The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[technoblue]

Giant looks great combined, but even before I started building Constructor, Poseidon, and Hades I was already feeling like the Maketoys/Fansproject combiners are too small when matched with Uranos, Ordin, Feral Rex, and Warbotron. It was easier to overlook when it was 3 small to 4 large, but now I'm tossing Hades and Poseidon into the mix, to say nothing of how they're dwarfed by Constructor. It's the main reason why I'm debating picking up TFM's Menasor.

As for Gravity Builder... after their Scrapper and Mixmaster I was fairly set to go in on them. The prototype pics make GB look great and the size fits my collection better, plus I'd later see some neat features like the hidden missiles in the combiner hands. If combined mode is what you're after, GB is definitely looking like a good choice. But I take my combiners apart and play with them sometimes. GT's Scrapper looked great, but when I saw ToyWorld's it looked better. I had some issues with ToyWorld's Mixmaster, but it looked like I'd have more issues with GT's Mixmaster. Little things like that were nudging me to ToyWorld's camp, but again, the two biggest reasons I ultimately went ToyWorld will be talked about in the next two reviews.

I like the size of GT's Devastator gestalt too. Toy World's is huge, matched only by the official UW/CW Devastator. Those appear to be good masterpiece stand-ins, but I really like the flexibility that GB and FR have with being able to match up with either masterpiece or classics toys.

On a completely different note, Fans Toys announced G1 Springer:

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-3rd-party-discussion/1075804-fans-toys-ft-19-apache-springer.html#post13769629

That's two, two companies making Springer. Ha, ha, ha!

Edited July 15, 2016 by technoblue

[anime52k8]

well, that's a... thing....

[M'Kyuun]

I think FT's is much more faithful to the art than TW. That said, the alts for G1 Springer don't really appeal to me as much as they once did, and I prefer the Generations toy over both of these.

[mikeszekely]

Alright, last of the ToyWorld Constructicons: here's Bulldozer, their Bonecrusher.

Well, here's the thing. Take a minute to check out TFC, Maketoys, and GT's versions of Bonecrusher. They all have one thing in common... none of them look anything like Bonecrusher. Maketoys has a cab for his chest, GT's chest is molded to look like the blade, but what the heck is going on with that head? TFC's comes the closest, with at least part of the blade on his chest, but ultimately still misses the mark.

Bulldozer's blade becomes his chest. His driver's seat roof folds to his back. He's got green tread legs, even little faux-tread feet. And while a lot of people at TFW2005 like to complain about his head, which I'll grant isn't a prefect Sunbow head, it's a fair mix of cartoon and toy details that, unlike the other not-Bonecrusher's out there, is immediately recognizable as Bonecrusher. In other words, ToyWorld got a lot of important Bonecrusher details right that make him superior to any other 3P Bonecrusher available at the time of writing. I was especially disappointed with how generic and unlike Bonecrusher GT's turned out; ToyWorld's Bonecrusher vs GT's is absolutely my number one reason for going with Constructor instead of Gravity Builder.

There is the matter of that translucent purple chunk on his chest...

Like Allocater and Concrete you can easily remove it, though. Now, I think it doesn't make a huge difference if you leave it on or take it off of Allocater, and I think Concrete looks better without it but it's a minor improvement. For Bulldozer, though, it's basically a necessity. There's even a nice, flat pentagonal area for a Decepticon emblem.

There are other confusing choices, though. I mean, while I can excuse the purple on his abdomen and crotch as being toy-accurate, even if I prefer the cartoon's green... what's going on with his arms? Why purple? Is it because of the Studio OX design? Way I see it, ToyWorld had two choices: silver, like the toy, or green, like the cartoon, and they screwed up. Reluctantly, I'm forced to admit that the Combiner Wars version of Bonecrusher probably has the better aesthetic, although the engineering of the CW version pales in comparison to Bulldozer.

As the left arm of Constructor, Bulldozer's accessories are basically the same as Unearth's. You've got your screw hole covers, your extra bit of tread, gun, combined-mode forearm, drill, and hand. Only this time the hand is the left hand! Actually, if you look closely you can see that the elbow connectors are different on the forearms. The one that comes with Unearth only fits Unearth, and the one that fits Bulldozer only fits Bulldozer.

