The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[Kuma Style]

Great review @mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

Forgive the lighting (and dust, didn't realize it was that bad up there until I looked at the picture).

When Dragstrip comes out I'll combine them all up, and replace the bot-mode DX9 guys with the Fans Toys ones.  XTB will either be alt mode or a toy/OX Menasor.

[Convectuoso]

On 7/4/2020 at 7:27 PM, danth said:

I almost bought that one. Isn't it like $12 on ebay or something ridiculous?

I got it for $10.00 plus shipping on AliExpress

[Kuma Style]

 

 

[tekering]

Oh, I like that.  A third-party Minerva, I take it?

[sh9000]

I can’t wait to order XTB Gravestone’s trailer to complete my MP Stunticons.  I should have ordered a second complete set at TFSource but some are now sold out.  The youth versions are a maybe.

[Kuma Style]

15 minutes ago, tekering said:

Oh, I like that.  A third-party Minerva, I take it?

Yea it's from Fans Hobby. It's called Athena. I haven't transformed it yet... looked at the instructions and it said 80-something steps and after just finishing a review that took a legit week to tape it kiiiinda put me off. 


The alt. mode is extremely nice, though. Torn on whether or not to apply the stickers included.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

I

1 hour ago, Kuma Style said:

Yea it's from Fans Hobby. It's called Athena. I haven't transformed it yet... looked at the instructions and it said 80-something steps and after just finishing a review that took a legit week to tape it kiiiinda put me off. 


The alt. mode is extremely nice, though. Torn on whether or not to apply the stickers included.

Dang, she sounds tedious. I got one on preorder because I couldn't deny her killer Porsche 959 alt mode.  I'm hoping FH makes a rally colored repaint.

Edited July 7, 2020 by Valkyrie Hunter D

[Kuma Style]

50 minutes ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Dang, she sounds tedious. 

TBF I haven't looked into the intracacies of it. For all I know it could still take 5 minutes but will certainly update come review time.

[mikeszekely]

I have Athena on preorder, too, but I'll probably hold off on shipping her until MMC's Blast Off drops.

[Convectuoso]

Great pictures, @Kuma Style

[mikeszekely]

Yesterday I did say I got StutncionS, plural.  I also got Magnum, Fans Toys' take on Wildrider.  Bonus- with all three Wildriders in hand it's time for another detailed Stunticon comparison review! (X-Transbots on the left, Fans Toys in the middle, DX9 on the right unless otherwise noted.)

If there's one thing Fans Toys is known for, one thing I have to give them credit for even when I'm ranting about them, it's that they make good-looking robots.  And while I do think that's true here, Magnum does indeed look good, I'm a bit surprised to note that Magnum is not the most cartoon-accurate.  For starters, of the three Wildriders Magnum is the only one with silver paint instead of white on the torso.  While I've often argued against using white for stuff like Soundwave's forearms or Optimus' thighs, suggesting that it was an '80s animation stand in for the silver/chrome/bare metal you'd find on the toys, I actually think white looks more correct for Wildrider.  But, suppose we accept the silver for now.  There's still a large square of gray in the middle of his chest that should definitely match the silver.  There's also some added molded detail under the blue squares that's not cartoon-accurate, but seems to be meant to disguise the pins running through his torso there.

Aside from wishing his silver was white and the gray square under his chin were matched to his torso I don't have much to complain about.  FT used translucent blue for the squares instead of just paint, and I dig it.  He's got asymmetric squares, as the cartoon does, but I do feel like the bottoms of the blue squares should have lined up.  Where XTB interpreted Wildrider's character model as having white the whole way down his torso and a gray pelvis and DX9 interpreted the model as a white chest and gray midriff before adding a new pelvis, Fans toys sort of split the difference and I think it works.  Ultimately, they all have the vented pattern in the middle, the octagons on his shins, and the protruding rectangles on the knee (although FT added some non-cartoon translucent red there) with a trapezoid swooping down to his shin, and the lined circles on the toes.  The metallic red paint looks best on XTB but still quite good on Magnum, and both are better than the simple gloss red on DX9.  In pictures the darker gray on Magnum doesn't look as metallic as XTB's, but in person it is metallic and arguably closer to the cartoon's colors than the other two.  On the whole, though, I think I have to give the visual edge to XTB this time.

