.

He holds his weapons fairly well using the time-tested method of pushing tabs on the handles into slots on his palms.  While they feel pretty secure, the vibration from his shoulder ratchets can pop them loose.

Dino mode is, again, par for Gigapower's course.  Unlike FT's Grinder, which I felt took a few liberties with the angled claws and the default dinosaur head having a more organic shape, Superator hews pretty closely to G1 and doesn't stray too far from MP-08.  Again, he's covered in paint, and the gold chrome is brighter, which helps it not look so green under the translucent plastic on his neck.  The molded greebles are a bit sharper, and painted up a little more like the G1 toy.  Just as his arms were a bit thicker proportionally in robot mode, his legs are a little thicker now than MP-08's, with thicker, stumpier claws.  Aesthetically, my complaints are fairly minimal again.  I prefer blue eyes for the dinosaur mode, but by now it's pretty well established that the chrome releases have red eyes and the blue eyes are on the metallic versions.  From what I've heard, a color-changing gimmick ala MP-08's was something the designer wanted to include but Gigapower nixed for whatever reason.  The rocket booster wing hinges seem a tad too large.  There's no detail on the underside of the dino foot.  Once again, this was something I think MP-08 did better, with the other side of the wrist having boosters molded in that were exposed when you tucked in the hands.  And lastly, the flat space Gigapower left for an Autobot emblem doesn't hide away in dino mode the way MP-08's did.  This isn't a huge deal for me, but again it's apparently something the designer wanted to include but Gigapower ultimately nixed.

In dino mode Superator's articulation is a bit closer to MP-08's.  The dinosaur head can swivel 360 degrees on ratchet, and it's got about 90 degrees of range from parallel with his spin to a right angle with his spine, also on a ratchet.  His ratcheted jaws can open about 90 degrees, revealing chrome inside his mouth and on his teeth, plus a silver-painted flamethrower.  His dino shoulders are ball joints, and his got elbow hinges that can bend 90 degrees.  He's got wrist swivels, but turning his wrists pushes them off the mushroom pegs.  Each of his claws are pinned at the base so they can wiggle, and the pinky claw is slightly shorter than the other two.  His hips can still rotate and extend on ratchets.  His knees can't bend too far, largely due to his elbow pads hindering the joints.  No dino ankle pivots, but that's somewhat expected, I think.  The claws on his feet can bend up and down a little, though.  And his tail has a tiny amount of swish at the base.

A slot on his back does allow his gun to be tabbed onto it.  I couldn't find any storage for his sword, though.  Weirdly, there are hexagonal peg holes on the his dino thighs, but they don't seem to serve a purpose.

Oh, and be advised, there have been reports of breakages.  See, to fold in is robot fists the front of the forearm folds up.  However, the clearance needed to open the forearm is pretty tight.  If you encounter any resistance stop immediately.  What you need to do is bend the elbow backward at the lower joint, and you'll see a little seam start to appear between the hinge and the elbow joint.  Once you do that, the flap will open with no problem.  Again, though, it seems like this problem could have been avoided if they'd copied MP-08 and put the flap on the inside of the forearm instead of the front.

And there you have it, folks.  After four long years the last of the Gigasaurs has been released.  I can't help feeling, though, like the line didn't go out on quite the bang I'd hoped.  Don't misunderstand, I think Superator is the best MP-style Grimlock on the market today, beating out MP-08, the upscaled Reximus KO, and Fans Toys' Grinder.  But while you could see the steady improvement in the Gigasaur line from Guttur to Grassor to Graviter, Superator (and Gaudentor before him) feel like a bit of backwards step, especially with the extremely poor ankle pivots.  In Superator's case the regression is somewhat exacerbated by the fact that, even though he fixes the size, proportions, articulation, and floppiness of MP-08 there's still some things that MP-08 did better.  The real kicker is that some of those things, like the color-changing eyes and the hiding chest symbol, are things that were apparently planned at one stage but killed at some point.  As a result, Superator feels a little rushed, like Gigapower just wanted to hurry up and get him out so they could be done with dinobots.  So Superator is a good figure and the best MP-Grimlock available, and I do recommend him.  He's just not the definitive Grimlock I was hoping he'd be.

[JB0]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

He, of course, comes with his crown, which seems to be standard issue for a Grimlock toy these days. 

How else are we supposed to know that him Grimlock king?

 

Kind of a shame they stumbled at the finish line here. If they'd kept it up for all five of their legally-distinct converting robot dinosaurs, this woulda been something very impressive.

I do like that the transparent plastic is a part of his dinosaur neck on this one, though. The previous iterations suffered a bit from trying to offer both toy-style and cartoon-style with the add-on smoky plastic pieces. Integrating the smoky plastic into the design makes for a nicer end result.