His articulation is basically the same as Unearth's, for good and for ill. Same hands and wrist swivels as the other five, waist swivel, hinged swiveled head, and bicep swivel we've come to know and love. His shoulders rotate and have 90 degrees of lateral movement, and like Unearth he's got a flap* on the side of his shoulder that moves out of the way to accommodate the motion. He doesn't have the transformation joint, though, so he is limited to just the 90 degrees. He's got the same double-jointed elbows as Unearth as well, however, fully extending his arms makes them look freakishly long. Unless he's in a pose that requires the use of both joints, I like to collapse his arms a bit so that the lower joint is nestled into the forearm. His legs are basically the same as Unearth, so like Unearth he's got plenty of forward/backward hip rotation but limited lateral hip movement so he can't spread his legs very far apart. Same soft ratcheted knee with 90 degrees of bend and a bar behind his knee to keep the treads in place. And he's got the same thigh swivel almost totally negated by the tension of the treads. His feet are also functionally the same as Unearth's as well, with the same articulation, but it's a nice touch that they don't look identical. That's in keeping with the G1 versions, and something that the Combiner Wars versions missed.

*By the way, this flap needs to be carefully threaded into a slot on his forearm when transforming him into bulldozer/arm mode. Oddly, ToyWorld made the green panel on one side of his arm a flap, but it's the wrong side for the shoulder flap. So, not only are you still carefully threading the shoulder flap into place, but you've got an arm flap that seems to serve no discernible purpose.

Bulldozer turns into a Constitution-class starship... just kidding, he turns into a bulldozer. Not the most creative name, eh? With the simple roof instead of the little cab and the swath of purple on the front Bulldozer is actually more accurate to both toy and 'toon than CW Bonecrusher. Plus, he's got the benefit of real working treads and looking like a piece of heavy equipment instead of a cartoon in three dimensions. I do have one complaint, though, and that's the blade. It's actually smaller than the CW toy, despite being a bigger toy overall. Plus, it folds up for transformation, which is fine, but it doesn't stay tabbed together as securely as I'd like, making it look even smaller.

The blade has a trio of hinges, one where the arms connect to the blade, one where the arms connect to the body, and one along the arms close to the body. He has a peg hole for his weapon in Bulldozer mode, but you have to move the roof. On the plus side, there's an extra hole, so you can have him carry Shovel's gun since Shovel can't.

Bulldozer's an odd case. IMHO, I think he's the weakest of the set. Part of that might be because Bonecrusher is my least favorite of the Constructicons. Part of that might be because he's got the same limited articulation as Unearth while not nailing his character as well as Unearth does. Part of it might be the little tolerances, like the looseness in the tabs that hold the blade together in bulldozer mode or the inability of the tabs on the edge of the blade to hold his chest down in bot mode. Part of it might be that, while he doesn't have the major sort of QC problems that Burden has, he's got the worst fit and finish of the set. I have a misaligned pin going through the gray piece on the inside of his left forearm, he had more sprue marks and flashing than even the most amateur Gunpla, and a tab on his left arm was completely sheered off out of the box (fortunately, there's two tabs and everything still holds together fine in vehicle/arm mode).

Despite my complaints, I'm still going to recommend him. With the Combiner Wars Bonecrusher or this as your runner-up...

...ToyWorld's Bulldozer, for all it's flaws, is still the best Bonecrusher toy you can buy.

Besides, we've come this far. We're in it for the combined mode, right? Well, the answer to that question is coming tomorrow.

[slaginpit]

I prefer my toyworlds version that looks like a mess

[slaginpit]

Why do people like Fans Toys? For one, as I think you were alluding to, Quakewave was a great toy for its time. People noticed. Their MP-scaled dinobots arrived after that, and Fans Toys has been improving each of them as they go along. I'd speculate that the aggressive nature of their dinobot schedule is what kept them from their other interesting projects (like Jetfire/Skyfire). I mean, outside of dinos they've released what? Tesla, Reflector, and their Insecticons. And some of those releases have been received with criticism, so I wouldn't say Fans Toys receives blind praise:

• Scoria is panned because of the QC issues in the hips. Depending on which version you get, the chrome may not match the other dinos.
• Telsa is panned because of the face sculpt, and not being G1 enough. I think this is silly, but what do I know?
• Forager is panned because of QC issues with the arm clasps
• Willis was delayed so that Fans Toys could fix an issue with the side mirrors.

