The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[Aizwyn]

She's awesome! Does the build quality feel solid? 

[Kuma Style]

2 hours ago, Aizwyn said:

She's awesome! Does the build quality feel solid? 

Yes.

 

[Convectuoso]

[mark-1s]

3 hours ago, Kuma Style said:

Yes.

 

I didn't notice it before, but her vehicle mode in that shot reminds a lot of this....

 

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, mark-1s said:

I didn't notice it before, but her vehicle mode in that shot reminds a lot of this....

 

Still my favorite Super Gobot. I still have mine, but one of the fins is broke.

[Kuma Style]

[sh9000]

 

 

 

 

[mikeszekely]

I passed on Nicee; I just didn't have a need for a stylized Arcee.  But I've had Mocha paid off at ShowZ for over a month now.  I'm just waiting for her to ship.  I guess there was some kind of factory delay?

[Kuma Style]

15 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I passed on Nicee; I just didn't have a need for a stylized Arcee.  But I've had Mocha paid off at ShowZ for over a month now.  I'm just waiting for her to ship.  I guess there was some kind of factory delay?

From what I was told there was a small run last month and the main one will be the middle and end of this month. Our group order with the cat ears was like 20 but only 4 snuck through from the initial run and we're waiting on the rest.

[tekering]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Still my favorite Super Gobot.

Hey, that's no Gobot!  That's Space Adventure Cobra's Psychoroid!

[M'Kyuun]

On 2/9/2022 at 8:28 AM, Kuma Style said:

Yes.

 

As repaints go, I almost think I like this better than her original G1 Arcee paint job, which I have. I'll second- she's a solid toy with good articulation, a simple but satisfying transformation, and the overtly feminine sculpt gives her a personality all her own apart from her G1 Arcee inspiration. I kinda wish they'd released Mocha concurrently with Nicee, as I likely would have gone with Mocha instead due to the differences. I already have a third party Arcee that I'm fond of in MMC's Azalea, and I keep Nicee apart from the rest of my TF collection as she doesn't really fit in with the G1 aesthetic. On her own, though, she's a beautiful figure that stands apart b/c of the stylistic nature of her sculpt and presence, and Mocha takes what was unique about Nicee and ups the ante, so to speak. As usual, you capture that beauty wonderfully through the lense of your camera, Kuma. 

[MKT]

I like this Mocha, but I skipped the PO because the price seemed to have jumped significantly (something like 40%?) for what is mostly a repaint. 

Might cave in eventually, really like its paint scheme..

 

[Kuma Style]

 

[mikeszekely]

23 hours ago, tekering said:

Hey, that's no Gobot!  That's Space Adventure Cobra's Psychoroid!

The Psychoroid helpfully tells you that it's a Pyschoroid.

Super Gobot Psycho, however, informs you that he is, in fact, a Future Machine.

Edited February 11, 2022 by mikeszekely

[JB0]

So what you're saying is that Psycho isn't a Psychoroid?

[mikeszekely]

6 hours ago, JB0 said:

So what you're saying is that Psycho isn't a Psychoroid?

Because they have different name tags.

Serious question, I've never seen Cobra. Did his car transform in the anime, or is that something Popy added when they produced the Psychoroid under their Machine Robo brand?

[Bobby]

No it didn't, it was exactly as you surmised.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Bobby said:

No it didn't, it was exactly as you surmised.

Well there you go. Psycho transforms, so he's a Gobot.

[Bobby]

Well if you ever wondered why their were 2 little tiny people sitting in the cabin/cockpit of GoBot Psycho – it is Cobra on the left (LHD in Japan) and his trusty sidekick Lady Armaroid on the right! An early 80s-cross-over/re-purpose-a-design/milk-some-miles/etc. (like what happened to our legendary Takatoku redeco Jetfire)

[Kuma Style]

 

[mikeszekely]

Almost exactly four years ago I reviewed Generation Toys' Sarge, the first member of their Protectobots.  Today, I finally have the final member with Foo Fighter, their take on Hot Spot.  Was he worth the wait?