[anime52k8]

Well, I'm feeling really stupid right now. I made the obviously bad decision to buy a set of KFC articulated hands and upgraded joints for MP Star Saber from China via ebay. Well the hands got here first and they kind of suck, all the finger are really loose and pop off easily and the sword hilt adapter (the main reason I bought the set) doesn't work the way it's supposed to. looking closely some of the details look a little off from the pictures I've seen online and I'm pretty sure these are KO's. I'm expecting the joint set to be equally bad. I also had a KO ratbat coming, but apparently that's trapped in some sort of extra-dimensional time loop where it keeps teleporting in and out of the same three distribution centers over and over.  I'm annoyed and I'm sure it's not even worth the effort it would take to get a refund.

[tekering]

Finally, a Vortex toy that looks like the Vortex I remember.

Ocular Max has done it again!  

14 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

I'm pretty sure these are KO's.

KFC knock-offs?  That's nightmare fuel, right there.  

[vlenhoff]

1 minute ago, tekering said:

Finally, a Vortex toy that looks like the Vortex I remember.

Ocular Max has done it again!  

KFC knock-offs?  That's nightmare fuel, right there.  

It is kinda sad when a 3rd party company can make a better product than the original creators.

Is this a KO? SHUDDUP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

[anime52k8]

14 minutes ago, tekering said:

KFC knock-offs?  That's nightmare fuel, right there.  

Yum yum!

[tekering]

5 minutes ago, vlenhoff said:

It is kinda sad when a 3rd party company can make a better product than the original creators.

It was sad a decade ago... but nowadays, it's Standard Operating Procedure.

TakaraTomy pulls out all the bells and whistles to make their newest Masterpiece Optimus the finest yet, only to be beaten to market by both Transform Element and Magic Square, both significantly more accurate and both at a fraction of the cost of MP-44.  These days, third-party products are making HasTak look like a joke.

[Mechapilot77]

16 minutes ago, tekering said:

It was sad a decade ago... but nowadays, it's Standard Operating Procedure.

TakaraTomy pulls out all the bells and whistles to make their newest Masterpiece Optimus the finest yet, only to be beaten to market by both Transform Element and Magic Square, both significantly more accurate and both at a fraction of the cost of MP-44.  These days, third-party products are making HasTak look like a joke.

true....BUT MS has a bad alt mode rear half, and TE-01 doesn't have mp-44's articulation.  that said, TE-01 is my OP.  skipping mp-44 for now.  skipping an mp op form takara was unthinkable to me just a year or two ago.  now, I'm thinking of even picking up anohter TE-01 as backup and maybe painting the grey waist hinges white....of the other way around...get rid of the white and go silver/grey.  that said the painting part probably won't happen but the backup copy might (mine's a V1 and the V2 has more ratchet teeth apparently).

[Mechapilot77]

37 minutes ago, tekering said:

Finally, a Vortex toy that looks like the Vortex I remember.

Ocular Max has done it again!  

KFC knock-offs?  That's nightmare fuel, right there.  

the individual bots and alt modes mostly look great, but are pricey!  at between carbot and seeker height they are right sized for my head canon too (if not the scale chart) if the combined mode was more to my liking i'd have one of these already too.

[anime52k8]

44 minutes ago, Mechapilot77 said:

true....BUT MS has a bad alt mode rear half, and TE-01 doesn't have mp-44's articulation.  that said, TE-01 is my OP.  skipping mp-44 for now.  skipping an mp op form takara was unthinkable to me just a year or two ago.  now, I'm thinking of even picking up anohter TE-01 as backup and maybe painting the grey waist hinges white....of the other way around...get rid of the white and go silver/grey.  that said the painting part probably won't happen but the backup copy might (mine's a V1 and the V2 has more ratchet teeth apparently).

I don't see anything wrong with MS-01's alt mode.

[Mechapilot77]

11 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

I don't see anything wrong with MS-01's alt mode.

I just think the rear is too thick...its a worse offender than mp-10 there , so much so that mp-10s trailer won't work heightwise with ms-01.  Out of the 3 choices,  it's the only one I can point to that has a "worse " alt mode overall than mp-10.  Of course that's just my opinion and some people don't give a crap about the alt mode anyway.

[anime52k8]

Personally I think MS has the better truck mode. It's thicker in back but it's cleaner and the cab has the best proportions and details of the three.

[anime52k8]

Nicee painted prototype. also showing off the alternate head and kibble configuration (the standard Arcee head is in the right hand corner of the last pic next to the option hands and boobs). I like that they're including an alternate head, I've never cared for G1 Arcee's head.

[pengbuzz]

On 8/20/2019 at 10:33 PM, anime52k8 said:

Well, I'm feeling really stupid right now. I made the obviously bad decision to buy a set of KFC articulated hands and upgraded joints for MP Star Saber from China via ebay. Well the hands got here first and they kind of suck, all the finger are really loose and pop off easily and the sword hilt adapter (the main reason I bought the set) doesn't work the way it's supposed to. looking closely some of the details look a little off from the pictures I've seen online and I'm pretty sure these are KO's. I'm expecting the joint set to be equally bad. I also had a KO ratbat coming, but apparently that's trapped in some sort of extra-dimensional time loop where it keeps teleporting in and out of the same three distribution centers over and over.  I'm annoyed and I'm sure it's not even worth the effort it would take to get a refund.