I have only two Fans Toys figures in my collection at the moment (with more on my pre-order list). Going by the numbers, I buy more MMC bots than any other third party. For quality, I would rank Fans Toys close to MMC, and they are also like MMC in that they include upgrades/incentives for older figures with their newer releases. Fans Toys may be trying to compete some with other company's announcements. Of course, it could be coincidence too. They haven't had much to announce aside from dinobots for a long time. Now, the new projects may start seeing the light.

I have the FT Dinos, and Insecticons. For the most part they are awesome. And one of the few companies you can reach out to if you have an issue. IE with my scoria they sent replacement parts Try that Bandai's valks or Takara's MP line. Good Luck with that

[ChaoticYeti]

I prefer my toyworlds version that looks like a mess

Hahaha. Cool. Ok. I actually dig the DX9 aesthetic, and avoided the Toyworld Astrotrain because it looks like garbage. /Opinions

[JB0]

Re: Not-Astrotrain...
I opt out of train and robot mode comparisons, but they're both terrible shuttles. Arguing about which one is better is a moot point.

Toyworld tries to look like an STS orbiter, gets 80% there, and then just gives up and completely craps the bed at the ends.

I guess trying to reproduce Astrotrain's shuttle mode and not the STS orbiter, but Astrotrain's shuttle mode was rather clearly supposed to actually be an STS orbiter. The design was compromised heavily for the train mode. Where modern engineering should've allowed them to bring the original vision to life, they chose instead to immortalize the shortcomings.

The DX one... is a better shuttle than that Takara Blastoff toy? This is what they call damning with faint praise, because there's little to praise. It is an AWFUL shuttle. The original Astrotrain toy made a better shuttle, for Primus' sake, and he was a terrible shuttle too!
I think it is better to be a terrible cybertronic shuttle than a bad STS orbiter, though. You can't point to specific flaws on the former and go "that is NOTHING like the real thing" because there is no real thing to compare it to.

Get back to me when someone bests Super SpayC. He's only been the reigning champion for thirty years now.

Bulldozer turns into a Constitution-class starship...

FINALLY! It is about time someone did-

just kidding, he turns into a bulldozer.

My heart, it is broken.

[slaginpit]

I think DX-9 Aesthetics are garbage. LOL their blitzwing looks like a block. Floating Shoulder pads Come on. Tank mode that looks like Block of cheese with the head sticking out and the jet while not bad as a Mig 21 still looks like a brick with wings. Their Astrotrain with those wonky feet hollow forearms and a train with a visible cockpit. The shuttle is a stubby fat kid that thinks its a real shuttle. Toyworld is the real deal and as close as we have to a MP Astrotrain

[Silverstreak]

Well, that's the great thing about opinions, they're allowed to be different. I own the Toyworld Astrotrain. I put the visor on mine to complete the toon look. It's a great Astrotrain, for a Classics/Chug collection. In no way do I see it as an MP in any way. And that's saying something because the prerequisites for what is admissible to my MP collections are pretty lax. The most obvious being that it's way too short.

And DX9's Astrotrain isn't stubby, he just needs to be tall enough to accomodate enough headroom for Devastator, remember?

[Scyla]

3rd party news from TFCon: http://news.tfw2005.com/2016/07/16/tfcon-2016-dealer-room-pics-318891

I dig the MMC Trailbreaker:

Edited July 16, 2016 by Scyla

[Dangard Ace]

Woot woot! Release in time for my birthday! The Ark crew is slowly being completed!

[technoblue]

Fans Toys Weirdwolf, Maketoys Manus, all of MMC's Reformatted announcements... Oh my!

[CoreyD]

About time someone started working on a trailbreaker!

[David Hingtgen]

About time someone started working on a trailbreaker!

Started working? They're nearly done:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/95812560@N03/28312358206/sizes/l

That's way beyond sample/prototype. That's molded in color. (markings appear to be decals though, so it still has a bit to do)

[slaginpit]

3rd party news from TFCon: http://news.tfw2005.com/2016/07/16/tfcon-2016-dealer-room-pics-318891

I dig the MMC Trailbreaker:

CnfFoBWXYAAiplh.jpg

While TFCON is in my neighborhood, I dont attend because I am only interested in 3rd Party. Pictures is all I need. And the one that has me most enthused is trail-breaker

[David Hingtgen]

Too much TFCon news to post, other than:

My budget for next year is already gone, to buy PX's WFC Trypticon.

[mikeszekely]

Toyworld tries to look like an STS orbiter, gets 80% there, and then just gives up and completely craps the bed at the ends.

