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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    If the dumper's always full, though, how can Long Haul remove stuff? I guess it works for him, though. He didn't join that outfit to be a dump truck.
  2. mikeszekely
    Tonight: Maketoys' Dump Truck, their Long Haul. Soon: MOAR CONSTRUCTICONS!!! So... yeah. Yeesh. I mean, it's toys like this that have people arguing in favor of ToyWorld's Constructor's partsforming. Dump Truck is suffering, and suffering hard, because his robot mode was clearly given the least priority after Maketoys' figured out how to make a dump truck into waist, hips, crotch, and thighs of Giant. It almost doesn't feel fair to point out that there is zero resemblance to G1 Long Haul aside from having some green and some dump truck parts on him. His proportions, especially the squat, t-shaped torso, are all over the place. His hands, which are both larger than his own head and larger than Combiner Wars Long Haul's, are especially ridiculous. If someone had handed me this toy and told me it was from one of the Bayverse films, I'd believe him. For articulation, Dump Truck's head is on a ball joint, and his ball-jointed shoulders both rotate and can extend laterally about 90 degrees. Due to the way he transforms, he's got a nice butterfly motion, too. He's got bicep swivels, and, a rarity in this set, wrist swivels. His elbows are double-jointed, but kibble prevents you from getting the full range out of it. His waist is actually a ratcheted swivel. His hips are ratcheted universal joints that can go all the way forward but only about 45 degrees laterally. His thigh swivels are ratcheted. His knees are ratcheted (I have in my notes 45 degrees of bend, but I think I meant 90). Although his ankles are ball joints their ability to tilt is limited. The wheels are a point of annoyance. They move, and there doesn't seem to be any way to lock them down. Dump truck's got a few more accessories, according to the instructions, than the rest of team. There is, of course, his gun. He is also supposed to be able to carry Giant's chest plate as a shield, but I couldn't get it into his Hulk hands- it seems like there's not enough space between the handle and the back of his shield. There are also these chromed bits. The instructions tell you to have them pegged on the back of his arms, but the peg on them fits into his hands, if you like. These pieces are honestly something of a peeve for me, though. I mean, if they did something cool in truck mode, maybe they'd be alright... ...but they just chill out in his bed. Maybe if they did something cool in combined mode (spoiler: they do something, but it isn't that cool)? His truck mode, for the most part, is pretty nice. It fits with the realistic look that we saw on Wheel Loader and and Mixer Truck. My earlier complaint about the wheels still stands in this mode: there's no real way to lock them in place. The bed doesn't articulate. Due to the bed actually forming arms instead of legs, you can't even fudge it. Speaking of his bed, he's not going to be a very useful dump truck if his bed's always full of crap. In addition to the chrome pieces, he's got Giant's chest plate folded up and wedged in there. And it's not just pegged to the bed; without it, you're actually missing a chuck of the back of the bed. In fact, if you take the extras out of the bed, you're not just exposing a missing chunk. You're suddenly confronted by the fact that a large portion of the bed is a greebly purple swath in what ought to a green truck bed. The purple isn't purple parts, either. It's purple paint on green parts. You can tell, because the paint job here his pretty sloppy. Oh, and without the stuff in the bed the combiner pegs hanging off the back seem more noticeable. Oddly enough, for all the crap that goes into his bed, his gun doesn't. In alt mode, his gun pegs onto the side. And despite pegging onto the side, unlike Wheel Loader or Mixer Truck it's not attached in a way that makes him look like a construction vehicle armed for battle. The barrel is actually pointed toward the rear, and angled to follow the base of the bed. Long Haul seems like a difficult character to do. The official Combiner Wars version also has really odd proportions due to the priority given to combined mode, and even ToyWorld's, which uses partsforming to escape a lot of the issues that CW Long Haul and Dump Truck here ran into, still has issues with stability. And yet, in a field of flawed Long Hauls, Maketoys' Dump Truck is probably the worst one. If you're looking for a good Long Haul, look elsewhere; even CW Long Haul is better. As a component in a Devastator, well, that review is coming.
  3. mikeszekely
    Yup. And The Big Show played an Orion on Enterprise.
