The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[Kuma Style]

 

[Kuma Style]

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

So Maketoys is still alive and kicking: I got a notification that my preorders for their Dirge and Thrust placed in 2018 have an ETA for July 

[JB0]

Glad they ain't straight-up dead, and that they're trying to make good on old promises instead of just nope'ing off into the sunset.

[pengbuzz]

On 3/10/2022 at 9:17 PM, Kuma Style said:

Interesting take on Bruticus! I like how bulky the chest/ upper torso looks, like he could hand Defensor his head!

[mikeszekely]

Big Firebird, while apparently having worked on some other things, first came to my attention when they released Nicee, a very stylized Arcee, minus the original head that actually looked like Arcee.  It just wasn't for me... it was close enough to Arcee for my brain to be unable to see Nicee as anything but Arcee, but far enough from any version of Arcee in Transformers fiction that I just couldn't see her on my shelves.  Nicee got a lot of positive coverage, though, so when Big Firebird announced a more original retool I figured I'd give that one a try... so here's Big Firebird's Mooka (or Mocha- I think it was announced as Mocha, but the box says Mooka).

Big Firebird seems to be going for a specific target audience.  While their usual logo seems to be the words "Big Firebird" written to look like a flaming bird, on Mooka's box it's a pair of round wings with a pointed head and tail that looks very much like boobs and cleavage.  And the product shot of Mooka on the front is limited to her chest.  So it should come as no surprise that Mooka is a robot lady with some... exaggerated features.  That said, even with the large, humanoid breasts and meticulously sculpted butt crack, Mooka comes off as less sexualized than Nicee, at least to me.  Where's Nicee's mostly-white body with limited use of pink made her look like she was wearing a bikini, Mooka's colors, combined with a few tampos and the sculpt of her shoulders, knees, and forearms, come across more like the kind of bodysuit you might see in professional racing, especially motorcycle racing.  I wish BFB would have stuck with that motif for her head, though.  The "haircut", with the little hat and pink decorations plus the collar and bowtie look more maid cafe than racing queen (not that there's anything wrong with maids, I just wish they'd picked one or the other instead of mixing them).

Mooka's a fairly clean robot, with just a backpack and some wheels in her thighs to give away the fact that she transforms, and even then, the backpack's hinges are like c-clips, and you could in theory remove it entirely.  There's a reason she's so clean, though.  Size-wise, here she is with MMC's Arcee; a little taller, but at least some of that is due to those heels.

Mooka comes with a ton of accessories.  These bits, that form the front of the car and the rear fenders, are actually attached to her when you take her out of the packaging and, if I'm being totally fair to her, you don't actually have to remove ever if you don't want to.  The front of the car has a hole on a hinge that plugs into a peg behind her neck, while the fenders use ball joints to plug into the sides of the bottom of her backpack.  Technically, the sides of the front are also on ball joints, and you can pop them off the hood section.  You'll notice that there are a pair of ball sockets on her backpack, facing forward just over her hips.  Theoretically you can put the front sides of the car there, like hip skirts, but there's not a ton of room to work with there.

In addition to the car parts that are attached-but-removable, you get two trays of accessories.  You get a clip and two longer red pieces.  You have a spoiler for her alt mode.  You have a small peg with a clip.  You have a number of extra hands- two closed fists, two holding hands with trigger fingers (a leftover from Nicee, I assume, since on thing Mooka doesn't have is a gun), one holding hand with the thumb pointed up, and one relaxed open hand (in addition to the two more exaggerated open hands pre-installed on the figure).  You have a silver part with a black handle, and a silver curved part.  You get a shield and a pair of swords.  You get a lance that really looks like a closed golf umbrella to me.  You get a black part that forms part of the rear of the car, and another large part that forms most of the top of the car.  You get an alternate head with blinding bangs, alternate cleavage, a translucent visor, and bunny ears.

But wait, there's more!  Unlike the stuff in the trays, these bits come in multi-compartment plastic bag (like the kind that divides up the hardware by step in flatpack furniture), and its not mentioned at all in the instructions.  Basically, it's a handle, with two connector bits and two decorative ends, and I'd guess they fit together like the above image.  I find it curious that one side is closed, but the other side has a pair of pegs and open channels between the prongs, but again, I don't know why since they don't even exist as far as the instructions go.

Lastly, you get a sheet of optional waterslide decals.  Waterslides are fine, I think.  In fact, I wish the tampos would have just been waterslides, then Mooka's right thigh wouldn't be forever exclaiming, "Nicee!!"

Anyways... Mooka's head is on a double ball joint, so she can look up a little, down a decent amount, and tilt her head coyly in addition to swiveling.  Her shoulders are a ball joints on the end of a double hinge (mostly for transformation).  She's got the usual rotation, only about 60 degrees of lateral movement due to her shoulder pads, but also the ability to shrug, which is nice.  Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend a little over 90 degrees.  Her wrists are ball joints, so they can swivel but also bend a little.  There's a ball joint under her chest that acts as her waist swivel, an ab crunch, and even a teapot bend.  Her hips can go just about 90 degrees forward and backward or laterally.  Her thighs swivel around her hips.  Her knees are double-jointed and bend around 130-140 degrees, which some metal piston sliding in out as the joints bend.  Her feet can tilt up and down plus swivel.  Her ankles pivot about 45 degrees.  Plus her heels have their own hinge, which helps when trying to keep her feet flat.  Despite the weight of her backpack and the small amount of contact surface on her feet I've found that she will stand fine, as long as your patient adjusting her feet until you find the balance point.

Swapping hands is as easy as pulling them out of the ball sockets in her wrists and popping different ones in.  Either the trigger finger or the upraised thumb will hold the swords, with the upraised thumb kind of pointing the sword forward.

The silver piece with the handle plugs into the back of the shield.  There's spaces between it and the shield itself that allow you to slide the swords in for storage.  Then you can use the peg on it to plug into a hole on either elbow, with the trigger finger hand grasping the handle.  The curved silver bit can then plug on, wrapping around her arm and helping to secure the shield a bit better.  Without the curved part, you can also plug the shield into holes just under her knees.

The lance can be held with the upraised thumb hand.

The clip with a peg fits under her hood.  You can then feed Mooka's arm under the hinged bar with the peg hole that attaches it to her back so that the trigger finger hand can grab onto the peg you just clipped in.  The idea is that it's supposed to make a hood out of the front of the car, I guess.  However, this seems more like a holdover from Nicee than something intended for Mooka.  The shape of the car is a little different, so it doesn't open very wide, and Mooka doesn't come with arrow that Nicee did.

Meanwhile, once you attach the spoiler to the rear of the car, you can take the rear fenders off of her backpack if you haven't already then tab them into this chunk of the car.  There's a ball peg on it.  If you remove one of Mooka's hands, you can plug this contraption into her wrist socket and I guess it's supposed to be like a Mega Buster-style arm cannon.

The visor just clips around her face over her eyes.  It seems like it only fits the default head.  I'll note that the forehead and the sides of the "hair" can be pulled off either head, allowing you to remove the faces.  However, the faces do not seem to be interchangeable, and there are no other alternate faces, so there doesn't seem to be a point.  If you want to swap looks, you'll have to swap the whole head by yanking the ball joint out of her chest.  Both heads have little slots behind their hat/headphones.  You can use these slots to install the bunny ears, if that's something you're into.

Speaking of chests, swapping Mooka's is easier than swapping her head.  You'll want to lift her head and arms like you're staring to transform her, then you grab her collar and pull up.  Then just slide the alternate one into place.  On a purely aesthetic note, the silver collar and white cleavage doesn't seem to match the rest of the figure as well as the black collar and silver cleavage.  But the real difference isn't color, it's material.  The default silver cleavage is plastic, but the white cleavage is a pliant silicone material, in case you want your sexy robots to have squishy boobs.