I guess trying to reproduce Astrotrain's shuttle mode and not the STS orbiter, but Astrotrain's shuttle mode was rather clearly supposed to actually be an STS orbiter. The design was compromised heavily for the train mode. Where modern engineering should've allowed them to bring the original vision to life, they chose instead to immortalize the shortcomings.

Maybe I'm weird, but I kind of like it when they immortalize the shortcomings. I like KFC's Ditka (Blitzwing) better than the other two because it's the only one that has a jet that looks like the animation model instead of trying to look like the MiG the original toy was based on.

[Dangard Ace]

FT announced Skyfire. Can not wait. Glad I didn't bite on the other guys version.

[Dio]

Too much TFCon news to post, other than:

My budget for next year is already gone, to buy PX's WFC Trypticon.

Ditto. PX Trypticon is the one figure speculated about in the last few years that I vowed to pre-order on sight if it happened. The slides of the design confirm every ounce of faith I had that the company would do it right.

[David Hingtgen]

I'm amazed/impressed they got anything even at all resembling the FOC Nemesis design out of the WFC dino mode. Would prefer a much more city-ish/G1-ish "fortress" mode though.

Not sure about the 3rd "different jet" mode. Would rather effort/parts have gone into better city mode.

[mikeszekely]

OK, real quick thoughts on what I've heard so far about 3P news...

-Lot of people doing MP Seekers. Why?

-Maketoys is doing Jazz. That's like the fourth one... so Takara must have one coming soon, eh?

-The yellow Constructor head is a let down. TW reps were suggesting more traditional proportions, instead we got the OX head with a weird grimmace.

-X-Transbots is a little late to the Inferno game. I see they're also doing a Galvatron.

-There's another 3P Liokaiser coming... but I think most people who wanted a Liokaiser are five for six on Hades by now.

-As an IDW fan, I'm happy to see MMC rolling out more DJD guys... but honestly, I'm pretty underwhelmed by them (MMC in general, not their DJD stuff, which is great).

-I'm starting to get interested in Maketoys Cross Dimension line. Striker Manus seems like a good size Prime to mix with my combiners. If the Cross Dimension Megatron turns out to be good, I'll probably get both and replace Hegemon.

[mikeszekely]

Tonight, the grand finale... the combined form of Constructor, ToyWorld's Devastator. But we're going to do things a little differently, by taking a look at both the parts and the whole.

First we get Shovel and Concrete into leg mode. Oh, and yeah, I got the purple barrel on Concrete. Looks better that way, IMHO. On the subject of Concrete, may I just add that I LOVE the way Concrete's front wheels hide away, giving him a nice flat base for a foot.

The bulk of Burden's contribution to the gestalt is actually the partsforming hips/thighs/crotch. Burden himself plugs down onto it, then his arms wrap around the plug so that pegs on the plug go into peg holes on the arms.

While Combiner Wars Devastator's chest plate sort of held everything together, you actually want to attach the chest plate to Allocator before putting everyone together. You can put the head on now or later.

Getting Bulldozer and Unearth ready is basically a case of attaching the forearms and hands to their vehicle mode, then folding out the combiner pegs. They use multiple points of connection, and Bulldozer's can take some effort to peg in. I've found that it's easier if you unpeg his feet from each other and do each one separately.

Concrete and Shovel connect by sliding some notched bits on the thighs into grooves on the rears of the legbots. The side that Shovel connects to isn't toleranced right, and I do recommend filing and test fitting before you put Shovel on all the way. Once they're in place, springed panels on the sides of the knees can be rotated around onto pegs on the legbots, securely locking them in place.

Connecting Allocater involves making sure you have four pegs flipped out under Allocater and lining them up into four holes on top of Burden...

...then lining up some pegs under Burden's truck bed with peg holes on Allocator's back so that it takes more than simply pulling up to pull them apart.

Lastly, slide the Combiner Wars-style pegs on Bulldozer and Unearth into their slots on Allocater and close the tops. If the tops don't lock down and close all the way, check the pegs on the armbots. You'll notice that three sides have a ridge cut into them, and one side doesn't. Make sure that the smooth side is facing up.

And there we have it, the combine Constructor. He's a mammoth fellow, standing taller than his Combiner Wars counterpart.

If we compare him with Ordin, whom I consider to be a "standard" size for 3P combiners, Ordin still only comes up to about his chest plate.