As you'd expect, though, Magnum is the heaviest of the three, with FT's usual overload of diecast.  I think Magnum also has the messiest back.  Not to say it's bad, it's just not as clean as the other two.  Despite the kibble, I don't think he's all that thicker than DX9's, which was often ridiculed for being too thin.  Personally I think both are fine, and TF fans are just too used to figures hauling around giant backpacks.

I'm not going to beat a dead horse on robot mode scale; FT's are Seeker-sized like DX9's and XTB's are the same size as the Autobot cars.  Whichever scale you prefer, you have options.

Magnum doesn't come with much in the way of accessories.  There's an alternate open-mouthed face, and a gun.  On the right you can see how Magnum's gun (middle) compares with XTB's (top) and DX9's (bottom).  None are awful, but I do prefer the extra little detail on XTB's and FT's.

Magnum's head is on a hinged swivel.  His head rotates and he can look up about 45 degrees, but he doesn't have much in the way of looking down.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets and can extend laterally over 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel.  He does have double-jointed elbows, although the upper joint is very tight on my copy.  I don't want to force it too hard, so I can't be sure of the range, but he can definitely bend his elbows more than 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel.  His fingers are individually-articulated with a pin at the base and middle knuckles, while his thumbs are ball-jointed at the base with no additional articulation.  His waist can swivel.  His hips can ratchet forward and backward just about 90 degrees, and they can spread on friction joints to a little under 90 degrees.  His thighs swivel, and his knees are double-jointed with a ratchet at the top and friction at the bottom, and combined they'll bend until his shins hit his thighs.  His feet can tilt up very slightly, down almost 90 degrees, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees.  Worth noting that all of his joints feel quite solid and overall his articulation is pretty good (which is really nice after Iceman, FT's previous figure).  However, I'd be a bit remiss if I didn't mention that he's lacking an ab crunch, something XTB and DX9 both have.

Magnum's gun has tabs on the handle that fit into slots on his palms.  Nothing new or unusual there.

Where Fans Toys' figures often go wrong for me is the transformation, which are often include questionable decisions at best and at worst are overly-complicated and poorly-tolerances nightmares to mess with.  However, much as was the case with Spoiler (their Breakdown), Magnum is actually pretty straightforward and relatively easy to transform.  And the resulting car looks pretty good.

There seems to be less mass-shifting magic going on here than there was for Spoiler, though, as Magnum's dimensions are very similar to DX9's.  XTB's is narrower and a little shorter.  However, I can't help but feel like the difference between all three isn't as pronounced as it was for the Breakdowns.

While I think Magnum looks good enough (for a layperson), after doing way more research into Ferrari's than I care to I'll point out that Magnum is the least accurate 308 of the bunch.  Magnum has a more flared tail, a trio of slits behind the rear tires, he's missing the louvers on the rear windows, he's missing the marker lights in front of the tires on the sides, his chin is less pronounced, and he's got four big lights and a less-defined grill.  The differences between Magnum and the other two had me double-checking that FT didn't accidentally go with the very similar Ferrari 328, but no, overall he's still closer to a 308.  But the award for best alt mode definitely goes to XTB.

That is, of course, unless you care about gimmicks.  Magnum has the pop out headlights.  DX9 has both the headlights and doors that open.  XTB's.... it just sits there looking good, I suppose.

As far as other gimmicks, Magnum rolls on rubber tires.  The handle of his gun can fold back, exposing a post with a tab on it.  The tab fits into a slot in his rear windshield.  But super careful, though.  On my copy the tab was a super tight fit, and I was worried that I was going to break something trying to get it back out.

Sometimes slow and steady wins a race.  While I feel like XTB and DX9's Wildriders excel at different things they also have their weak points.  Magnum mostly excels at being very good all-around.  I think you guys have read enough of my reviews of Fans Toys figures to know that I'm not one of their fan boys, I don't pull punches with them, and if I think a figure has issues I'll say so.  With that in mind I hope you know it's serious when I say that this is a great figure I highly recommend as the best of of the Wildriders.  That isn't to say that the others are bad- I think DX9 still has an edge in ease of transformation and playability, and XTB's is the most real world-accurate in alt mode and cartoon-accurate in bot mode.  I'll also note that XTB's Wildrider is probably the easiest of their Stunticons to transform, too, and they've all got similar accessories and good articulation.  All three are great figures, and if you're already collecting a different set I'm sure you're happy with it, but if I had to pick a winner it's definitely Magnum first, XTB second, and DX9 third.  And for those of you keeping score, that means I'm picking Fans Toys for the overall winner three out of three times now (with XTB coming in second on Motormaster and Wildrider and DX9 edging them out on Breakdown).  Of course there is the usual caveat that the Stunticons are a combiner, and we really don't know how XTB's and FT's Menasor will work out yet.  But since I'm still in on all three sets I guess I'll have my options.