Lastly, the two long red bits plug into the large black clip.  The clip grabs onto the armor around her hips, because if there's one thing a maid in a racing suit needs it's an obi bow.

Finally, we can get to alt mode.  Transforming Mooka isn't difficult, because around 70% of the car is added by partsforming.  To be fair, that's a little less partsforming than Earthrise Arcee, but Mooka costs 5-6 times what ER Arcee did.  MMC's Arcee cost around the same as Mooka, and there's no partsforming there.  Mooka's less work to transform than MMC's Arcee; her shoulders stretch above her chest, her arms and shoulders tuck into the gap, then her legs flip around.  The rest is unfolding her backpack and then plugging the rest of the parts on.

OK... it's a lot of partsforming, but that's one good looking car.  While Nicee was mostly a stylized version of the usual Arcee car, Mooka's altered lines make for a much more cohesive, slightly futuristic race car with a new grill and bumper, a closed cockpit that flows into a smoother rear with a spoiler and all new taillights and exhausts.  The only robot bits here, though, are her thighs, knees, and a bit of her heels.

Of note, the panels on the sides of the spoiler are made from her bunny ears.  As they came out of the box they're not quite right, with the outer detail and inward curve turned around.  I was able to pop them off the hinges and swap them around.

Mooka rolls with rubber tires.  And, in a nice touch, her canopy can open, revealing a pair of seats, steering wheel, and dashboard.  Practically speaking, the seats/wheel/dash were part of Nicee's open cabin, and Mooka's probably just re-using the parts as part of her backpack.  But I feel like a lesser company would have made the roof/canopy part, covered the cabin, and called it a day.  BFB made sure to put the canopy on a hinged ball joint, though, so it can open and you can still enjoy the interior.

There doesn't seem to be much you can do with her accessories in car mode.  The peg holes just below her knees are visible on the sides of the car, but the shield is the only thing that really fits there, but the shield is so big that the car wouldn't be able to sit on four wheels.  I guess you could plug in that weird double-ended tuning fork thing?

I think it's safe to say that I have mixed feelings about Mooka.  She's a well-built, nicely painted figure.  She's got good articulation and a great car mode.  She comes with a ton of accessories.  However, BFB's priority seems to have been making a sexy robot anime girl first and a transformer second.  Most of her robot mode has the exaggerated femininity and and articulation of a Figma anime girl, and too much of her "transformation" is attaching her car parts to her while she does yoga.  And, while I do like Mooka's design a bit more than Nicee's, I don't think sexy robot women is really my thing (no judgement if it's yours, though).  So, I guess you have to ask yourself if you think you might be BFB's target audience.  Do you like sexy robot women?  Is poseability, accessories, and humanoid curves more important than having a car mode that's mostly made from the actual robot?  If you answered yes, then I'd recommend checking out Mooka, as the overall build and paint on Mooka is top notch.  However, if you're looking for a more "traditional" Transformers experience with interesting engineering and minimal partsforming you may find Mooka a bit lacking.

[JB0]

I'm looking at the car, and it looks oddly familiar... Mocha's almost a sexy version of the Go-Bot Psycho.

[Chronocidal]

See, I'm that weirdo who actually bought both this one and Nicee for the car modes, because I love the design of the vehicles, and the fact that they transform, completely separately from the style of figure.  I'm still incredibly impressed at how smoothly they managed to get Nicee to roll, considering the number of directions all of those wheels move in, and yet somehow manage to line up when transformed.

[anime52k8]

Considering Nicee was their first figure as a company they did a really good job out the gate on something so out of the box.

[JB0]

55 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

See, I'm that weirdo who actually bought both this one and Nicee for the car modes, because I love the design of the vehicles, and the fact that they transform, completely separately from the style of figure.  I'm still incredibly impressed at how smoothly they managed to get Nicee to roll, considering the number of directions all of those wheels move in, and yet somehow manage to line up when transformed.

They do make surprisingly good cars. Better than some that actually look like they should transform.

 

Can't much hold the backpack against 'em when every RC-ish packs large swaths of car shell into a backpack. At this point it's a signature feature of the character.

[sh9000]

 

[M'Kyuun]

8 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

Considering Nicee was their first figure as a company they did a really good job out the gate on something so out of the box.

Agree. It was a cool, original take, and the fact that something that's more action figure than traditional can actually transform and look that good in car mode is notable.

8 hours ago, JB0 said:

They do make surprisingly good cars. Better than some that actually look like they should transform.

 

Can't much hold the backpack against 'em when every RC-ish packs large swaths of car shell into a backpack. At this point it's a signature feature of the character.

Yep.

Well, aside from MMC's Azalea, which did a superb job of collapsing most of her car parts into her shoulder pods and leaving little backpack of note, yes. Unfortunately, G1 Arcee wasn't designed practically, which is likely why, despite being a prominent character in the '86 Movie, she never got a concurrent toy.  I'm still pretty happy with the T30 fig- she, too, has a lot of backpack, but I think they could have cut it down a bit had they left off the rear section of her car mode.  The recent ER and Cyberverse Arcee figs both carry the entirety of their car modes on their backs with little to no transformation involved. It's more like Solid Snake and his cardboard box. Animated Arcee is notable for her minimal back kibble- she has her little windshield and her shoulder pods, and both her arms and legs are involved in her transformation- great interpretation of the character and fantastic toy. Thanks Derrick.😪

At this point, though, the expectation of most G1 Arcee figs is that she'll have some measure of backpack with which to contend.  MMC's Azalea is my go-to for an Arcee done right, at least from an engineering perspective.

Edited March 19, 2022 by M'Kyuun

[sh9000]

XTB.

 

 

 

[mikeszekely]

XTB's a little spotty with QC, still... I thought their Stunticons were pretty good, but I have major paint issues with Dead End and a lot of people had issues with the shoulders cracking on Dragstrip, plus the trailer just seems like a mess.  Kup was a POS, but I really liked their Perceptor.  So I dunno... while I would like a better crack at an MP Devastator than ToyWorld's, I'm not sure I want it to be from XTB.  I've heard from people with MMC that they do have a combiner planned after Defensor, and that it'd be a Decepticon.  I wish I knew for sure it was Devastator, and that XTB's announcement hasn't scared them off of it, because if I knew on was coming from MMC I wouldn't look twice at XTB's.

That said... as a one off, I'd definitely be into checking out that Scoop retool.

[tekering]

I like the look of their Searchlight homage, and that he includes a toy head, a Sunbow/Marvel head, and even a head to match his Headmasters appearance.

[Kuma Style]

 

[mikeszekely]

I'm a Geewunner.  It's what I grew up with.  I grew out of toys before Beast Wars, and it was the mix of Dreamwave's G1 revival and the 2006 Classics line that brought me back into the franchise.  During that time, I was dimly aware of Robots in Disguise and the Unicron Trilogy, but they were never really my cup of tea.  On the other hand, despite QC issues with Naval Commander (Armada Optimus), I am a fan of Fans Hobby for their chunky robots, uncomplicated transformations, playability, and relative affordability.  So with that in mind, despite the fact that I'm trying to limit my collection to G1 plus any Optimus, I decided to grab Fans Hobby's Meg Tyranno, their MP-ish take on the Armada version of Megatron.

It's pretty well-established at this point that Fans Hobby bucks the current trend of super cartoon accuracy in favor of putting their own spin on characters, and Meg Tyranno definitely continues that trend.  That said, compared to a lot of their stuff where it was immediately apparent to me, I actually had to Google some images of both the cartoon and the original Armada toy to really start seeing the differences.  There's more silver accents on his pelvis, more of that dark gray plastic on his forearms, torso, and feet, and some additional orange details on his knees, crotch, and torso.  His torso has more of an hourglass figure, too, with smaller silver pecs, abs that don't go all the way to his waist, and it's missing the circular bits on his lats.  There's some tweaks to his head as well, especially his ears/horns.