Aesthetically, he's clearly not a traditional Devastator. A lot of the departures, though, including the odd shape to the head, the way Unearth's shovel just dangles down, the silver thighs, the purple knees, and even the translucent "window" in the center of the chest piece all take their cues from Studio OX's artwork, though. The fact that we got purple and green treads instead of black and either a green or purple barrel on Concrete are actually concessions by ToyWorld to the G1 versions, concessions that put on the toys themselves but not even on their own box art. So, love it or hate it, I can't fault it for being inaccurate. That said, I do think the waist is too thin and the arms too long, and these problems would have been entirely avoidable if they'd just made Burden a little bigger.

Well, here's the biggest pro Constructor has going for him: he's probably the most solid and articulated combiner I've played with. Everything locks tightly together. And, while a lot of people will complain about the partsforming aspect, a huge advantage is that there are pieces, pieces with joints in the elbows, waist, hips, and knees, that aren't trying to do double duty or be cleverly hidden. Don't get me wrong, he's got heavy parts and can tip over while you're messing with him, but it's almost always just a matter of finding the balancing points and not because you're using an individual robot's little waist joints hidden behind a larger faux-waist panel.

In some ways, he's got better articulation than some non-combining robots. The head is on a hinged swivel that can look up and down a bit, and side to side with no problem. His shoulders are on tight ratchets for lateral movement. I want to say that he can get at least 45 degrees of lateral movement, but the ratchets are so tough that I almost want to pull the arm off and adjust the ratchet by holding onto the other side of the peg directly than by trying to pull on the armbot while it's attached. It seems like the shoulder rotation is also a ratchet, one that's so tight you'll think you're going to break it. Here's a little trick- pull the arm outward slightly so the teeth aren't touching, rotate the arm, then push it back. It locks the arm into place so that it won't droop under its own weight. There's bicep rotation just under where the forearms connect to the armbots, and a ratcheted elbow that gets just over 90 degrees of bend. The ratchets are strong enough that Constructor can hold his gun, or possibly even another figure (I had him holding Maketoys' Himed). He's got not just a waist swivel, but a ratcheted ab crunch joint. He's got universal hips with strong ratchets for both forward and lateral movement. He can kick all the way forward, all the way back, and he can do the splits... but only if you want him too! No floppy Uranos hips here! There's a thigh swivel in the hip, and ratcheted knees above the connection to the leg bots. And, like the Combiner Wars toys, ankle tilts have been built into Shovel and Concrete. Shovel's waist also allows you to rotate Constructor's right ankle, but the left is locked into place.

Now the hands are their own beast, worth talking about on their own and probably the second biggest reason I went with Constructor. They are simple the most articulated combiner hands I've played with. He's got wrist rotation, sure, but the wrist also has a ratchet to flex the hand up or downward. The fingers are attached to the hand on a hinge to curl inward, but before the next knuckle there are joints that are solely so the fingers can be splayed, and they can splay ridiculously far apart. Going up from there, each finger has two knuckles and are different lengths, just like a real hand, but something I appreciate is that most combiner hands, even when the fingers are as straight as they'll get, still tend to curl inward a bit. The joints on Constructor's fingers actually allow them to bend backward a little for dynamic posing, and at least 90 degrees inward. The thumb's knuckles, both of them, have similar inward and outward range (the knuckle just up from the base has a little less inward and little more outward). The thumb gets a ton more articulation from the base, though, which is hinged for inward and outward movement and has a joint for rotation, so you can lie the thumb flat along the base of the palm or flat up the side of the hand. Seriously, if you can get your own actual flesh-and-blood hand into a position you can probably get Constructor's hands into the same position.

Constructor has some other nice touches. For instance, a slider on his forehead allows you to switch between the visored and un-visored look, and a button on the back of the head makes his eyes light up. The batteries are even included. The only downside is that the visor is a little too see-through, so the eyes are visible even when the visor is down, and if the eyes are lit you practically can't tell the difference between visor up and visor down.

If for some reason you don't like the awesome articulated hands, you can swap them out for drills like he had that one time in that one episode. Or like the G1 toy did, I guess. There's actually a spring in the forearm and a button you can use to fire the drill (or a fist). It'll fire with way more force than the US government would allow in a toy. The forearms also have a neat armor separation gimmick that reminds me of Real Grade Gundam models. If you don't like it on the forearms, you can just hold the sides together when you bend the elbow. You'll need to allow the separation, though, if you want the maximum bend.