[Kuma Style]

7 hours ago, Convectuoso said:

Great pictures, @Kuma Style

TYVM man.

[Kuma Style]

 

[mikeszekely]

I really should get around to picking up Divine Shooter.

[Kuma Style]

[Sildani]

Any word on Nicee lately?

[sh9000]

[mikeszekely]

I have the first go of X-Transbot's Hoist.  It's an ok figure; not without issues, but at the time I felt it was the best representation of the character.  This new repaint does look better, but not $40 more than I paid the first time better.

And frankly, while I do think XTB's looks more like Hoist than MMC's or BadCube's, I didn't like it enough to buy the mold twice.  I'll either wait and see if MMC reissues theirs, check out Fans Toys' (if they ever release it), or buy a used MMC from someone who decided to "upgrade" to Fans Toys (if it ever releases).

[Kuma Style]

[David Hingtgen]

mike---are you sure Magnum isn't a Ferrari 288?  4 big lights up front,"gill slits" at the rear, and a swept-up spoiler:

(and those distinctive side-mirrors that everyone at TFW seem obsessed over...)

G1 Wildrider (the toy at least, who knows what the animation model was Frankensteined from), is a 308 GTB QV as best I can tell.  

[mikeszekely]

45 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

mike---are you sure Magnum isn't a Ferrari 288?  4 big lights up front,"gill slits" at the rear, and a swept-up spoiler:

I'm not super up on older Ferraris... I was more into Lamborghini and Porsche in the '80s.  I'm reasonably certain you're correct, Wildrider is a 308 GTB QV, that's definitely what XTB went for and probably what DX9 did as well (harder to say, because DX9's is less detailed overall).  Based on the differences I had a feeling that Fans Toys messed up the alt mode, but I was just searching for something like "Ferraris similar to 308" and every hit I got was the 328.  And it didn't look like the 328, so I was back to thinking maybe they did use the right Ferrari but messed up some details.  But now that you've drawn my attention to it, yeah, Magnum is totally the 288 GTO.  Which, y'know, they named him Magnum after Magnum PI, who drove 308 on the show, and Wildrider is supposed to be a 308, but then they went and used a car that wasn't Wildrider or on the show. 

[mikeszekely]

Not to distract from the wrongness of Magnum's alt mode, but I got this kit from Nonnef Productions for Earthrise Optimus Prime's trailer that I suspect has been one of his more popular and anticipated kits.

I've bought a few of Nonnef's kits now, and I'm used to getting one or two plastic baggies with some parts, sometimes on sprues and sometimes not.  I was a bit impressed to find five baggies, two of them with two compartments, and a loose black piece inside the package.

NOTE: When you order the kit you'll have three drop down options, asking you to select you interior, exterior, and cart colors.  For the exterior that's the fenders and the struts (but not the feet), and you can pick from blue, gray, and black.  I think the fenders and struts were blue in the cartoon and on MP-44, black on Hasbro MP-10, black and gray on Takara MP-10, and black fenders with blue struts on the G1 toy, so I went with blue for the exterior.  For the interior, which is just for the consoles, and cart (Roller) you can pick from blue or gray.  The consoles are, as far as I know, blue on pretty much every Prime with a working trailer, so I went with blue for the interior.  While the cartoon and Japanese MPs used gray or silver for Roller my G1 Prime and my Hasbro MP-10 have blue Rollers, so I went with blue for a third time.

It took me a minute to get everything organized, but I wound up making four piles: a pile of parts for the outside of the trailer, a pile of parts for the inside of the trailer, a pile of parts just to make the gas thingy, and a pile of parts to make a Roller.

So let's start with the outside of the trailer.  First thing you'll do is pull the entire trailer door off the trailer, not just the shield part.  It's just friction clipped in.  Then pop the new door on.