While Fans Hobby does a pretty good job of keeping Meg Tyranno mostly kibble-free, you can't escape the fact that he's got an entire tank turret on his back.  That in and of itself isn't the worst thing in the world; I think that Brawl pulls it off just fine, for instance.  Meg Tyranno's problem is the long cannon that points awkwardly out to the side.  To be totally fair to Fans Hobby, though, I don't think the problem is really on Meg Tyranno so much as it is on Armada Megatron's design.

You can mitigate (but not eliminate) the issue by removing part of the cannon's barrel.  In fact, it's actually not installed when you take him out of the box.  And if you remove the circular screw hole cover and undo the screw inside, you can open the barrel up and insert a pair of LR44 batteries for a light-up gimmick we'll talk about later.  The only real downside to taking the barrel off for robot mode is that there's nowhere to else to store it.

Aside from half his cannon barrel, Meg Tyranno comes with a few accessories.  You get his Minicon buddy, an alternate set of horns, a replacement face, replacement eyes, and four little missiles.

Meg Tyranno's Minicon buddy is an improvement over the one that came with Armada Commander, but that's really not saying much and I'm still not loving this guy.  The colors are off; whether you're talking about the cartoon or the toy the original was a lighter gray (or while) with a brighter blue, plus he's missing the ribbed sculpt on his arms.  His head is on a ball joint so he can look up and down a decent amount, tilt his head sideways, and swivel.  His shoulders are also ball joints, but it's mostly just for swiveling as his lateral range is, if I'm being generous, maybe 20 degrees.  All that wheel kibble is attached to his shoulders, so you can't move his arms without bringing all that kibble along for the ride instead of leaving a pair of wheels on his hips.  He has no bicep or wrist articulation, just elbows that bend about 90 degrees.  No waist swivel, but he does have an ab crunch.  His hips are ball joints that'll get him 90 degrees forward or backward, but lateral motion is limited like his shoulders.  His knees bend less than 90 degrees with the barrels properly folded into his calves, but you can fold them out like heel spurs for added stability and greater knee bends.  No foot articulation.

The Minicon turns into some kind of military vehicle with a pair of cannons.  Again, not super accurate- the cab looks more like an Earth truck than the tall, narrow cab on the original toy, plus the windows are blue instead of yellow and the cannon barrels are blue instead of orange.  And like the original toy it's actually a triple changer with a pistol mode, but it's upside down compared to the original.

As for his other accessories, my copy came with an open-mouthed screaming/laughing face.  While I do love that Fans Hobby painted the inside of the mouth gray when I know a lot of companies, even Fans Toys, likely would have just painted the whole thing purple and called it a day, I do prefer the more neutral face.  The face is easy to pop off and pop on.  His horns are also easy to pop off and on.  The second par is more rounded and arguably more cartoon-accurate, but I don't like the larger silver portion against the side of his head.  I'll probably keep the default ones.  The difference between the eyes is that the default ones are painted a metallic red, but the other set is translucent.  This is because Meg Tyranno's eyes have a light up gimmick.  Remove two screws from the back of his head and remove the battery compartment to swap out the eyes.  While you're there, the battery compartment will hold two AG0 batteries.  Pro tip- don't lose the little button, which will will probably fall out when you open the head up.

Meg Tyranno's own head is on a ball joint with some up/down/sideways tilt in addition to swiveling.  The treads over his shoulders do a good job staying out of the way, allowing his shoulders to rotate on ratchets (just not 360 degrees) and move laterally just over 90 degrees, also on a ratchet.  His biceps swivel.  His elbows are double-jointed, both rachets, and curl almost 180 degrees.  His wrists swivel.  His thumbs are on ball joints for swiveling and a little wiggle, but they're not cut to allow him to splay his thumb, it's always folded over the palm.  His fingers are all individually articulated with pin hinges as the base and the middle knuckles.  His waist swivels, plus he's got a slight sideways bend and a small ab crunch.  His hips are ratcheted and can go 90 degrees forward, a bit less than that backward due to the turret being in the way, and over 90 degrees laterally.  His thighs swivel.  His ratcheted knees bend 90 degrees on a single hinge, revealing sculpted gray inner knee parts.  His feet can swivel and tilt upward, and his toes can tilt downward.  His ankles can pivot around 45 degrees or so.

Meg Tyranno has the notched palms common to Fans Hobby's Master Builder line, and the peg on the Minicon's handle has the corresponding ridges.  Plus he's got knoves that fold out of either forearm.

Because it's a thing from the original toy and cartoon, the turret can swivel a little and the cannon can fold under his arm.  A handle can fold out from the barrel, allowing him to hold on to it.  The instructions indicate that when the cannon is posed like this that the light should come on, but it doesn't on my copy.  No big deal.

Because it's a thing that the original toy did (and maybe it was in the cartoon?) the entire turret can be brought to his front side by turning him at the waist 90 degrees, lifting his chest, then rotating his chest and upper body 90 degrees.

There are fold-out pegs on the shoulder treads and the outsides of his legs that the Minicon can plug in to.  If you have some original Armada Minicons, they too can plug into those pegs.  Meanwhile, just next to them are peg holes.  These peg holes work with the fold-out pegs on War for Cybertron Micromasters.  Unlike the original toy, though, there are no pegs/ports on his forearms.

Transforming Meg Tyranno is pretty simple; his waist rotates 180 degrees, his arms swing forward so they're in front of his torso/under the tank, he spreads his legs as wide as he can, then a transformation joint bends his lower legs back down while his feet fold up.  The rest of it is just sorting panels that fold out from his legs and the treads that sit over his shoulders to help solidify everything into a cohesive tank shape.

As with the robot, it's not exactly cartoon/original toy accurate.  But, more than minor tweaks in color or certain details, the most obvious difference is that it loses or diminishes some of the original's sci-fi h-tank design.  Panels from the treads cover his head and give him an actual front, albeit one with his pincer horns still sticking out.  More panels fold out from his shoulder treads and his legs to fill in the space between.  Still more panels fold out from the legs to fill in the space between his legs, giving the rear of the tank a more purposeful shape than just his crotch.

Despite the changes in the design, Meg Tyranno's still got gimmicks galore.  The whole thing has working rubber treads.  The turret can rotate, and the cannon barrel can aim up and down.  As long as the barrel is straight, there's a crank on the back of the turret that will make the barrel slide in and out.  The sliding will depress the switch, causing the end of the barrel to light up.  And you still have access to the same Minicon/Micromaster pegs/ports.

A panel on what is his right leg opens and unfolds into a little platform with a box.  You can put a Minicon/Micromaster on the platform, and pushing a button on the box will cause a spring-loaded panel to pop out and push the Minicon/Micromaster forward.

The other leg also opens to a platform, but this one has a purple claw-like apparatus (that I believe the original toy had, albeit the claw closed down over a Minicon instead of grabbing it from underneath).

Opening a compartment on his right front will reveal a storage space occupied by a folded-up claw arm.  You can unfold it and plug it into the Micromaster port.  A ramp can be unfolded from the top.  It, unfortunately, cannot bend all the way to the ground, just straight out from the tank.  To be fair, I think the original toy had a ramp here, and it didn't fold out all the way either.

On the other side we have another little cubby, this time occupied by a double-barreled cannon.  While the original toy had doors that opened to reveal... I dunno, some molded orange details?  Meg Tyranno has a panel that lifts up.  A translucent red screen and a pair of extra blast panels unfold from behind it, and the cannon plugs into the front of it to create a Minicon/Micromaster gun emplacement.