His thighs have similar armor separation.

The skirts on his hips are all hinged so you can get them out of the way, but the whole hinge is on a rotating part as well, so instead of flipping it up you can move it to the side, exposing some cool molded details on the hip joint. You might also be able to a little bit of a gap where his hips connect the crotch. This is because the entire hip joint can slide forward or backward, allowing you to adjust how his center of gravity sits over the hips and legs.

As impressive as he is, I'm not sure how I feel about recommending Constructor. I'm not entirely sure that he's the best Devastator you can buy. Aesthetically-speaking, there's a lot I still like about Maketoys' Green Giant, and the prototype pics for Generation Toys' Gravity Builder look pretty great as well. Chances are, if you have a collection of 3P combiners they'll probably scale better, too, with Giant being around the same size as Quantron, M3, and Guardia and Gravity Builder around the same size as Warbotron Bruticus or Ordin. If combined mode is your top priority, I might suggest looking at them instead. However, Constructor is still a very impressive Devastator, one that some have suggested fits the "MP scale" better. And while I might think Giant and Gravity Builder are better Devastators, I won't hesitate to tell you that Constructor is made of better Constructicons. In that sense, going with Constructor will give you great Constructicons that make a good Devastator, while Giant and Gravity Builder seem to be great Devastators made of so-so Constructions. I chose to take a small hit on Devastator to have great bots than to take the larger hit on the bots just to have a better Devy. If that makes sense to you, then this is probably the Devastator for you. Personally, I have a feeling that I'll be checking out Gravity Builder down the road, though.

[Tking22]

I'm glad to see we're finally getting some of the last Arc MP crew members we've all been missing. I just need Badcube to announce the Brawny reissue and Huff 2.0. I still don't want to, but there's few other options, I'm gonna grab an X-transbots Boost. I want the toy version to come out, but there's been little word on that so I don't even know if it's still getting released. And yes, I bet since we're now getting multiple MP Jazz options, Takara is probably set to announce their version..

[JB0]

Maybe I'm weird, but I kind of like it when they immortalize the shortcomings. I like KFC's Ditka (Blitzwing) better than the other two because it's the only one that has a jet that looks like the animation model instead of trying to look like the MiG the original toy was based on.

Then they should've gone all-out and put the stairstep behind the cockpit too.

Anyways, Terraegis is a brilliant name for a Trailbreaker clone, I love it, and I wish I had thought of it.

[mikeszekely]

Guess what? I'm not done doing reviews just because I finished Constructor. I've also got TFC's Thanatos, their version of Killbison.

Not sure what you guys like to see for size comparisons... I grabbed two other tankish guys, so we see that Thanatos is pretty similar in size, if a hair shorter, than Heavy Noisy, and way shorter than Combiner Wars Leader Megatron.

Aesthetically, TFC gets a lot right and a lot wrong. The most glaring thing seems to be that the rich orangey bronze of the G1 toy/'toon is a sandy tan. If we accept the equivalence, it's mostly used in the right spots... on the tank-tread shoulders, on his helmet, on his thighs, hips, and most of his chest. His hands and forearm coloring are inverted, but it seems to be because his forearm is part of the treads, so I'll allow it. The white on his forearms, abdomen, and shins is also correct, and TFC used a nice metallic gold paint for the yellow spots on his knees. The dark treads on his shoulders and legs are 'toon accurate, if not toy accurate. His feet and crotch really should have been white, and TFC continues their use of white in the middle of the chest, as if trying to replicate some of the details of the cartoon model with the breast partner attached even when it's not.

The head is very spot-on, I feel, minus the chin. If you can accept sandy tan instead of orangey bronze, then he's a overall a pretty good Killbison.

What's up with that name, though? Is he supposed to be a killer bison, or is killing bison his thing?

In any case, Thanatos' articulation is par for the set. His head is on a ball joint with some up-down tilt, some sideways tilt, and rotation that's ultimately impeded by the armature behind his head. His shoulders can move laterally about 90 degrees before the tank bits get in the way, and he's got no problem rotating his shoulders, biceps, wrist, or waist. His elbows are single-jointed and get you 90 degrees of bend. While his joints have that articulation, using them all in tandem does mean that the tank kibble on his shoulders and forearms can hinder actually posing him.