Well, out of the box I was thinking he doesn't look too bad. Pictures make him seem a little chunkier than he actually is.  He does have big hands and kind of Popeye forearms, but he's really not too bad otherwise.  He's definitely a big boy, though, coming in half a head taller than their Motormaster.  As is the case with GT, Foo Fighter has a stylized aesthetic, with more of a toy-style head.  That said, he's got some other nods to his G1 self with silver paint on his chest, shoulders, pelvis, and knees where the G1 toy had stickers, and wheels in the shoulders, chest, and shins like the G1 toy (and cartoon).

My biggest beef with Foo Fighter's appearance is going to be one of my main sources of grief with this figure in general, namely his backpack.  It's made up of not just the ladder, which I'd accept, but also Defensor's head and most of his chest.  A lot of work goes into folding it up, and it's still huge.  Fortunately his hips and ankles are very strong joints, so while he is rather back heavy he doesn't seem to be in danger of tipping, at least not from a neutral stance.

Foo Fighter comes with a handful of accessories.  You get the hands for Defensor.  You get a small white panel that we won't talk about until we combine him, as it has no place or purpose on Foo Fighter's robot or truck modes.  You get a blue cover we will be talking about.  You get two mirrors that come in a plastic baggy- these seem to be the only ones that aren't supposed to be attached when you take him out of the package, but trust me, there are other small silver bits on him that will probably fall off and may have done so in shipping.  Finally, you get two fireball cannons.  I dig the look of these, with the translucent orange bits.

The articulation on Foo Fighter feels pretty dated.  His head seems to be on a hinged swivel that can look up about 30 degrees, down a bit, and you can fake a bit more downward by using the transformation joint.  His shoulders rotate, but GT decided to use the transformation hinge in his chest for lateral movement.  That means that his shoulders can move laterally if his arms are straight down, but if you rotate his arm forward at the shoulder the lateral joint just turns his arm 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel.  His elbows bend a little over 90 degrees on a single hinge.  Note that there's a transformation hinge between the shoulder and bicep that bends his arm backward, too.  His wrists swivel.  His hands have a fixed thumb, an separate index finger hinged at the base and middle knuckles, and the other three fingers are a single piece hinged only at the base.  His waist swivels, but you better believe all that kibble on his back gets in the way, and there's no ab crunch.  His hips are ratcheted, but the joints are WAY too tight.  They can move 90 degrees laterally, for sure.  I think they could, in theory, go 90 degrees forward (but probably only a click or two backward).  The amount of force required to move it makes me worried about breaking it, though.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 150 degrees or so on ratcheted double joints.  His feet don't tilt up, but they have a ratcheted downward tilt and about 90 degrees of pivot.

The smaller handles on his guns seem meant to go with Foo Fighter's hands.  They look almost like they have a Maketoys/Fans Hobby-style rail on the them that should fit into something on his hands... but there doesn't seem to be anything that they attach to.  It's really just the friction of his fingers holding the guns, but that seems adequate.  Unfortunately, what's less adequate is that the transformation joint I mentioned, between his shoulder and bicep.  I tried to pose Foo Fighter with his arm rotated forward at the shoulder and the elbows bent a bit, so he'd be pointing the gun at the camera.  The weight of the gun causes the transformation joint to bend and his arm to droop back down, though.

Transforming Foo Fighter into his truck mode is kind of a bear.  Well, actually, tucking away his head and then using his arms and legs to make 90% of the truck is actually pretty easy, (although my copy was misassembled; I had to take him apart enough to swap those silver steps under his doors).  The bear is the ladder and the rear of the truck, which is on a long armature with a number of accordion hinges and bits that need to move a certain way to allow other parts to move around.  Seriously, you'll spend longer futzing with that ladder than you will on the rest of the transformation.

Also, not sure how clear it is in this picture, but that's a big, empty gap at the back of the cab there.

GT does have a solution, though.  First, you take the combined-mode fists (which do not store on bot mode), and you curl in the fingers like so.  Then you drop them into the gap.  Finally, you get that blue panel (which also serves no bot-mode purpose) and use it to cover up the hands.

Once the hands are covered up, the truck looks pretty good, for the most part.  The cab has lots of real world details (although I'm missing a silver piece; whether it fell off or was always missing I couldn't say).  You can see where the packaged mirrors go, but I honestly suggest just leaving them in the box because they definitely will fall off.  Also, see the back of the truck.  I'll give GT credit for trying, with the railing and all, btu that does NOT look like the back of a firetruck.