Flip the trailer over and remove the wheels by removing four screws.  Then take the fender parts, noting which side faces out and which side faces in.  There are two tabs (A) that tuck into a hollow space on the bottom of the trailer.  While you're looking at this part, notice the tab (B) on the back?

Get the bumper part, and insert the translucent taillights.  Now, on the back of the bumper are two holes.  Line up the bumper with the slits in it pointing down (or up, since your trailer is probably upside down at this point) so the holes on the back fit over the tabs I called out above.

With the fenders an bumper in place you can put the wheels back on.  But, don't screw them in all the way.  The wheels will overlap and trap part of the fender, forcing you to leave a little gap.  If you screw in too hard the wheels will start to bend inward.  Why Nonnef didn't design the overlap to be a little bigger and naturally fit over the screw holes I couldn't say, but you basically want it to look like the above picture.

You might have already realized that since the wheels can't sit as flush as before the ride height of the trailer is slightly higher.  Don't worry, Nonnef has that covered with a piece that fits over the trailers peg on one end and provides a new peg on the other end.  The new peg winds up a little lower than the original, correcting for the new ride height.  It also allows the trailer to sit back a little further on Prime, which I guess does look a little better/correct.  I wasn't really bent out of shape over how close the trailer was to the cab, to be honest.

The last parts for the outside are the support struts.  Once again, take note of which side faces out and which side faces in.  The struts simply plug into the 5mm ports on the underside of the trailer, although this technically means that they're inverted from the G1 trailer, swinging out from the front to the back instead of from the back to the front, but it's not a huge deal.  What's a bigger deal to me is the feet.  While Nonnef's kits are injection-molded and not 3D-printed, they're relatively simple and Nonnef avoids things like screws or such.  So the struts don't angle down as they come out like the original, nor do they have sliding feet like MP-10's.  Instead, the feet are hollow with a peg hole through one side, and the struts themselves have a flat piece with a peg hole.  If you want the feet on the ground you put the feet on the peg one way, so the flat part of the strut is on the solid end and the flat end of the foot is on the ground.  If you want the foot retracted you'd remove it and flip it around, so the flat part of the strut nestles inside the foot.

While I'd prefer a less parsformery solution for the struts and feet they do work fine.  And while the trailer door isn't an exact color match for the trailer's plastic it's close enough and, in my opinion, looks a lot better than the original door.  Although, and I get that Nonnef was copying the G1 trailer, I think I could have lived without the two big tabs at the top, or at least smaller versions of them.  The bumper and fenders help fill out the back and give the trailer a much more complete look.

On to the inside.  You'll get two console pieces that are very similar to what's inside the G1 or MP-10 trailer.  They have two pegs on their undersides; you'll only use one, but it allows you to decide which console goes on which side, and installing them is as simple as plugging them into one of the three peg holes on either side of the trailer.  Because they're using the existing peg holes you're not really able to get them into a configuration that's an exact match for the G1 trailer, but I think this is close enough.

The parts for the drone are a little weird.  They're meant to give the drone the antenna and longer, jointed claw arm of the G1 toy, but rather than replace the drone's existing arms it uses them as connection points.  So the antenna plugs into the drone's right arm, then you'd fold the arm back .  The claw goes into the left arm, and uses the drone's original claw as an elbow.  Lastly, you get a pair of missiles that you can push into the 5mm ports on the front of the drone.  I think all of this works well enough, but regardless of what colors you picked when you ordered the antenna, claw, and missiles will all be a dark gray plastic.  I think I'll have to bust out the silver paint, which I think will mean painting the drones original arms...

Building Roller takes a bit of work, but all the parts are designed to peg together without any screws or tools.  Start by plugging the seat divider into the base (1).  On my copy I had to file the holes before the divider would actually fit.  Once it's in place you can fit one side onto the base, but hold off on the other side until you attach the nose and rear (2).  Once you've done all that you can push the other side on, giving everything a good squeeze before locking the sides on with the wheels (3).  Be careful not to put any wheels on backward.  Lastly, finish it off by plugging in the translucent siren.  Nonnef's product photos show it on the right side, but based on the G1 cartoon, MP-10, and MP-44 the middle is more accurate.  Whichever hole you use you can expect it to be a tight fit.