Like the original toy, part of the top of the turret flips over to reveal a missile launcher, and yes, there's a button on it that will shoot the little gray missiles he came with.  Unlike the original toy, it's not activated by slapping a Minicon on the other side of the turret.  Instead, the other side opens up, revealing more non-firing molded/painted missiles and a seat for the Minicon.  Opening up this seat is what causes the other side to flip around.

But wait, we're still not done!  The panels that unfolded from his legs to make a more proper rear for the tank can open up to reveal yet another storage area for Minicons/Micromasters.  What's more, if you look inside you'll find some really awesome tampoed details in there.  I have to give Fans Hobby a ton of props for that; panels cover those spots in bot mode and even in tank mode those details are on the inside, where you won't see them much.  Fans Hobby could have left it blank or maybe just added a few greebles and I don't think anyone would have complained, but they went the extra mile to give that interior space some purposeful, colorful, visually interesting details.

In some ways, Meg Tyranno reminds me of Fans Hobby's Overlord.  Although Overlord is a G1 character, he's a character that didn't appear in any fiction outside Japan prior to his appearance in the IDW comics, and his toy was never released in the States, so like Armada Megatron I had no real attachment to the character, but I bought Fans Hobby's figure anyway and I loved it for its shelf presence, its chunky, playable build, and its relatively easy transformation.  Meg Tyranno doesn't have quite the same level of shelf presence, but he too is fun to transform and has lots of playable gimmicks that almost make me like his tank mode better than his robot mode.  Honestly, my only real complaints are that I wish they'd put a little more effort into making the Minicons not suck and I wish they used the harder plastic they used to use on stuff like their Scourge and Laser Optimus instead of the mushier plastic they've been using.  I'd say if you're an Armada fan this figure is a must buy, but I'd even recommend checking him out if you just like chunky robot toys that are fun to play with and don't even care about Armada.

[pengbuzz]

On 3/18/2022 at 11:11 PM, JB0 said:

I'm looking at the car, and it looks oddly familiar... Mocha's almost a sexy version of the Go-Bot Psycho.

Right? That was my first thought as well: the colors and shape said "Psycho" to me too!

[mikeszekely]

Studio Series 86 was a mostly great figure with a few obvious flaws.  DNA Designs is a company that makes upgrade kits for a lot of popular HasTak figures.  It was inevitable, then that DNA would do a kit for SS86 Grimlock.  But, with a number of 3D printed kits plus a kit from Nonnef having been available for awhile now, is DNA too late to the party?

DNA's kit contains some fillers for the soles of his feet, mouth fillers with front teeth, a new translucent yellow neck piece, a sword, some forearm fillers, new forearms for the dino mode, a Wheelie figure with two extra heads (the faces are a slight smile, a big open-mouthed smile, and a pursed lips kissy face).  There's also a little baggie with some screws and gray screw hole covers.

I already had a set of 3D-printed feet fillers, so I didn't necessarily need the DNA ones.  But the DNA ones are thicker and the fit is snugger, so I'll be using the DNA ones.

The forearm fillers work like the ones in Nonnef's kit.  The idea is that you remove the screw from the forearm near the rear dino toe, then you use one of the new screws to attach the forearm cover at that same screw hole.  A hinge allows the cover to open and close, and there's a tab that holds it closed by plugging into a small gap in Grimlock's wrist.  In some respects it works better than Nonnef's, which swiveled around the screw (and in the process loosened the screw).  But the DNA piece is very thick.  You kind of have to decide which is more of an eyesore to you, a chunky panel that clearly doesn't belong or an empty gap.  Me, I'm going to go for the empty gap, which is less visible from a lot of angles than DNA's forearm cover.

I can't help but feel disappointed, too, by the DNA sword.  I like the sculpt and size better than Nonnef's, but what was DNA thinking with these colors?  They clearly molded the sword in the same gray plastic as the fillers parts- I guess they couldn't be bothered to use a black or red plastic just for the sword?  They did paint the blade, but they painted it silver.  Just... why, DNA?  I might try to paint it myself, but otherwise I'm keeping the Nonnef sword.

Switching to the dino mode, well... I'm sure the teeth fillers work fine, but I'd already got 3D printed ones, one of which (I think the lower jaw?) I glued in place, then covered with screw hole covers.  So yeah, I'm not pulling that apart.  Then there's the neck.  If you REALLY want a toy-style translucent neck, I guess this will do and, to my knowledge, is the only kit that has a molded plastic neck part instead of 3D printed.  But honestly, I think the solid gold neck looks better.  The translucent neck is way too bright a shade of yellow.  Rather than install this part on a toon-centric Grimlock, I'm just going to hold out hope that Hasbro may release a toy-colored Generations Selects version down the road.

The replacement dino forearms have claws that aren't quite as simple as the cartoony originals, but they have one major advantage; articulation.  The DNA arms have wrist swivels, plus each of the three fingers is individually-hinged at the base.  Installation is pretty simple; bend the original arm down at the elbow until it pops off, then jam the DNA arm in.

I'm guessing a lot of the budget for this kit went to making this Wheelie figure.  It's more toon accurate than the Titans Return figure...

...and it's got a lot more articulation than the slug that came with Grimlock.  This Wheelie's head is on a ball joint so it can look up slightly, down quite a bit, and swivel (but no real sideways tilt).  His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally about 90 degrees.  His elbows are also ball joints that bend 90 degrees and double as bicep swivels.  His waist is actually a ball joint so it swivels, his back can bend backward, he's got a slight teapot lean, and if you undo his torso a bit of ab crunch.  HIs hips are ball joints that can go forward/backward/laterally 90 degrees.  His's got a mushroom thigh swivel, just above his knee, which bends 90 degrees.  His feet are also on a ball joint, but a shallow one at a weird angle.  His feet can tilt up slightly, down 90 degrees, but he's got very little in the way of ankle pivots.

DNA didn't include any weapons for him, and the holes in his fists are smaller than 5mm, so you can't just give him any other weapon.

Wheelie can sit on Grimlock, and the insides of his lower legs have hollow gaps that kind of hook onto the pegs Grimlock has for the slug Wheelie.  He doesn't really lock in place, though, but he balances well enough that I don't think it's really a problem.

I do like that Wheelie has small pegs on this thighs.  These pegs plug into the small holes on top of Grimlock's shoulders, and it's a very secure fit.

DNA's little Wheelie figure transforms, which I suppose is another advantage over the slug figure.  The transformation is pretty simple, but some of the connections are kind of loose.  The thing is, while Titans Returns Wheelie isn't exactly cartoon-accurate, it does look like a smooth, purposeful vehicle.

DNA's has the general shape, but it's kind of a gappy mess.  But we have to consider what DNA's purpose is here.  As a third-party figure this isn't great, but is this a figure or an accessory?  Because the fact that it has any sort of alt mode and adequate articulation makes it a massive improvement over the slug Grimlock came with.

I'm not really sure I can recommend this kit, though.  It's kind of an expensive kit, and I have to assume that lot of that expense is Wheelie.  And while Wheelie is a big improvement over Grimlock's slug and a decent enough robot, it's not that great of a figure overall.  Plus we've already heard rumors that Wheelie might get his own official Studio Series release now that the line is expanding into the Core Class.  The fillers are all decent enough, but you can buy Nonnef's kit with a sword and teeth AND JRC Design's feet fillers for half the cost of this kit.  And looking at that way forces me to consider other things that DNA's kit is lacking that you will get with Nonnef's kit- translucent chest options that aren't as opaque as the original, and a crown.  Plus, Nonnef's sword has better color options, and while DNA did include fillers for the screw holes on the sides of Grimlock's head Nonnef's has one for the neck, too.  All DNA's offering here that you can't get from Nonnef + JRC is the neck part, which I'm not a fan of, and Wheelie, which I've already explained is kind of a mixed bag.  That just leaves the articulated dino claws.  They're definitely the highlight of this kit, but I can't say that they're worth the price of this kit unless you really like this Wheelie, you didn't already buy cheaper fillers, and you don't really care about having a better translucent chest.