Moving downward, he's got universal hips that can do the splits, kick all the way forward, and sort of kick all the way backward, although practically his backpack is going to get in the way. He's got thigh rotation, but only about 45 degrees in either direction. His knees bend 90 degrees, and while most of his foot is the back of the tank he's got a little bit of downward tilt and faux-ankle tilt on toes.

One thing I like that TFC did is that the guns on his back are on hinged arms, so they can be lifted up and fired over his shoulders. They're not detachable the way the G1 toy was.

As is the case for everyone in this set, he's got an odd-looking gun...

...that turns into a breastplate that doesn't much match his animated appearance...

...or his breast partner, not-Bisonbreast. He's totally lacking the wings of Bisonbreast, and seems to split the difference between the cartoon's white with black hooves appearance and the toy's white body, red head, legs, and tail by giving us a mostly white cow with black hooves, red legs, red tail, and red horns. A boy cow, judging by the placement of the hand peg. Anyway, I dig him, despite not really matching Bisonbreast. As with the other two, animal mode is my preferred mode.

You're likely to here Thanatos' alt mode described as a tank, although if we're being technical he's a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG). Specifically, a German Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer Gepard ("anti-aircraft tank Cheetah"). It's kind of neat how he was the smallest bot in my comparison, but in alt mode suddenly he dwarfs Heavy Noisy and gets closer to Megatron in size. Aesthetically, he definitely looks like a Gepard, and as long as you again accept sandy tan for orangey bronze he's very close to toy and 'toon in this mode. Really the only major departure is that there's a bunch of black on the turret, which I believe should be solidly white.

He doesn't have working treads or even rolling wheels in this mode, which is a bit of a bummer. His turn can rotate fully around, though, and the guns can aim up or down independently of each other. The front tracking radar/laser rangefinder can turn side to side a little, but sadly the rear general radar dish is fixed. His breast partner can be plugged on top of the turret, and it doesn't look too bad up there. It even adds another gun.

Something I do want to talk about, because I've seen it come up as a problem in Bobby Skullface and emgo's reviews of this guy, are his legs and how then transform. In theory, they work like Combiner Wars, or like the other two guys I've looked at in this set- open the lower leg, fold it around the thigh, and close it back up. However, in a nod to the original toys, the combiner feet are not partsforming bits. Unlike the original toy, though, they're not merely little flip out panels, either. Half of the foot resides inside each leg, and and transforming the leg requires you to open up the back, pull it out, adjust how it's arranged, and stuff it back in. This stuffing requires you to mind a screw post inside the leg and make sure tabs on the outside of Thanatos' legs line up with slots on the combined ankle joints. Both Skullface and emgo seemed to struggle with this. Personally, I didn't find it that difficult. There's one big thing, though. The parts for the combiner ankle are the same on either side, probably to save costs. Now, the thing is, there's a peg on the left side of the joint and a hole on the right. This allows his left leg to peg into his right leg for tank and leg mode. However, the peg serves no purpose on the right leg. Worse than that, it gets in the way when you're transforming his leg, forcing you to bend the plastic to get it around. Your life will be MUCH easier if you cut it off. Me, I used hobby nippers then filed down the stump.

Anyway, I didn't really expect to like him. His colors struck me as boring, he seemed kibbly, tanks aren't as cool as jets, and his animal motif is a cow. But in hand, I actually like him more than I thought I would. If you're in the market for a Killbison figure, Thanatos is a pretty good choice, and I recommend him.

[technoblue]

OK, real quick thoughts on what I've heard so far about 3P news...

-Lot of people doing MP Seekers. Why?

-Maketoys is doing Jazz. That's like the fourth one... so Takara must have one coming soon, eh?

-The yellow Constructor head is a let down. TW reps were suggesting more traditional proportions, instead we got the OX head with a weird grimmace.

-X-Transbots is a little late to the Inferno game. I see they're also doing a Galvatron.

-There's another 3P Liokaiser coming... but I think most people who wanted a Liokaiser are five for six on Hades by now.

-As an IDW fan, I'm happy to see MMC rolling out more DJD guys... but honestly, I'm pretty underwhelmed by them (MMC in general, not their DJD stuff, which is great).

-I'm starting to get interested in Maketoys Cross Dimension line. Striker Manus seems like a good size Prime to mix with my combiners. If the Cross Dimension Megatron turns out to be good, I'll probably get both and replace Hegemon.