I'm actually not too keen on Nonnef's Roller.  Like most of the parts in the kit, Roller's had some bad sprue marks.  It's not the worst thing when it's on a spot that's mostly hidden, but in this case there's a big mark on the nose, plus each tire had one.  The wheels don't roll that well to begin with.  The pieces don't fit together exactly, leaving gaps on the back and nose.  There isn't a ton of molded detail or the yellow lights on the nose.  And despite ER Prime's trailer being smaller than the G1 trailer and much smaller than MP-10s, Nonnef's "cart" is about halfway in between the G1 and MP-10 Roller in size.  That said, the size was a very deliberate choice, because it was designed to carry up to four Titan Masters.  The ones that sit in the back either have to face backward or kneel, though.

The last thing to build is is the gas thingy.  To do this, take the two pieces that form the back and peg them together, trapping the rope between them.  Take one of the included round parts (that kind of look like a certain style of Gundam polycap, if you know what I mean) and thread the rope through it.  Slide it all the way down and push it onto the base, locking the rope inside.  Take the other round part and thread it onto the rope, then get the halves of the nozzle.  You want to trap the rope between them then slide the round part in to lock it down again, but on my copy at least there isn't a way to peg the nozzle halves together.  The round part will pinch them together, but I found it left a gap at the front of the nozzle, so I wound up gluing it.

With the gas thingy built you can either plug it into one (or two) of the remaining four peg holes in the trailer, or you can plug them onto your cart, same as the G1 toy.  However, while the pegs fit nicely into the trailer the holes on the cart were too tight, so I had to get the file out again.

Here's the trailer with the kit fully installed with the G1 trailer to compare it with.  Nonnef's Twitter feed suggested that you'll need to spin the drone around when closing the trailer, but I had no issues closing it up with everything installed and the done in the normal position.  If you bought a more G1-y rifle for Prime you can even still store it inside the trailer and everything will close up. 

Now, here's the thing... yes, Nonnef's kit does go a lot way toward addressing some of the issues the trailer had.  However, to achieve this exact look I also wound up painting the drone blue (and, as I said, I may yet paint the Nonnef parts on the drone), and buying the Toyhax labels for ER Prime.  Now we're talking about taking a toy that's $50 and spending $25 on Nonnef's kit and $25 on Reprolabels, and now we're getting into the same price I paid for MP-10 (and that's not counting the cost of paint, a new ion rifle, and/or a better Roller).  And, I can't speak for you guys, but I definitely want another Roller.  I appreciate what Nonnef was trying to do, but this one's not cutting it for me.  Fortunately I have Centurion preordered, so I'll have options.

That said, I do recommend Nonnef's kit.  Even if you don't use all of it, chances are good you'll use enough of it.  While I'm looking at another Roller, maybe different missiles for the drone, and different struts for the trailer I feel like I'm getting my money's worth on this kit for the drone antenna, claw, gas thingy, consoles, fenders, bumper, trailer door, and hitch peg.

[sh9000]

All of those add on accessories are cool.

I think XTB Wildrider’s alt mode is the closest to the correct Ferrari model.

[M'Kyuun]

13 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Not to distract from the wrongness of Magnum's alt mode, but I got this kit from Nonnef Productions for Earthrise Optimus Prime's trailer that I suspect has been one of his more popular and anticipated kits.

I've bought a few of Nonnef's kits now, and I'm used to getting one or two plastic baggies with some parts, sometimes on sprues and sometimes not.  I was a bit impressed to find five baggies, two of them with two compartments, and a loose black piece inside the package.

NOTE: When you order the kit you'll have three drop down options, asking you to select you interior, exterior, and cart colors.  For the exterior that's the fenders and the struts (but not the feet), and you can pick from blue, gray, and black.  I think the fenders and struts were blue in the cartoon and on MP-44, black on Hasbro MP-10, black and gray on Takara MP-10, and black fenders with blue struts on the G1 toy, so I went with blue for the exterior.  For the interior, which is just for the consoles, and cart (Roller) you can pick from blue or gray.  The consoles are, as far as I know, blue on pretty much every Prime with a working trailer, so I went with blue for the interior.  While the cartoon and Japanese MPs used gray or silver for Roller my G1 Prime and my Hasbro MP-10 have blue Rollers, so I went with blue for a third time.

It took me a minute to get everything organized, but I wound up making four piles: a pile of parts for the outside of the trailer, a pile of parts for the inside of the trailer, a pile of parts just to make the gas thingy, and a pile of parts to make a Roller.