[JB0]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Then there's the neck.  If you REALLY want a toy-style translucent neck, I guess this will do and, to my knowledge, is the only kit that has a molded plastic neck part instead of 3D printed.  But honestly, I think the solid gold neck looks better.  The translucent neck is way too bright a shade of yellow. 

That neck is awful. No two ways about it. Toy supremacists don't just want a clear neck, they want smokey plastic over random mechanical bits.

This is the wrong color and lacks the innards. I don't know how they came to the conclusion anyone wanted it.

[mikeszekely]

Picked up a few more of itty bitty Dr. Wu guys.  These ones come in two packs, so I have a pack with Destroy Emperor (Galvatron) and Monitor Officer (Soundblaster), and another with Intelligence Officer (Soundwave) and Big Surge (Beachcomber).

Aesthetically, I don't have a ton of complaints.  I mean, that's Beachcomber for sure.  Maybe Soundwave and Soundblaster are a little lacking in details, and Galvatron's a bit fat and maybe a tad IDW-ish.  The back of his cannon is kind of just a brick, too. 

Galvatron and Beachcomber have hollow lower legs, due to transformation, and I think Dr. Wu might might have been better if the fin on Galvatron's back flipped the other way.  But I'm willing to cut these guys a lot of slack just because of how tiny they are.

Seriously, here they are with Newage Bumblebee V1, Siege Roadhandler, and Core-class Soundwave.  Bumblebee's bigger than all of them, and they're half the size of a Core-class or less.  Soundwave and Galvatron are less than a head taller than Roadhandler, and Beachcomber is even shorter.  They're basically Micromasters, only with better articulation.

Destroy Emperor's head is on a swivel, no tilt.  His shoulders are ball joints for rotation and cut to move just short of 90 degrees.  His elbows are double-jointed and bend 180 degrees.  No bicep or wrist swivels, but he does have a waist swivel.  Hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward and backward and about 60 degrees laterally.  His knees are ball joints, so they can bend nearly 180 degrees and they double as a thigh swivel.  No foot or ankle articulation.

Intelligence and Mointor Officer have a ball joint going into their torsos, so their head can look up but going too far kind of messes with the sculpt.  There's some sideways tilt, nothing really down.  Shoulders have pin hinges for 90 degrees of lateral movement attached to ball joints going into their backs, providing the swivel as well as a bit of butterfly.  No wrist or bicep swivels, but their elbows bend 90 degrees and they have waist swivels.  Their hip skirts move just enough that their ball jointed hips can go over 90 degrees backward, 90 degrees laterally, and just short of 90 degrees forward.  You can kind of fake a full 90 by over-extending their knees, which bend 90 degrees forward or backward.  No thigh swivels, save what you can get by moving their hips around the ball joints.  Their feet are on ball joints, so they have a little up/down tilt and about 45 degrees of pivot.

Big Surge fares the worst.  He's got no head articulation, no bicep, wrist, waist, or thigh swivels, and no ankles.  He's got ball jointed shoulders that swivel and get 90 degrees of lateral movement, ball jointed hips that get 90 degrees forward/backward/laterally, hinged elbows that can bend 90 degrees, and hinged knees that bend 180 degrees.  So, not the greatest, but just having elbows and greater range on his hips and shoulders does put him ahead of a Siege Micromaster despite being a little smaller.

Oh, something to note... unlike Prime these guys don't really come with accessories.  Galvatron's cannon comes off, as does Soundwave/Soundblaster's shoulder cannons, but there's no rifles for Soundwave/Soundblaster or Beachcomber.  There is a curious purple peg in the box with Galvatron/Soundblaster.  It's not in the instructions.  You can plug it into the back of Galvatron's cannon to make it look a little more complete, but I believe the smaller end is actually meant to go into the barrel of his cannon.  WfC blast effects can plug onto the larger end, effectively making Galvatron's cannon compatible with them.

You have to figure that the transformations on guys this little are going to be pretty simple.  Beachcomber is literally just folding his legs over and tucking his arms against his body, but honestly, that works.  Soundwave/Soundblaster have some of their hips exposed, and don't really sit flat because of it, but I have to give them credit for using the feet, head, and shoulder cannon in combination with his arms to fill in his back, arguably better than the Hasbro Core-class or even the Netflix Voyager.  Honestly, my biggest complaint with them might be that their tape decks don't open, but that might have been a challenge at this size.  Galvatron comes out the worst, but I'd say he's in the ballpark and not much worse than DX9's Legends-class Galvatron.

Because, again, these are tiny, tiny dudes.  Here's Galvatron and Beachcomber with Newage Bumblebee and Siege Roadhandler.

And here's Soundwave slotting something like halfway between the Hasbro Core-class and the slug Soundwave that came with the Hasbro Centurion drone pack.

Like I said when I reviewed Dr. Wu's little Prime, these are not Earth-shattering mini-Masterpieces like some of the stuff Newage and Magic Square have been doing.  Even your average Deluxe or even Core-class is more complex.  They're meant, first and foremost, to be accessories to make the Titan-class figures seem bigger  But yeah, there's something that's just fun about having tiny Transformers that are posable and still transform, they're reasonably priced at $30-ish for a two-pack, and despite their small stature they're actually a step up from Hasbro's own Micromasters.  Are they necessary?  Probably not, but I kind or recommend checking them out anyway.  My only real complaint with them is how they're packaged.  I mean, I could totally have lived without Soundblaster, so of course he's packaged with Galvatron and Soundwave, who you'd actually want, is sold separately.  With Beachcomber, no less, who is marginally more important than Soundblaster but whom I still probably could have done without.  And why are we getting dudes like Beachcomber before more important characters like Grimlock, Bumblebee, Prowl, Hot Rod, Shockwave, Scourge, or Cyclonus?  At least the Seekers are coming (with more Autobot minibots and Blaster).

[mikeszekely]

I've got a blast from the past here today... it's Before and After's Six Sigma, a third-party take on Sixgun.

As you guys probably know, G1 Sixgun was a robot you could make by taking a tower piece from Metroplex, sticking his shoulder guns onto it to make arms, using his dual rifles to make legs, a double-barreled cannon for a backpack, and a small gun that plugged into one of his arms for a pistol.  So the G1 toy was pretty tall, coming up to Metroplex's chest or so.  So where does that make Six Sigma fit, scale wise?  In modern times Hasbro has worked to make all of those characters that were packed in with Citybots Deluxes or so, but the downside of that is that when you pull Siege Sixgun's leg off you have a gun that can be used by another Deluxe or Voyager, not Titan Metroplex.  Six Sigma, meanwhile, seems far too huge to go with your Generations figures; he's slightly taller than MP-10/44/MS-01/TE-01, and nearly as tall as Siege Jetfire.  I think I'd display him with MP Transformers, honestly.  However, when he came out (long before Siege Sixgun), Six Sigma was actually sort of un upgrade kit for Titan Metroplex.

Aesthetically, I think he does a pretty good job pulling off Sixgun.  There's actually two versions; this one, with black forearms that emulate the fact that his arms are supposed to be made from Metroplex's black shoulder guns, and a version with red forearms that copies the animation's decision to invent arms for him out of thin air with Metroplex's shoulder guns become Sixgun's shoulder guns.  I think I might have preferred the red, but I prefer Six Sigma's black arms to Siege Sixgun's white ones.  Six Sigma's head is also more G1 toy-accurate, and doesn't have the white faceplate that Hasbro invented for the Siege toy.