Why more Seekers? Why not? There are plenty of fans who are unhappy with MP-3, MP-11, and the new Takara coneheads. There's room for someone else to improve things, but I'm not really into any of the new 3P designs myself.

MakeToys Re:Master Despotron won me over. I was not a fan of Apollyon. He had a lot of fun accessories, but I didn't win XTB's QC lottery with my copy. I do want a solid Megatron to match with MP-10, though. And I hope the Cross Dimension Despotron is just as solid, because it seems like Maketoys might have add-ons in mind for the smaller CD line and I would be happy to have both to stand with the classic I still own.

MMC's new line of IDW bots seem more impressive to me than the Ocular Max stuff that is planned, but I know a lot of fans are going te be happy getting Trailbreaker and Hoist. I just don't have any real connection to those characters, and will skip them. IDW Rodimus was a nice surprise.

GT has my interest with IDW Prime and Megatron--Stealth Bomber Megatron! Seriously.

I already mentioned Fans Toys, but Skyfire was a nice surprise too. If I get him, I'll hide him among my Macross Valkyries. ;-)

Edited July 17, 2016 by technoblue

[ChaoticYeti]

I still can not believe they have not fixed the biggest issue with the MP seekers. The upper body still does not lock into place!

[Dio]

I'm amazed/impressed they got anything even at all resembling the FOC Nemesis design out of the WFC dino mode. Would prefer a much more city-ish/G1-ish "fortress" mode though.Not sure about the 3rd "different jet" mode. Would rather effort/parts have gone into better city mode.

Yeah that is an odd difference, basically making him a Duocon - the "different jet" is just missing the leg-scorpion half. It doesn't compromise the other modes, and may be a necessary (and cleverly forgivable) concession to make them all work.

The city/base mode reminds me more of the Pandinus "temple" than a more conventional cityformer, but given the canon alt modes are "Nemesis" and "giant nondescript orbital kill-sat," I just consider it a bonus.

Hopefully the other companies rumored to be working on Trypticons will show their hand soon, but this is a hard design to top.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

There's a lot to look forward to, no doubt. Despotron looks sick, makes me glad to have passed over Apollyon. Also can't wait to see MMC Strika as Roadbuster.

[ChaoticYeti]

Just finished a stand adapter for DX9 Gewalt.

[mikeszekely]

Why more Seekers? Why not? There are plenty of fans who are unhappy with MP-3, MP-11, and the new Takara coneheads.

No no, I get that part. And I'm all for having a couple of 3P options. But it seems like everyone is doing the Seekers now. I mean, even most of the new MP-sized Optimus Primes coming out have the sense to be Studio OX or Stormbringer or IDW and not just a straight up G1 Prime, and even then I think there are fewer people doing Prime than Seekers. I'm sure fans will latch onto some tiny detail that will make them insist that their choice is superior, but if I were the boss at a 3P company I'd be worried about how many MP Seeker molds the market can actually support profitably.

[David Hingtgen]

I'm not seeing many new seeker molds. A whole lot of KO's of the MP molds, both tweaked and 100% copies, but almost no "new from scratch F-15 molds". Just "Howling Meteor" and that's only a silhouette, and based on the shilhouette I have my doubts as to it being an actual F-15.

[M'Kyuun]

I was thinking the same thing- they all look like the official mold. I'd like to see an all new mold with a G1 transformation (where the arms rotate inward and form the plane's spine behind the cockpit, and where the nose section(i.e. head mount) sits below the chest intakes. Something about that nose section sitting above the intakes on the MP mold just bugs the crap out of me.

That MP Seeker mold has been around for quite some time; a fresh take would be most welcome. It'd be cool, too, if they could engineer in proper F-15 landing gear. I think it could be done, esp if the designers eschew a leg sliding mechanism in lieu of folding the thighs into the legs similar to the CW jets, or MP Prowl.

Lot's of cool 3P stuff coming...wish I could afford alot more of it. I'm constantly amazed by the pool of talented and creative folks out there, and, even if I can't buy a great deal of what's offered, I greatly appreciate all the TF toy options they've made available to the fandom. If any of you are reading this, my hat's off to you. Thanks!

[David Hingtgen]

MP Seekers will all stand a lot better/easier if the tailhook fairing was removed, like on the real thing. It's sad at the number of ways I've seen them try to get around it, ignoring what the real thing did, which is the easiest option of "snipping off the part causing a problem".