  4. mikeszekely
    Well, not to take away from discussions on Megatrons, but these Constructicons aren't going to review themselves (not that you couldn't watch probably a dozen Youtube reviews). We'll work from the ground up, so tonight we're going to do Mixer, Maketoys' Mixmaster. Well... he's actually not a bad-looking Mixmaster. Sure, he's not totally G1-accurate, but for a company with a reputation for stylized designs their take on Mixmaster is remarkably restrained. Now, I've obviously still got at least two other Mixmasters to look at before I can declare a definitive champ, but with more green in his arms, flashes of silver in his abdomen, better proportions than CW or TW Mixmaster, and a better solution to the rear-tire kibble than TW, he might actually be the best-looking Mixmaster I currently own. I especially like his chest; it's reminiscent of the G1 toy's sticker details, and it's a look that ToyWorld would go on to use on their Mixmaster. It's too bad he's so much smaller (and the ToyWorld ones so much larger), otherwise I'd be tempted to mix-and-match Constructicons from different sets. I gotta ask, though... what's up with the kitty cat whiskers? If you're concerned about the lack of missiles or nozzles on Mixer's hood, don't be- a flip-down panel reveals a pair of molded and painted missiles chilling inside (although it's gotta be hard aiming with that panel in your face...). Speaking of his hood, his combiner port is chilling out up there, out in the open, but it doesn't bother me as much as it did on Wheel Loader. Mixer, like most Maketoys combiner figures, is mostly ball-jointed: ball joint head, ball joint shoulders that can get about 45 degrees laterally, ball joints for elbows, ball joints for hips (full forward/backward movement, about 45 degrees laterally), ball-jointed ankles for up/down and lateral tilt, and like Wheel Loader even a ball-jointed waist for swivel and a little ab crunch. Other joints would be a hinge in the elbows (they're double-jointed), bicep and thigh swivels, and a single-jointed knee hinge that can bend all the way around for transformation. Also do to his transformation, he's got butterfly joints where his shoulders are connected to his chest. Really, the only thing he's missing is a wrist swivel, but some of my favorite 3P toys are missing wrist swivels. For the most part, I think he's got plenty of articulation, but his main failing here is that he's the loosest of the six Maketoys Constructicons I have. Again, all the accessories are part in a the gift set, but this is the gun the instructions say is his. In addition to a gun, we mustn't forget that this is a Maketoys combiner, so all the combiner bits need a home in all three modes. For robot mode, it falls to Mixer to carry Giant's forearms. They just plug into the mixing drum on his back. As with other Maketoys/FP combiners, it's not something I'd do personally, but it's nice to have the option. And here's Mixer in mixer truck mode. For the most part, everything I said about Wheel Loader applies here. Maketoys has taken care to combine molded detail with smart use of paint to craft an alt mode that fairly realistic. If it weren't plastic it could almost pass for a non-transforming diecast toy. Mixer looks so good in alt mode that I'm willing to forgive the lack of Mixmaster's silver grill and the fact that the mixing drum doesn't rotate. I'd also prefer a purple mixing drum, but honestly the bits of purple torso peaking out and at the white/red striping on the drum do enough color break up for me that I'm not too bent up about it. Just like Wheel Loader, it falls to Mixer to tow one of the portable generators that become Giant's forearms. His weapon can be also be pegged onto the side in alt mode. And, once again, we have the combiner port very visible on the rear of the vehicle. I don't mind it as much here, though. Unlike Wheel Loader, it's not dominating the space, nor is it hanging out where a grill should be. Although it's not really how a real mixing truck works, my brain can buy the port as being where the mix exits the drum. So yeah, turns out Mixer's a pretty good Mixmaster. Maybe even the best Mixmaster. In a total vacuum, he'd be a recommend from me. However, I've already denounced Maketoys' effort at a Scrapper, and combining Constructicons from different sets probably isn't the best way to go (especially if you want them to combine!). As good as he is, he's not as fun as a stand-alone as someone like GT's Scraper, so you should probably wait for the rest of my reviews before deciding if the Giant set is the way you want to go.
  5. mikeszekely
    Peaugh has a review up for Maketoys' Despotron. I was really digging DX9's Mightron and was thinking that Despotron's legs were looking kind of chunky, but I'm really impressed with the clever transformation and how well it cleans up. But then Peaugh showed it next to Mightron and MP-10, and holy cow! I'm totally convinced that Despotron is the winner of the MP Megatron wars. Peaugh compared it to Apollyon, too, BTW. Poor Apollyon owners...
  6. mikeszekely
    Well, there you go. That's how people think he's better than Universe Galvatron, who may have been pretty good on paper as a Voyager but utterly failed in execution. ...Mania King.
  7. mikeszekely
    If it makes you feel better, Discovery is confirmed to be in the Prime universe. But yeah, pre-TOS.
  8. mikeszekely
    Today, we're going to take a look a Scrapper. "Didn't we just do that yesterday?" Yep, but that was Generation Toys version from just this year. