The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[technoblue]

XTB Kup looks all right, but I'm still waiting for an improved MP Magnus before I decide on my definitive movie bots at this scale.

[Scyla]

16 minutes ago, technoblue said:

XTB Kup looks all right, but I'm still waiting for an improved MP Magnus before I decide on my definitive movie bots at this scale.

MP scale Magnus and Hot Rod. 

Edited November 20, 2020 by Scyla

[tekering]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I passed on FT's the first time it came out due to a mix of it's big backpack, annoying transformation with clearance issues, and a growing sense that I'd rather give my money to FT's competitors.

I hear that... but "Koot" has significantly better proportions than XTB's.

2 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

Kup is one of those "none of the 3P are wowing me, I'll probably just snag Hasbro's" figures.

Really?  Hasbro's Kup is the only SS'86 figure I couldn't justify pre-ordering... 

That face is inexcusable. 

 

[mikeszekely]

3 minutes ago, tekering said:

I hear that... but "Koot" has significantly better proportions than XTB's.

I agree that they're better, but not $200 better.  And that's what Koot's going for these days.  I'd love seeing DX9 take a swing at him, but there are rumors that their main designer left to start Newage and that without him they may be quitting after Menasor.  That really just leaves MMC/Ocular Max and maybe Transform Element as the once-crowded 3P G1 MP market continues to be replaced with Legends and Bayverse.

[technoblue]

I found another set of ER Ironhide/Ratchet feet for those interested. They look nice, but will require minor modeling work to build up.  

The shapeways and stl file links are available if you jump to the actual youtube page. 

 

[M'Kyuun]

Honestly, the whole mold is so poor for an Earth mode Ratchet/Ironhide that I have little interest in spending anymore on them. I could abide the mold with its terrible feet on the Siege, as they're slightly more forgivable with the Cybertronian alt, as they're usually rife with concessions and lazy designs anyway. But the Earth van mode is quite specific, and I really wish they'd given these characters a separate and purposefully designed mold, especially given their prominence.

The foot parts do make a marked improvement to the look of the van. The hand painted deco is a bit obvious; it would have benefitted from air spraying, but at least they tried, and it gives an idea what a proper van deco would have looked like. Thanks for sharing, Technoblue.

[danth]

On 11/19/2020 at 7:20 PM, technoblue said:

XTB Kup looks all right, but I'm still waiting for an improved MP Magnus before I decide on my definitive movie bots at this scale.

How would they improve MP Magnus in your opinion?

I almost bought MP Delta Magnus until I realized the cab didn't transform into a separate robot, like the G1. I know they were going for cartoon/movie accuracy and the separate blue Prime clone isn't part of that, but to me it's what made the original toy so cool.

Anyway I hope there's an Earthrise Delta Magnus, assuming ER Magnus has the separate robot like the Siege toy has.

Anyone know if there's a good 3rd party Delta Magnus with separate blue transforming cab?

Edited November 21, 2020 by danth

[technoblue]

13 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

The foot parts do make a marked improvement to the look of the van. The hand painted deco is a bit obvious; it would have benefitted from air spraying, but at least they tried, and it gives an idea what a proper van deco would have looked like. Thanks for sharing, Technoblue.

You're welcome, M'Kyuun. Like the designer of these parts noted, when my add-on parts from Funbie Studios arrived I noticed the same constraints that he noticed. Anyway, after Amazon decided to mess with my pre-orders some weeks back I think I only have Shattered Glass Ratchet on the way. I was thinking of trying this add-on out on that figure.

With regard to the paint apps...Well, I gotta hand it to anyone who has the time and hutzpah to do their own customizations. Indeed, the custom paint apps could have used more prep work. I'm thinking MW members could probably do the parts justice, but it really is only for those who want to put in the work. It's not a drop in upgrade by any means.

And that's the big disappointment, isn't it? This add-on is only a few extra pieces. Hasbro couldn't have designed something similar built-in within budget? Hm...

4 minutes ago, danth said:

How would they improve MP Magnus in your opinion?

I almost bought MP Delta Magnus until I realized the cab didn't transform into a separate robot, like the G1. I know they were going for cartoon/movie accuracy and the separate blue Prime clone isn't part of that, but to me it's what made the original toy so cool.

Man, this is going back a ways. I bought MP Ultra Magnus when it came out, and went into detail on what I thought was wrong with it over in the official thread. Since that post is well and buried now, I'll try my best to summarize my thoughts again here. 

This was back when Takara was first starting to add more articulated figures to the official MP line-up. I was really into that and wasn't into how they took two steps back with Magnus having limited arm and leg articulation, and no waist articulation (due to the transformation). I'm still not a fan of it. I know these constraints aren't any different than the G1 toy, but in my mind the MP line should improve on the old G1 toys in some way. MP Magnus doesn't really get there for me. If we do ever get an update, then an important feature to implement would be modern articulation.

I was also disappointed by the fact that Magnus didn't keep the separate prime cab gimmick. Even though this gimmick isn't 'toon' accurate, it is one that I welcome and would consider a nice G1 toy nod (better than the G1 'face' reveal).  Anyway, I would be ecstatic if Takara or some third party designed a version of Magnus that kept this gimmick. The real bonus being that it would be a great setup for a proper Delta Magnus repaint, as noted.

Finally, I kind of alluded to this earlier but I wasn't impressed with the overall proportions of MP Magnus in bot mode. In order to give us the car carrying trailer gimmick, I think Takara did sacrifice bot mode for alt mode. I would have rather Takara dropped that gimmick or made it so fewer cars fit on the trailer in alt, and given us a better bot mode that was half a head to a head taller than Optimus instead of dwarfing him. Given what we got, it threw off the whole look for me. 

Basically, these are the reasons I sold my copy.

When looking at other iterations of Ultra/Delta Magnus, my favorite is Planet-X. I have both Apollo and Helios. Siege Magnus is okay. I missed Generations Magnus.

For MP, I'm still waiting for a company to wow me I guess.

[Kuma Style]

 

[danth]

3 hours ago, technoblue said:

Basically, these are the reasons I sold my copy.

When looking at other iterations of Ultra/Delta Magnus, my favorite is Planet-X. I have both Apollo and Helios. Siege Magnus is okay. I missed Generations Magnus.

Thanks for your thoughts! I didn't know about the limited articulation of the MP.

Now to check out Apollo and Helios...

[M'Kyuun]

9 hours ago, technoblue said:

You're welcome, M'Kyuun. Like the designer of these parts noted, when my add-on parts from Funbie Studios arrived I noticed the same constraints that he noticed. Anyway, after Amazon decided to mess with my pre-orders some weeks back I think I only have Shattered Glass Ratchet on the way. I was thinking of trying this add-on out on that figure.

With regard to the paint apps...Well, I gotta hand it to anyone who has the time and hutzpah to do their own customizations. Indeed, the custom paint apps could have used more prep work. I'm thinking MW members could probably do the parts justice, but it really is only for those who want to put in the work. It's not a drop in upgrade by any means.

And that's the big disappointment, isn't it? This add-on is only a few extra pieces. Hasbro couldn't have designed something similar built-in within budget? Hm...

Man, this is going back a ways. I bought MP Ultra Magnus when it came out, and went into detail on what I thought was wrong with it over in the official thread. Since that post is well and buried now, I'll try my best to summarize my thoughts again here. 

This was back when Takara was first starting to add more articulated figures to the official MP line-up. I was really into that and wasn't into how they took two steps back with Magnus having limited arm and leg articulation, and no waist articulation (due to the transformation). I'm still not a fan of it. I know these constraints aren't any different than the G1 toy, but in my mind the MP line should improve on the old G1 toys in some way. MP Magnus doesn't really get there for me. If we do ever get an update, then an important feature to implement would be modern articulation.

I was also disappointed by the fact that Magnus didn't keep the separate prime cab gimmick. Even though this gimmick isn't 'toon' accurate, it is one that I welcome and would consider a nice G1 toy nod (better than the G1 'face' reveal).  Anyway, I would be ecstatic if Takara or some third party designed a version of Magnus that kept this gimmick. The real bonus being that it would be a great setup for a proper Delta Magnus repaint, as noted.

Finally, I kind of alluded to this earlier but I wasn't impressed with the overall proportions of MP Magnus in bot mode. In order to give us the car carrying trailer gimmick, I think Takara did sacrifice bot mode for alt mode. I would have rather Takara dropped that gimmick or made it so fewer cars fit on the trailer in alt, and given us a better bot mode that was half a head to a head taller than Optimus instead of dwarfing him. Given what we got, it threw off the whole look for me. 

Basically, these are the reasons I sold my copy.

When looking at other iterations of Ultra/Delta Magnus, my favorite is Planet-X. I have both Apollo and Helios. Siege Magnus is okay. I missed Generations Magnus.

For MP, I'm still waiting for a company to wow me I guess.