Yeah; those are reasons I largely don't order KO's and 3p from overseas (for anything)., Quality issues and the risk of losing said items in "black holes".

[sh9000]

Both look cool.

[Tking22]

I might bite on Warpath, I never got the BadCube version, but easy pass on Brawn, I'm plenty happy with BadCube Brawny, he still looks good and is a charmer IMO. 

[Scyla]

I greatly dislike the bare die-cast metal on their Warpath. The treads look especially terrible to me.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, Tking22 said:

I might bite on Warpath, I never got the BadCube version, but easy pass on Brawn, I'm plenty happy with BadCube Brawny, he still looks good and is a charmer IMO. 

Exactly the same here. FT's Brawn doesn't look like a huge improvement over BC's, but I don't have a Warpath yet.

[nhyone]

Since no one has done it...

Zeta Toys really need to pay their electrical bills.

Edited August 31, 2019 by nhyone
Updated brightened-up images

[nhyone]

On 8/29/2019 at 7:17 AM, mikeszekely said:

Exactly the same here. FT's Brawn doesn't look like a huge improvement over BC's, but I don't have a Warpath yet.

I have no interest in Brawn. I rather have both Wardog and Sheridan.

[nhyone]

On 8/26/2019 at 8:53 AM, anime52k8 said:

Nicee painted prototype. also showing off the alternate head and kibble configuration

Pretty thick hips. The pink is too dark for my liking.

I should not have pre-ordered it so early. 

[derex3592]

Is that Zeta Toys Unicron going to be as big and $$$ as the may or may not happen Haslab? Personally I would be fine with it being like 12-14 inches high in robot mode if it was more affordable. 

[technoblue]

2 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

Is that Zeta Toys Unicron going to be as big and $$$ as the may or may not happen Haslab? Personally I would be fine with it being like 12-14 inches high in robot mode if it was more affordable. 

Over on tfw2005, people are saying the Zeta Unicron will be around 18" tall. Personally, I think Hasbro's spacing for the rings in planet mode is better.

[tekering]

3 minutes ago, technoblue said:

I think Hasbro's spacing for the rings in planet mode is better.

Yeah, Hasbro nailed the planet mode... but Zeta's robot mode is clearly superior, even at this early stage.

[mikeszekely]

Zeta's will be around 40cm (18 inches,  has almost no kibble (and no partsforming), and Zeta is saying the suggested retail price should be under 1500 yuan (around $200). A lot of people are complaining that it's too small, but IMO it doesn't matter how big or small it is it's never going to scale with other figures so it doesn't really matter.

[derex3592]

I'm all in if the paint apps look good. 

[captain america]

8 hours ago, tekering said:

Yeah, Hasbro nailed the planet mode... but Zeta's robot mode is clearly superior, even at this early stage.

Disagree. I still like the head, chest and arms on Hasbro's version more, not to mention how the ring looks like gigantic folded bat wings in robot mode and adds to is already ominous presence. Plus the maw on the Zeta offering looks like a sphincter. I dare you to unsee that!

[anime52k8]

OH GOD! HE'S TAKEN HIS FIRST FACE! NOW THERE WILL BE NO STOPPING HIS UNCONTROLLABLE BLOODLUST!

Edited August 31, 2019 by anime52k8

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

32 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

OH GOD! HE'S TAKEN HIS FIRST FACE! NOW THERE WILL BE NO STOPPING HIS UNCONTROLLABLE BLOODLUST!

Stunticon: "Daddy, chill..."

[tekering]

5 hours ago, captain america said:

I still like the head, chest and arms on Hasbro's version more, not to mention how the ring looks like gigantic folded bat wings in robot mode and adds to is already ominous presence. Plus the maw on the Zeta offering looks like a sphincter. I dare you to unsee that!

Agreed on the chest and forearms (and the pelvis is definitely better than Zeta's, now that I can see it), and the skeletal wing motif is cool... but Hasbro's head is just too far off-model.  Can't unsee that.

Unfortunately, since Zeta's will be significantly smaller, it's no longer a viable alternative.

Guess I'll just stick with my Fewture EX Gohkin Plus.

[Negotiator]

zeta unicron, under 200?? i'm in.  curious what the back of that thing looks like.  

dug out my old armada unicron and thought to just repaint and resculpt some parts and call it a day, but discovered his head does not turn because of the light gimmick!  that's like a deal breaker! ugh.  maybe i could just put a screw under his head to make it swivel.. idk  there's going to be a lot of staring at the thing lol. anyway...

couldn't a 3rd party make a new head for the hasbro's version?