So let's start with the outside of the trailer.  First thing you'll do is pull the entire trailer door off the trailer, not just the shield part.  It's just friction clipped in.  Then pop the new door on.

Flip the trailer over and remove the wheels by removing four screws.  Then take the fender parts, noting which side faces out and which side faces in.  There are two tabs (A) that tuck into a hollow space on the bottom of the trailer.  While you're looking at this part, notice the tab (B) on the back?

Get the bumper part, and insert the translucent taillights.  Now, on the back of the bumper are two holes.  Line up the bumper with the slits in it pointing down (or up, since your trailer is probably upside down at this point) so the holes on the back fit over the tabs I called out above.

With the fenders an bumper in place you can put the wheels back on.  But, don't screw them in all the way.  The wheels will overlap and trap part of the fender, forcing you to leave a little gap.  If you screw in too hard the wheels will start to bend inward.  Why Nonnef didn't design the overlap to be a little bigger and naturally fit over the screw holes I couldn't say, but you basically want it to look like the above picture.

You might have already realized that since the wheels can't sit as flush as before the ride height of the trailer is slightly higher.  Don't worry, Nonnef has that covered with a piece that fits over the trailers peg on one end and provides a new peg on the other end.  The new peg winds up a little lower than the original, correcting for the new ride height.  It also allows the trailer to sit back a little further on Prime, which I guess does look a little better/correct.  I wasn't really bent out of shape over how close the trailer was to the cab, to be honest.

The last parts for the outside are the support struts.  Once again, take note of which side faces out and which side faces in.  The struts simply plug into the 5mm ports on the underside of the trailer, although this technically means that they're inverted from the G1 trailer, swinging out from the front to the back instead of from the back to the front, but it's not a huge deal.  What's a bigger deal to me is the feet.  While Nonnef's kits are injection-molded and not 3D-printed, they're relatively simple and Nonnef avoids things like screws or such.  So the struts don't angle down as they come out like the original, nor do they have sliding feet like MP-10's.  Instead, the feet are hollow with a peg hole through one side, and the struts themselves have a flat piece with a peg hole.  If you want the feet on the ground you put the feet on the peg one way, so the flat part of the strut is on the solid end and the flat end of the foot is on the ground.  If you want the foot retracted you'd remove it and flip it around, so the flat part of the strut nestles inside the foot.

While I'd prefer a less parsformery solution for the struts and feet they do work fine.  And while the trailer door isn't an exact color match for the trailer's plastic it's close enough and, in my opinion, looks a lot better than the original door.  Although, and I get that Nonnef was copying the G1 trailer, I think I could have lived without the two big tabs at the top, or at least smaller versions of them.  The bumper and fenders help fill out the back and give the trailer a much more complete look.

On to the inside.  You'll get two console pieces that are very similar to what's inside the G1 or MP-10 trailer.  They have two pegs on their undersides; you'll only use one, but it allows you to decide which console goes on which side, and installing them is as simple as plugging them into one of the three peg holes on either side of the trailer.  Because they're using the existing peg holes you're not really able to get them into a configuration that's an exact match for the G1 trailer, but I think this is close enough.

The parts for the drone are a little weird.  They're meant to give the drone the antenna and longer, jointed claw arm of the G1 toy, but rather than replace the drone's existing arms it uses them as connection points.  So the antenna plugs into the drone's right arm, then you'd fold the arm back .  The claw goes into the left arm, and uses the drone's original claw as an elbow.  Lastly, you get a pair of missiles that you can push into the 5mm ports on the front of the drone.  I think all of this works well enough, but regardless of what colors you picked when you ordered the antenna, claw, and missiles will all be a dark gray plastic.  I think I'll have to bust out the silver paint, which I think will mean painting the drones original arms...

Building Roller takes a bit of work, but all the parts are designed to peg together without any screws or tools.  Start by plugging the seat divider into the base (1).  On my copy I had to file the holes before the divider would actually fit.  Once it's in place you can fit one side onto the base, but hold off on the other side until you attach the nose and rear (2).  Once you've done all that you can push the other side on, giving everything a good squeeze before locking the sides on with the wheels (3).  Be careful not to put any wheels on backward.  Lastly, finish it off by plugging in the translucent siren.  Nonnef's product photos show it on the right side, but based on the G1 cartoon, MP-10, and MP-44 the middle is more accurate.  Whichever hole you use you can expect it to be a tight fit.