Six Sigma doesn't come with Sixgun's pistol, which is kind of a drag; I'm pretty sure that the "six" in "Sixgun" is two guns making the arms, two guns making the legs, one double-barreled gun on his back, and one gun held in his "hand", but recent iterations of the character seem to count his backpack as two.  Oh well.  What Six Sigma does come with is a Slammer tank.  Unlike Kingdom Slammer this one doesn't have a robot mode.  Heck, the turret doesn't move and there's no wheels to roll on.  That said, by including Slammer Six Sigma would have given you a complete set of Metroplex's drones something like seven years ago.

Six Sigma's head is on a ball joint.  He's got fairly limited tilt up/down/sideways, but it swivels.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and a ratcheted hinge allows him to move his arm slightly over 90 degrees laterally.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed but his forearms are too bulky to get more than 90 degrees.  He's got a ratcheted ab crunch and a waist swivel, but the waist swivel is a tad limited by his own hips.  Speaking of hips, they can go over 90 degrees forward and backward on ratchets, but just a single lateral click or two for only maybe 45 degrees laterally, if I'm being generous.  His thighs swivel. He's got ratcheted knee bends, but again only about 45 degrees or so.  The front section of his feet are on swivels, which gives him 360 degrees of faux ankle pivot, plus both parts of his feet are on ratcheted hinges that give his feet some downward tilt.

While it's a bit of a shame that Six Sigma doesn't have Sixgun's pistol, Slammer can transform by flipping the turret around to the bottom of the tank.  You can use a peg to plug Slammer the large peg hole on either of Six Sigma's forearms, near his wrists, turning Slammer into a kind of arm cannon.

There are also peg holes on Six Sigma's shoulders.  This allows you to take the shoulder cannons from Titan Metroplex and plug them onto Six Sigma, which better emulates the animation model.

Six Sigma doesn't have a alt mode like the Siege toy, really.  He does more like what the G1 toy did- the backpack comes off.  The torso doesn't come apart, but it does transform into a tower.  Since his arms don't come off, they kind of scrunch up, turning into something like cannons.  And although I haven't done it here, yes, his legs come off.

The legs actually extend, and the heels flip down to become handles.  The shape of them is designed to fit into Titan Metroplex's hands.  And since DNA's replacement hands work with the stock rifles, then they can hold the Six Sigma ones, too.  You can also take the double-barreled backpack gun and plug it into a port on the right side of Metroplex's back.  I don't think that's cartoon accurate, but I vaguely remember doing that with the G1 toy.

I thing things kind of start coming apart when it comes to integrating Six Sigma with Metroplex's alt modes.  I mean, for base mode, he doesn't seem to integrate at all.  To be fair, I don't recall being able to do anything with the Slammer or Sixgun's tower section on G1 Metroplex's battleship mode, but the leg guns plugged into Metroplex's legs and the backpack guns went in the spot you can use for robot mode.  You can still put the backpack guns on, but Six Sigma's legs don't plug into Metroplex's anywhere.  I think a little more thought went into Metroplex's city mode.  The bulk of Six Sigma that makes up the tower uses to pegs to loosely plug into the screw holes by the helipad, which is pretty much where G1 Sixgun's torso tower went.  Slammer's turret collapses, pushing out a fold out spire, and you can plug him into Metroplex's back where the double-barreled cannon was in bot mode.  It's not exactly G1 accurate, but it's kind of close enough given that Titan Metroplex isn't very G1 accurate.  I'm not sure where Sixgun's backpack went  on G1 Metroplex, but it has tabs so it can perch (albeit loosely) on top of the Sixgun tower.  However, there doesn't seem to be a way to integrate Six Sigma's leg guns.  The G1 toy had them plug into Metroplex's knees, and while there are peg holes in the right spots on Titan Metroplex there are no pegs on Six Sigma's legs.

What we wind up with is a figure out-of-scale with your modern Generations figures, with fairly limited articulation and dicey plastic quality (I snapped the mushroom peg off one of the wrists the first time I transformed him), that gives Metroplex the rest of his drones, and becomes parts that can integrate with some of Metroplex's modes, but never all of his parts in any given mode.  Seven years ago I'd have said that's enough to make Six Sigma an attractive purchase.  In 2022, though, it's honestly cheaper and easier to use Siege Sixgun and Kingdom Slammer.  Siege Sixgun's legs might not make rifles for Metroplex, but it's easier to incorporate all of Sixgun and Slammer's parts into the city mode while retaining the stock rifle (or rifles, if you got the Takara version), making Six Sigma pretty redundant.  Mostly what Six Sigma did was make me mess around with Metroplex and rekindle my desire for a better G1 Titan version with a better Deluxe-class Scamper.

[Convectuoso]

 

 

[sh9000]

 

[mikeszekely]

Quite awhile ago I reviewed two DNA upgrade kits for Earthrise Titan-class Scorponok.  DK-19 gave him his missing gun, gave you a second set of articulated shoulder cannons to replace the stock ones, gave you covers for the gaps on the inside of his ankles, bulked out the panels on the outside of his legs, and gave him a clear face shield.  DK-21 beefed up his shield, two more articulated shoulder cannons to give him the a G1-accurate total of four, a translucent red visor, and articulated scorpion legs.  Well, DNA didn't stop there.  They did one more kit for Scorponok, DNA-23.

This has got to be one of DNA's more ambitious kits.  Previous kits have added missing accessories or replaced parts on smaller figures, but this time we're replacing the thighs and most of the lower legs on a Titan.  So, yeah, what you get is what you see here... two thighs, two lower legs, and a bag of screws and some rubber bits.

For all we're replacing here, this kit's not too hard to install.  Turn the leg sideways, and remove three screws (red circles).  This will allow you to split the thigh open and remove the entire leg.  Pull the other half of the thigh off of the knee joint, but take note of these little gray parts (blue circles).  The top most one is part of the ratchet for the thigh swivel, the middle one is the ratchet for the upper knee joint.  The bottom one is the clip where the tail attaches in scorpion mode.  Remove them and set them aside, you'll need them in a bit.

With the thigh removed we can work on the lower leg.  Before we get too far, pop the purple panel (blue arrow) off.  It's not pinned or anything.  You'll need that for the new leg.  Once you've done that, remove the three screws (red circles), then slide open the leg.

Oh, yeah, and remove the DNA inner ankle cover, too, if you're using them.

Remove the large gray knee joint and set it aside.  Also, don't forget to remove the ratchet for the lower knee joint!  We'll need that later, too.  Then slide the other half off the leg off.  You'll be left with the foot and the gray part that runs up the shin.

Now, take the halves the the DNA leg.  You'll note a little piece in between them (red arrow).  Line it up with the gray part of the shin, then slide one side of the leg on so that it captures it as it pegs into place.  Put the knee joint and ratchet back, then slide on the other side and screw it closed again with the provided screws.  If you're using it, you can re-install the inner ankle cover exactly the same way as before (by clipping one end at the bottom of the hinge for the panel on the back of his leg, and then lining up the other end with the lower screw hole).

Grab half of the DNA thigh and slide the other end of the knee joint onto it.  Put the ratchets and clip from the old thigh into the like spots on the DNA thigh.  Oh, and this is where the rubber bits come in.  Basically, the idea is that stresses on the ratchets will cause them to bow inward.  Stack two of the rubber bits together and wedge them inside the ratchet.  They're sturdy enough to force the ratchet back out, perhaps even bowing a bit the other way, but smushy enough that the ratchet can still press in so the joint can move.  The result should be a tighter ratchet.  The instructions indicate that they go in the thigh swivels and upper knee joints.  My personal experience is that they're useful in the knees, but too thigh in the thighs, but your mileage may vary.  Once the ratchets are in place line it up with the gear sticking out of Scorponok's hip, then capture that gear and the knee joint with the other half of the thigh and screw it back into place.