The sides of the truck have some paint and a number of panel lines indicating compartments, but not the hose or gauges the G1 toy and animation model had, nor the stabilizers.  And while I appreciate that GT tried to give him some tampoed shields, the "Guardian FF" is not a substitute for some kind of fire department, and the "Foo Fighter" over the wheels makes me think he's half firetruck, half tour bus.  And no fireballs on the doors!  Oh well.  The ladder can swivel, raise up, and extend, and he does roll on rubber tires.  And should you desire, you can store his guns on the ladder by folding in the handles and then using small pegs on the sides of the guns to plug them into small holes on the base of the ladder.

Alright, I'm going to cut to the chase... Foo Fighter isn't very good.  I've already mentioned his huge backpack and how it's kind of a pain to transform, how the back of the truck is a bit messy, and how is articulation is kind of sub par.  Honestly, if that were his only issues I might simply say that this is a design that was a lot more appealing a long time ago when they first announced it, but the industry has kind of evolved and GT hasn't.  Little things would have helped, like maybe finding a way to store the blue roof panel on robot mode, maybe use it to hide the mostly-visible Defensor head on his back.  Unfortunately, those aren't his only problems.  He's got serious joint tolerance issues.  He's got little bits that fell off while I was handling him.  He arrived misassembled.  The plastic he's made of feels kind of gross, both flexible yet brittle.  I'm loathe to mess with him too much because I expect him to break at some point.  I have to say, after four years this was not a release I was really looking forward to, and bought mostly because I'd already bought the other four and just wanted to finish them off and be done with them, and even with my low expectations I'm pretty disappointed with him.  So, I guess I'm glad he came out for people like me that still wanted to finish this set, but I definitely do NOT recommend him.

[Kuma Style]

 

[Firefox]

Does anyone know if DS-01 Crimson Wing has any quality issue or weak points other than the rather complicated transformation?

[Ignacio Ocamica]

3 hours ago, Firefox said:

Does anyone know if DS-01 Crimson Wing has any quality issue or weak points other than the rather complicated transformation?

Be careful when transforming it to avoid scratches (it has tight tolerances).

It's very well built. My copy is flawless and the paint job is perfect. 

 

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, Firefox said:

Does anyone know if DS-01 Crimson Wing has any quality issue or weak points other than the rather complicated transformation?

That's the only real issue I had with it, although I had a few minor niggles with specific things (like there's these thin butts that fully fill in the wing root in alt mode that hang loosely but mostly out of sight in bot mode). I liked it a lot more than any of the official MP Starscreams. Only reason I didn't buy one myself was because I already have the Maketoys Seekers, and Crimson Wing didn't seem like enough of an upgrade. If they do the Coneheads, though, I'll probably replace the ToyWorld ones.

[mikeszekely]

Feels like I should have had this up over the weekend, but to be honest some personal issues have had me in a bit of a funk lately, and I really didn't feel like transforming everyone and putting this thing together.  This thing being Generation Toys' Guardian, their combined Defensor.

Admittedly, I think Guardian looks cool.  The realistic, modern alt modes come through on this guy every well.  The fencing and spotlights are cool details on the torso, and I dig the red accents.  Some elements, like the way part of the roof with the rotors shifts up over the canopy on Blades reminds me of Maketoys' Defensor, which was a similarly modernized take on the character.

Size-wise, by now there will be more or less universal agreement that Guardian is too small to be Masterpiece when combined, as he's certain to be significantly shorter than MMC or XTB's (assuming that MMC's is the same size as their Bruticus and XTB's is the same size as their Menasor).  He will, however, fit it just fine with Unique Toys' Abominus, GT's Devastator, Warbotron's Bruticus and Computron, TFC's Piranacon, etc.  Which, y'know, was probably a lot more exciting five years ago when GT announced this thing.