I'm actually not too keen on Nonnef's Roller.  Like most of the parts in the kit, Roller's had some bad sprue marks.  It's not the worst thing when it's on a spot that's mostly hidden, but in this case there's a big mark on the nose, plus each tire had one.  The wheels don't roll that well to begin with.  The pieces don't fit together exactly, leaving gaps on the back and nose.  There isn't a ton of molded detail or the yellow lights on the nose.  And despite ER Prime's trailer being smaller than the G1 trailer and much smaller than MP-10s, Nonnef's "cart" is about halfway in between the G1 and MP-10 Roller in size.  That said, the size was a very deliberate choice, because it was designed to carry up to four Titan Masters.  The ones that sit in the back either have to face backward or kneel, though.

The last thing to build is is the gas thingy.  To do this, take the two pieces that form the back and peg them together, trapping the rope between them.  Take one of the included round parts (that kind of look like a certain style of Gundam polycap, if you know what I mean) and thread the rope through it.  Slide it all the way down and push it onto the base, locking the rope inside.  Take the other round part and thread it onto the rope, then get the halves of the nozzle.  You want to trap the rope between them then slide the round part in to lock it down again, but on my copy at least there isn't a way to peg the nozzle halves together.  The round part will pinch them together, but I found it left a gap at the front of the nozzle, so I wound up gluing it.

With the gas thingy built you can either plug it into one (or two) of the remaining four peg holes in the trailer, or you can plug them onto your cart, same as the G1 toy.  However, while the pegs fit nicely into the trailer the holes on the cart were too tight, so I had to get the file out again.

Here's the trailer with the kit fully installed with the G1 trailer to compare it with.  Nonnef's Twitter feed suggested that you'll need to spin the drone around when closing the trailer, but I had no issues closing it up with everything installed and the done in the normal position.  If you bought a more G1-y rifle for Prime you can even still store it inside the trailer and everything will close up. 

Now, here's the thing... yes, Nonnef's kit does go a lot way toward addressing some of the issues the trailer had.  However, to achieve this exact look I also wound up painting the drone blue (and, as I said, I may yet paint the Nonnef parts on the drone), and buying the Toyhax labels for ER Prime.  Now we're talking about taking a toy that's $50 and spending $25 on Nonnef's kit and $25 on Reprolabels, and now we're getting into the same price I paid for MP-10 (and that's not counting the cost of paint, a new ion rifle, and/or a better Roller).  And, I can't speak for you guys, but I definitely want another Roller.  I appreciate what Nonnef was trying to do, but this one's not cutting it for me.  Fortunately I have Centurion preordered, so I'll have options.

That said, I do recommend Nonnef's kit.  Even if you don't use all of it, chances are good you'll use enough of it.  While I'm looking at another Roller, maybe different missiles for the drone, and different struts for the trailer I feel like I'm getting my money's worth on this kit for the drone antenna, claw, gas thingy, consoles, fenders, bumper, trailer door, and hitch peg.

@Mikeszekely, I caught your suggestion on the official TF thread and came over to check the review. I pretty much agree with everything you said. Roller could have stood some more details, and yeah, the sprue marks are rather prominent. I think I'd almost rather those parts came on the sprue, and just let the customer trim them. I've got a good set of clippers for the job, and between them and some fine shaving with a hobby knife, I can just about eradicate sprue marks. Anyway, I think the kit addresses the majority of shortcomings of the official toy, and for a garage kit, it's well done. I also like the fact that it's made here in America; most of this stuff comes out of China, so I take some pride in American craftsmanship. I'm not sure if I'm gonna spring for for the Toyhax labels, yet, but I may follow suit with painting some stuff. Painting is not my forte', and without a decent airbrush, I'm down to hand painting it, so I'm always reluctant. I'll have to be in a mood. 

Anyway, as always, I appreciate the breakdown of this kit. I think I'll be pretty satisfied with it. It is a shame, though, as you mentioned, that the little stabilizer feet for the trailer have to be removed and replaced depending on whether they're being stored or used to support the trailer. It's not a bad solution, per se, but a ball jointed rotation point to allow it to flip over and rotate 180 degrees around would have been awesome. It is what it is, though. Shrug.  Thanks, Mike!