So what's this kit about?  At it's simplest, I think the idea was to make Scorponok as tall as his rival, Fortress Maximus.  And, yeah, it does that.  But, here's the thing, I was thinking that there's something wonky about Scorponok's proportions.  I was thinking that longer legs might help, but I'm not sure it really does.  I think real problem is that his arms are too short, and longer legs just calls attention to that.  Maybe we kneed yet one more DNA kit for this guy...

Regardless of what you think about the proportions, DNA did a pretty good job with the build of these parts.  You could tell they tried to match the paint and molded details of the original as much as possible, just extending them in areas where necessary.  So, for example the blue bits around the hexagonal panels on the fronts of his shins are the same as before, but instead of sitting on a square background they're on an inverted house-shape.  And as long as we're looking at it, DNA did a good job matching the purple plastic Hasbro used originally.  They didn't get as close with the green, but Hasbro themselves frequently have poor color matching between plastic and paint (like the gold on Black Zarak's feet there), so I guess a little color separation just doesn't bother me anymore.

This kit's not going to affect the base mode too much, it's just going to make him slightly wider due to having longer legs.  I was worried about the scorpion mode, though.  After all the, tail folds down from his back and wraps around to clip into the exposed underside of his thighs.  Giving him longer legs means we're moving the point of connection.  Would that cause a problem for plugging the tail in?  The answer is no, not really.  The tail still fits under, still plugs into the same spot, and it's even using the original clips that we transplanted into the new thighs.  The only thing to note is this double-hinge I've circled in red.  With the original parts, the hinge would be bent at 90 degrees on both ends.  Now, because it has to stretch a little further, the hinges are angled.  I guess, when viewed side-on from this low angle that it exaggerates the gap between the tail and the underside of his body, but mostly it's not a big deal to me.

DK-23 is a well-made kit that does exactly what it set out to do... but what it set out to do is make Scorpy Fort Max's height, not fix his wonky proportions.  So, while I thought DNA-19 was pretty much essential since you got his missing rifle and a set of articulated shoulder cannons (which gave you four if you counted Hasbro's, the correct number he should have), and DK-21 wasn't as essential but I appreciated the bulkier shield, articulated scorpion legs, and the fact that with 19+21 you had the correct number of shoulder cannons and they are all articuated, I can't help but feel that maybe DK-23 wasn't really necessary.  Besides, when you add up the cost of all three kits it's nearly as much as Scorponok cost in the first place.  Buy it if having Fortress Maximus beat on a smaller adversary bugs you, but if you're fine with Scorponok's heigh and leg-to-torso proportions you can pass on this kit.

Ah, but before I got, I should mention one more kit... DNA DK-33.  DK-33 is everything in DK-19, 21*, done in colors to match Black Zarak.

*Minus the translucent face shield and visor, since those parts only work with the Scorponok head and not the remolded head for Black Zarak.

We have ourselves more of a dilemma, here.  With Scorponok, the parts were divided into three kits, one essential, one pretty dang good, and one mostly unnecessary.  That gave you a limited ability to pick and choose what you needed, helping you save money, and by spreading out the cost over one, two, or three separate purchases.  DK-33 is just the one kit and running $130, which is what I paid for Black Zarak in the first place.  And, I gotta tell you, I could live without the gun this time, since Black Zarak's got his spear.  I could live without the new legs and maybe even the bigger shield.  I don't really even use the ankle covers, since they mess with his alt modes.  But you know what?  I like the parts that add the extra bulk to the panels on the outsides of his legs.  And after using DNA shoulder cannons and articulated scorpion legs on Scorponok I could NOT go back to the Hasbro stock parts (especially since Hasbro didn't give you enough shoulder cannons).  So, yeah, if you have Scorponok and upgraded him, you kind of have to do the same for Black Zarak.  I really wish they'd have broken the kits up like they did for Scorponok; I'd have bought two and skipped the bigger robot legs for both him and Scorponok, then.  But at this point I guess DNA knew they had you, so you had to buy it all.  And if you bought it, you're going to use it, right?  And if you use the legs on Black Zarak, well, now you gotta go back and get them for Scorponok, right?

Ugh.

[Scyla]

Major rant incoming...

During the Haslab Star Saber preorder period I did mention that I wanted to buy the other renditions of Star Saber available on the market to pad out the collection (most notably the Planet X IDW Star Saber and the IronTrans stylized MP one).

I received Planet X Kadmos a while back and thought I write down my thoughts. So if you don't want to read the whole litany of complaints I have with the figure here is a quick summary: it is one of the worst figures I have in my collection. Easily in the Top 3 figures I own pushing MMC Boreas (now 3) and TT MP Laserwave (now 4) down one place.

If your were thinking about buying one: don't. Especially combined with the Victory Leo they are planning to release he will never be able to stand straight. It will collapse and shatter your Kadmos as a result.

What makes the toy so frustrating is that it has a lot of good parts...

...which are all undermined by some of the most baffling design decisions I have seen.

Spoiler

First the sculpt. It matches the IDW version of Star Saber pretty closely. But the botched the most important part of any toy, the head sculpt. This is usually the first part that draws in the observer however for some reason (my guess to keep the the transformation simple) they decided to squish the head width-wise; it looks horrendous. I noticed it looks passable if you don't look at it straight on but turn it to the side. This way the squished nature of the head is not that noticeable (it also means Star Saber will never be able to look straight). 

Next the materials and build. They used dense plastic and some die-cast parts. Which makes the toy feel nice and high quality at first glance when you pull it out of the box for the first time. It is a shame that none of the joints are strong enough to hold the toy in any pose besides a generic a-stance. What makes it worse is that the joints in the hips and knees are so weak that they will give in while posing it which resulted on my copy in a break of the antenna on his head while trying to pose him. Why wouldn't you make the thin, easily breakable antenna out of die-cast but his massive thighs that sever literally no function?

Another aspect of the build: in order to save costs most of the parts for his legs and arms are made out of the same parts that are not mirrored, resulting in a lot of ugly screw holes on one side of the toy while the other side has none. The toy comes with runners of screw covers which of course doesn't help with the die-cast thighs where you have on one side a plastic screw cover of the inside of the thigh while on the other side the plastic screw cover is on the outside. And because it is not painted it is super visible from close distance once you notice that it is there. 

Next we have the transformation. I have to give them credit that you can keep the alt-mode nosecone attached at all times so it ends up on his back (where it should be for IDW Star Saber). They even put in a 360 degree rotation for the tip of the nosecone so that you don't have to look at the hollowed out underside. Please don't put the nosecone on as a shield on his shoulder because then the backpack is not secure and will become knocked out of alignment easily while handling the toy. while the transformation is simple and easy to pull off it is also unrewarding and ineffective in hiding the robot. The hands are visible in plain sight and the robot is not obfuscated when you look at it from below. I think it is more excusable for G1 Star Saber since that is how he looked in the show but you could have been more imaginative for the IDW one. 

Lastly the articulation. While it has a lot of articulation (it even has a side to side bend in the abdomen so he can do the teapot) none of the joints are able to support the weight of the figure. One example would be the ankle tilts which are realized as a pin on the outmost inner side of the lower legs. Due to the massive weight of the bot and because the pinned joint is not strong this results in Kadmos standing on the inside of his feet because weight pushes the outside of the feet upwards: he can't even do an a-stance.

It has a lot of ratchet joints but they are of the lazy and cheap variety, where you have two teethed cylinders that are pushed together by a spring. Which not only looks super ugly they are also ineffective. Kadmos is this wobbly mess that has this uncanny characteristic that, no matter how you pose him, he never looks right. Even in such a basic pose like the a-stance the hip joints always are out of alignment so that he slightly leans to one side. You can't adjust the figure. As soon as you touch him he collapses. On top of that his boosters with the tail fins severely hinder his should posability and while they can rotate out of the way it a) breaks the sculpt and looks ugly and b)is not really freeing up a lot of range for the joint. Oh and did I mention he can't hold his weapons properly?