So, a few notes on him... that white piece that came with Foo Fighter that we didn't really talk about?  Well, when you transform Blades into his arm mode (as above) you'll notice that his arms don't actually tab together.  There are some flaps on them that do, but it's a pretty tenuous grip.  The white part fits over the flaps on Blades' arms, locking the whole thing together much more securely.  Unfortunately, that might be about the only thing that's secure on him, as the panels that grab into his waist don't do the best job at it, and the roof kind of just lays over the canopy.

Oh, and that blue part that goes on Foo Fighter's alt mode but not his robot mode?  Doesn't have a purpose in combined mode, either.

Foo Fighter's guns double as guns for Guardian, but they do a bit of transforming on their own.  The barrels slide out to make them bigger, and the handles that Foo Fighter hold fold in while larger silver handles fold out.

This is the part where I'd put him in a dynamic pose and write about the articulation.  You may have noticed that this is not a particularly dynamic pose.  This is because I have nothing but problems with him.  His head doesn't want to stay in place atop his torso.  The ratchet for his shoulder rotation on First Aid is either defective or broken, because it feels super soft and does not support the weight of his arm.  On Blades, the inability of the panels that are supposed to lock into his waist to actually lock in means that his forearm bends inward.  The way-too-tight hip ratchets on Foo Fighter are still way too tight for Guardian, so I just don't feel comfortable messing with them.  Other stuff might not break outright while you're messing with him, but his abs want to split apart, the sides of his chest keep coming untabbed, the windows along his back don't stay in, and twice now I've had one of the spotlights near his neck pop off.  Top it all off with the fact that the tolerances for the tabs on his guns that are supposed to go into slots on his wrists are a bit off so he holds them a bit poorly.

As you'd expect from a figure announced before the Menasor Wars, Guardian is a dated design that already had an uphill battle.  But where GT had an opportunity to finish strong and carve a niche with fans who like the more stylized, IDW-esque designs and 15" combiners you get the impression that they just gave up.  Despite taking five years this thing still feels rushed.  This set is plagued with questionable design decisions that don't hold up in 2022, magnified by poor materials and shoddy construction.  To be frank, while the individual bots range from poor to pretty decent on their own and the combined Guardian looks kind of cool, once you start to handle him it becomes evident that he's trash.  Utter rubbish.  I do not, in any capacity, recommend this set.  At this point, even if you're thinking that you prefer the stylized look over a more G1 design, even if you're looking for a shorter companion piece for TFM's Menasor or GT's Devastator, you're still going to have a much better time if you just buy MMC's instead.

[Kuma Style]

[CoryHolmes]

After seeing a few combiners storing their giant robot bits inside the individual limb bots, I refuse to step backwards to extra add-on bits in a box.

[Kuma Style]

[Kuma Style]

[twich]

So, I have a question for you guys here.  My son, who is 13 is into transformers in a very large way.  He ordered and paid for with his own money a third party Devastator set from China, and it cost around $50.  He received it two days ago, and the Hook from the set already broke.  He is going to send it back for a refund, but I would like to try to get him a better, but still relatively affordable constructicon set.  What do people recommend?  Now, but affordable, I am talking less than $100.  I know that there are masterpiece scale sets that cost hundreds of dollars, but I think at 13, that is a little beyond him now.  Please let me know!  

Thank You,

Twich

[Scyla]

2 hours ago, twich said:

So, I have a question for you guys here.  My son, who is 13 is into transformers in a very large way.  He ordered and paid for with his own money a third party Devastator set from China, and it cost around $50.  He received it two days ago, and the Hook from the set already broke.  He is going to send it back for a refund, but I would like to try to get him a better, but still relatively affordable constructicon set.  What do people recommend?  Now, but affordable, I am talking less than $100.  I know that there are masterpiece scale sets that cost hundreds of dollars, but I think at 13, that is a little beyond him now.  Please let me know!  

Thank You,

Twich

I don’t think there are any good options in that price range. Maybe if you can find a used MakeToys Green Giant?

What does he want to do with it. Actually playing with it or use it as a display piece?

[edit:] Maybe the non-transforming Before & After Engineer General: https://www.ebay.com/itm/134024782458?hash=item1f347fe27a:g:dLsAAOSw47ViCuD1

Edited February 21, 2022 by Scyla

[twich]

Thank you for the link!

Twich

[Kuma Style]

[Kuma Style]