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'm not sure if I'm gonna spring for for the Toyhax labels, yet, but I may follow suit with painting some stuff. Painting is not my forte', and without a decent airbrush, I'm down to hand painting it, so I'm always reluctant.

That's not necessarily true.  You'll need a brush, traditional or air, for finer details (or if you want to do things like drybrushing or weathering, which I confess are outside my wheelhouse), but for larger areas, especially if you can remove and paint a whole part, a good old fashioned spray can will do you.  In fact, almost everything I've ever painted silver has come from a can of Rustoleum I picked up at my local Walmart.  For my trailer I unscrewed where the wheels connect to the trailer, popped the wheels off, and painted parts (which might not be necessary with the fenders).  I did the same thing for the drone, removing it, popping the arms off the ball joints, and spraying the drone itself.  You can probably find a blue that matches Prime better, but I went with a can of Tamiya Metallic Blue I had laying around.  Then the Reprolabels gave the drone the orange cockpit.

Something else to consider is that the Nonnef trailer door and bumper don't quite match Hasbro's plastic, as I said in the review.  I'd already got and applied the Reprolabels before Nonnef's preorders went up, but if I were in your shoes I'd strongly consider spraying both the trailer and the Nonnef parts silver then putting the Reprolabels on (since that'd put the stripe you just painted over back on).

I know it pushes the cost of ER Prime up, but I do recommend the Reprolabels.  It replaces the weak paint for the stripes on the trailer, adds some colorful details to the inside, provides the orange for the drone cockpit, replaces the weak paint on Prime's hips, puts yellow detail on the unpainted detail on his crotch, and adds the triangles to Prime's forearms.  Like most kits from Toyhax these days there's going to be some labels you just won't use because it adds unnecessary and busy detail where you don't want it, but it honestly goes almost as far as Nonnef's kit it getting Prime and his trailer to look like they should.

[M'Kyuun]

Sounds like a lot of work. Aw well, like anything worth doing, the final product pays for the time and effort expended. I would like to find a good match for the blue plastic; if I can, I'd like to paint those grey bits on his legs. I don't what they were thinking molding them in grey, especially when there's a greater focus on G1 accuracy in this line. 

I doubt I'll repaint the trailer; I'm just not that invested. The grey trailer, and even the slightly off-colored grey of the Nonnef parts, probably won't bother me. I don't usually get too plussed about that stuff. For the time and money I'm putting into it already, I'll no doubt rarely take it down from the shelf to mess with it.  The stickers sound like a worthy investment, though, for both Prime and his trailer, so I'll likely get a sheet. I love what you did with your maintenance drone, and methinks it worth the time to do likewise with mine. As always, I appreciate the suggestions, advice, and reviews, Mike.  This'll be the most work I've ever put into a Transformer fig, but I'm looking forward to it. I'll have to share a pic or two when I'm done. Hopefully, I won't cock it up too badly.

[sh9000]

[derex3592]

SERIOUSLY thinking about what Valks to sell off to get one of these!!! OMG...drrrooooool. 

[mikeszekely]

46 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

SERIOUSLY thinking about what Valks to sell off to get one of these!!! OMG...drrrooooool.

Still waiting on mine.  I ordered from Show.Z with the slow boat shipping.  A few people who also bought from Show.Z and had theirs ship at the same time have started to report their tracking status updated, so I think the boat arrived and hopefully it won't be too much longer until I have my review up.

[derex3592]

@mikeszekely sweet! Looking forward to it! 

[Negotiator]

meh.  mine still says same shizzzz.  those of us who preordered early got a pretty sweet deal on it tho compared to the price now.

[mikeszekely]

Just got word late this evening that Unicron is officially off the boat and has left Commerce, California.  Unfortunately it's traveling in the Pitney Bowes network, so it'll be at least a week, possibly more, before it reaches Pittsburgh.

[derex3592]

Shout out to @mikeszekely for sending me over to Toyhax formally Reprolables for a sheet of Deception stickers. Showed up yesterday, got em on the seekers today! Great quality stickers! 

[Convectuoso]

Great job, @derex3592! But, aren't the logos upside down?

I applied some logos to my Starscream too.

I also got this little guy:

I didn't expect him to be so tiny!!

Edited July 18, 2020 by Convectuoso