I was happy that Takara chose to do MP UM/DM as all-in-one designs, as I was intrigued by the engineering brought to bear to make it so.  Likewise with TR UM, which has a unitary design. They took some license with that figure's aesthetic (IDW based?), but I dig the way he looks. I ended up passing on MP UM for DM instead, as I love how that blue cab looks. That toy, regardless of character, is indeed a bit limited in the articulation dept, esp compared to contemporary figs, but he captures the look of the character well enough to suit me.  G1 UM was a so-so character to me. I liked his portrayal in TF: Prime , and loved his portrayal in Animated  (with Jeff Bennett's spot-on Robert Stack impression really elevating the character).  Despite the OG toy's being a white OP with the trailer becoming his armor, he was portrayed in the Movie and series as an all-in-one. Moreover, I saw pics of Gobot Road Ranger as a kid, and I thought the way his cab and trailer stayed together to form the bot mode was pure awesomeness. I never owned a copy, but that image has fueled my desire for all-in-one transformable tractor-trailers ever since.  That said, If HasTak decided to go old school with ER UM, using ER Prime as the base, I wouldn't complain- ER Prime is a great figure, and I'd welcome a white variant.

The only third party UM I remember was KFC's, which was pretty popular when he came out. At the time, I had no interest, and as I said, I ended up just getting Delta Magnus, on sale, IIRC, b/c his color palette appealed to me over UM's.  I like Planet X's take on Fall of Cybertron's Prime, one of my favorite incarnations of the Autobot leader, but I'm not crazy about their UM version. I would have liked it better had they made his armor become a trailer rather than weird looking armor for the cab. Still, from a toy perspective, it's still pretty cool.  

[mikeszekely]

12 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Likewise with TR UM, which has a unitary design. They took some license with that figure's aesthetic (IDW based?)

Yes, More Than Meets the Eye in fact.  The little dude he comes with (if you got the Hasbro version and not the Takara) is called Minimus Ambus, and I won't say anything else because spoilers.

13 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I ended up passing on MP UM for DM instead, as I love how that blue cab looks.

If the Kingdom Ultra Magnus turns out to be a retool of of the Siege figure and again does the White Optimus wearing armor thing I would love a Delta Magnus/Blue Optimus repaint.  Double love for a Shining Magnus.

[Scyla]

My biggest issue with MP Ultra Magnus besides the limited articulation are the general proportions of the robot. In my mind Ultra Magnus is lanky in stature and not the beef cake that is the MP toy. I think the Magic Square one is closer to the image in my mind.

I also feel that the head sculpt didn’t caught the essence of the character.

[technoblue]

1 hour ago, Scyla said:

My biggest issue with MP Ultra Magnus besides the limited articulation are the general proportions of the robot. In my mind Ultra Magnus is lanky in stature and not the beef cake that is the MP toy. I think the Magic Square one is closer to the image in my mind.

I also feel that the head sculpt didn’t caught the essence of the character.

Good points, Scyla. An an all-in-one MP Ultra Magnus would look much better lanky...just not overdone to the extreme KFC took it. The official was definitely too much of a beef cake and to my eyes was leaning more to capturing the skewed proportions of the movie poster. Sadly, the MP lacks the articulation to replicate the pose from the poster. 

6 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I was happy that Takara chose to do MP UM/DM as all-in-one designs, as I was intrigued by the engineering brought to bear to make it so.  Likewise with TR UM, which has a unitary design. They took some license with that figure's aesthetic (IDW based?), but I dig the way he looks. I ended up passing on MP UM for DM instead, as I love how that blue cab looks. That toy, regardless of character, is indeed a bit limited in the articulation dept, esp compared to contemporary figs, but he captures the look of the character well enough to suit me.  G1 UM was a so-so character to me. I liked his portrayal in TF: Prime , and loved his portrayal in Animated  (with Jeff Bennett's spot-on Robert Stack impression really elevating the character).  Despite the OG toy's being a white OP with the trailer becoming his armor, he was portrayed in the Movie and series as an all-in-one. Moreover, I saw pics of Gobot Road Ranger as a kid, and I thought the way his cab and trailer stayed together to form the bot mode was pure awesomeness. I never owned a copy, but that image has fueled my desire for all-in-one transformable tractor-trailers ever since.  That said, If HasTak decided to go old school with ER UM, using ER Prime as the base, I wouldn't complain- ER Prime is a great figure, and I'd welcome a white variant.