I could forgive a lot of the toys shortcomings if it was just fun and sturdy to handle and pose him but that is impossible.

So why I'm writing all of this? I have a lot of frustration built up with Star Saber. While he is one of my favorite Transformer designs his G1 Masterpiece toy is also terrible. It sits (proudly) on the number 1 spot of worst toys in my collection. And I don't know why they turn out so badly on a regular basis because the Flame Toys Kuro Kara Kuri one is probably one of the best toys in my collection but somehow two of three Star Saber toys are utter trash.

This all makes me super worried about the Haslab one. Especially given the reports that the white plastic on some of the most recent transformers apparently yellow super fast. Lets hope that the IronTrans Star Blade reissue I have on order turns out better and maybe I should track down the Alternity GT Saber race car since I know I like the mold (which again is too heavy for his own sake). 

Oh did I mention that this is the second time I'm writing this wall of text? The first time the browser on my smartphone deleted the first draft...

[edit:] Apparently this post crashed the MWF servers... thank you Star Saber 

Edited April 24, 2022 by Scyla

[mikeszekely]

Maybe MMC will do an IDW Star Saber, since they're doing Dezarus. In fact, I'm planning on picking up the G1 version to go with HasLab Victory Saber. I'm rarely disappointed with their stuff.

Out of curiosity, have you tried the Iron Trans Star Saber? I've heard the transformation is finicky, and there's some long-term concern about the joints done they're all friction (but I haven't heard any complaints of lose joints yet). But everyone I've talked to has been pretty happy with the robot mode in terms of looks and articulation. I nearly bought one myself, but I didn't really need an MP Star Saber.

[Scyla]

3 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Maybe MMC will do an IDW Star Saber, since they're doing Dezarus. In fact, I'm planning on picking up the G1 version to go with HasLab Victory Saber. I'm rarely disappointed with their stuff.

Out of curiosity, have you tried the Iron Trans Star Saber? I've heard the transformation is finicky, and there's some long-term concern about the joints done they're all friction (but I haven't heard any complaints of lose joints yet). But everyone I've talked to has been pretty happy with the robot mode in terms of looks and articulation. I nearly bought one myself, but I didn't really need an MP Star Saber.

I have the reissue on preorder. He’s slated for release in April but with all the lockdowns going on in China he will probably be delayed.

Once I have him in hand I can give some feedback here.

I‘d love to get an IDW Star Saber from MMC but they seem rather gun shy when it comes to toys that a competitor has released or is planning to release.

What I don’t understand is why anyone would choose a Planet X release over an MMC one. I have a couple of WfC/FoC toys from Planet X and they are all of lesser quality than most MMC releases (the Reformatted Lockdown mold being the exception).

[technoblue]

47 minutes ago, Scyla said:

What I don’t understand is why anyone would choose a Planet X release over an MMC one. I have a couple of WfC/FoC toys from Planet X and they are all of lesser quality than most MMC releases (the Reformatted Lockdown mold being the exception).

Hm. Scyla really hits on all the main points. Planet X’s turn toward aggressive competition with MMC I think surprised everyone, to be fair. Alas, I was holding out hope for Cacus but ultimately skipped that release because of the nonsense with the other releases in their IDW line-up.

For FoC, I feel that Planet X was at their pinnacle with Vulcun and Apollo. The releases since have been okay to middling to poor. Ironhide and Ratchet are the ugliest of the FoC designs and Pluto (their Megatron) had all those unfortunate QC issues out of the box.

MMC isn’t perfect but the’ve had plenty of fun Reformatted releases. The company itself is a force to reckon with when they bring their ‘A’ game to a design. Admittedly, though, Ocular Max has been getting more of my focus since the line was introduced. I’m content with playing mostly in their MP sandbox these days.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, Scyla said:

MMC but they seem rather gun shy when it comes to toys that a competitor has released or is planning to release

Yeah, they've pretty much come out and said they try to avoid that when possible.  Thing is, I wish they'd put up more of a fight, because when they do release a figure that another company does I usually prefer theirs.  Arcee and Springer are great examples; you could argue that FT's Rouge and Apache looked better in a neutral pose on a shelf, but neither were especially fun to handle (Rouge especially was a nightmare and, to this day, one of my least favorite 3P figures), while Azalea and Saltus are solid figures that are fun to transform and pose.  Plus, with Maketoys and BadCube pretty much dead, DX9 not releasing new figures because their designer quit, UT focused on Bayverse, and MMC avoiding competition the MP market has been reduced to picking between Fans Toys and X-Transbots.

[sh9000]

I never bought Ocular Max Assaultus and finally preordered all of the members except Volatus at The Chosen Prime.  Now just waiting for Volatus to be available again at The Chosen Prime.

[Scyla]

4 hours ago, sh9000 said:

I never bought Ocular Max Assaultus and finally preordered all of the members except Volatus at The Chosen Prime.  Now just waiting for Volatus to be available again at The Chosen Prime.

The G1 or G2 variety of Assaultus? And did you order the add-on set for the toy head/chest/gun/feet?

I much prefer the toy head to the animation one and the gun is much more intimidating.

I really like all the members except Incursus. He suffers the most from being part of an all-in-one combiner. I wished the designer AK found a way to make his torso collapse. He looks so awkward in robot mode. And MMC knows this which is why they tried making the torso appear shorter by painting parts of the lower abdomen tan so it looks like it belongs to the waist but it doesn’t work. 

 

[sh9000]

10 hours ago, Scyla said:

The G1 or G2 variety of Assaultus? And did you order the add-on set for the toy head/chest/gun/feet?

I much prefer the toy head to the animation one and the gun is much more intimidating.

I really like all the members except Incursus. He suffers the most from being part of an all-in-one combiner. I wished the designer AK found a way to make his torso collapse. He looks so awkward in robot mode. And MMC knows this which is why they tried making the torso appear shorter by painting parts of the lower abdomen tan so it looks like it belongs to the waist but it doesn’t work. 

 

G1 versions.  I skipped the add-on set.

[mikeszekely]

10 hours ago, Scyla said:

I really like all the members except Incursus. He suffers the most from being part of an all-in-one combiner. I wished the designer AK found a way to make his torso collapse. He looks so awkward in robot mode. And MMC knows this which is why they tried making the torso appear shorter by painting parts of the lower abdomen tan so it looks like it belongs to the waist but it doesn’t work. 

100% this.  The limbs are all great, but Onlsaught's just OK.  I like him better than the Unique Toys version, but aside from having overly chunky cannons I think Zeta actually did a better Onslaught.  If you're going to be combining them, though, it's small potatoes, I guess.  And I really love the combined mode.  Because...

11 hours ago, Scyla said:

And did you order the add-on set for the toy head/chest/gun/feet?

I much prefer the toy head to the animation one and the gun is much more intimidating.

So, I'm sure I've talked about this before, but when it comes to combiners I kind of prefer the individual team members to look like the cartoon, because that's how I remember them, but when it comes to combined mode I spent a lot of time looking at them in the pack-in checklists that came with other figures I had, to the point that I'd actually forgotten that Bruticus used Blast Off's nose for a chest in the cartoon for awhile.  So I don't just prefer the head and gun, I prefer the whole setup- head, chest, gun, and feet.  Assaultus with the upgrade kit really nails the look of the G1 toy, and I adore it.  I'm not a big fan of the G2 recolors (for any of the combiners), but if they'd have done Baldigus/Ruination colors I'd have bought them (even though the Sunbow Combaticons don't really match the more toy-accurate Studio Gallop models for the Decepticon Commandos/Combatrons).

[Kuma Style]