The only third party UM I remember was KFC's, which was pretty popular when he came out. At the time, I had no interest, and as I said, I ended up just getting Delta Magnus, on sale, IIRC, b/c his color palette appealed to me over UM's.  I like Planet X's take on Fall of Cybertron's Prime, one of my favorite incarnations of the Autobot leader, but I'm not crazy about their UM version. I would have liked it better had they made his armor become a trailer rather than weird looking armor for the cab. Still, from a toy perspective, it's still pretty cool.  

I would have been okay with the all-in-one design if Takara had given us the same improved articulation we were seeing with other MPs at the time. I mean, even MP-10 has better articulation than MP-22, which is why I think this was two steps back in that regard. Compare Magnus to Star Saber (MP-24), and it's just even more of a head scratcher. Star Saber is a combining MP with a mini bot that also keeps decent articulation in super robot mode. Those were the big MPs. We also saw MP Bee v.1, Wheeljack, Exhaust, and Tracks. Later we would see repaints of Tracks, the Vanettes, and Delta Magnus.

The colours on DM are nice, but I skipped this release for the same reasons I opted out of MP Ultra Magnus. Takara is missing important toy features in their callback, and it ends up being a deep cut to the Japanese trailer for the original animated movie. Great for those who are into it, but not for me.

The TF:Prime version of Ultra Magnus is interesting since HasTak released two different versions. One that hit stores before Magnus appeared on screen, and one that hit stores later. IIRC, opinion was split on which iteration was better, but I own the second (screen accurate) release—the one that looks almost like a blue Optimus in alt mode. Every now and then, I do see the Prime RiD/AM version, and I'm tempted to complete the pair because it's so unique. I think I prefer the blue of Hasbro's RiD release.

Planet X's Apollo and Helios do what I wish the MPs would do: These releases sacrifice the look of the video game alt somewhat to give us that very good looking and articulate bot mode. I'm not fussed about the squat proportions of the armoured Cybertronian trailer because we get so much more with this release. The only downside is that the extra paint on Helios can mess with tolerances, meaning fitment issues and paint chips. Luckily, my copy of Helios is holding up.

[Kuma Style]

 

[sh9000]

[Convectuoso]

New Age's Galvatron.

Screenshots from their Facebook post

[Scyla]

So his feet just stick out to the side of alt-mode? 

[M'Kyuun]

15 minutes ago, Scyla said:

So his feet just stick out to the side of alt-mode? 

At legends scale, it looks amazing.  His alt mode in the Movie and series benefitted from animation magic, so I'm usually willing to let some stuff slide on his cannon mode. That said , they should at least be able to point the feet back to be inline with the rest of him like the Hasbro TR version. This is the sort of thing Hasbro would let slide on a legends class fig, not high quality legends makers like NA and MS. Hopefully it's mistransformed.

[derex3592]

OMG that is SO bought!!! 

[Convectuoso]

Pre-order link:

https://showzstore.com/newage-h23-darius-galvatron_p2705.html

 

[sh9000]

[Convectuoso]

[derex3592]

New Age KILLIN my CC for next year!!! 

[M'Kyuun]

I'm trying to avoid buying all this legends stuff, but man, NA , and MS to be fair, are just doing a great job of creating nigh-MP looking G1 figs at legends scale.  If I wasn't already heavily invested in the main lines stuff as well as MP scaled stuff, i.e. starting my collection from scratch, this would be the way to go, as they're slowly exhausting the roster, and at legends scale, they take up considerably less space.

I wish there was a third party or two dabbling in the main line scale making figs of this quality for those times when the official toy isn't up to snuff. 

[mikeszekely]

FYI, if you need a good MP-style Megatron and think the official is a bit goofy-looking (like I do) TFSource is selling Maketoys' Despotron for under $60 today.

[Kuma Style]

[CoryHolmes]

Ooooh, I've always liked the Headmasters and Targetmasters as a concept 

[sh9000]

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

On 11/29/2020 at 8:16 AM, Kuma Style said:

Still one of my fave 3rd party TFs.

[sh9000]

[mikeszekely]

Locke looks better than Koot, I think.  Too bad the price isn't any better.  I'm not holding my breath on that trailer being affordable.

[no3Ljm]

I found this at ShowZStore. Is this based on any TF character? Looks awesome. I like how clean the profile in plane mode.

https://showzstore.com/tfc-toys-chengdu-j-20-black-flash_p2520.html

[M'Kyuun]

Nope, AFAIK, it is it's own thing. 

[no3Ljm]

6 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Nope, AFAIK, it is it's own thing. 

Thanks! It just looks cool.  

With some repaint, I think it will look nice besides some Macross Valks.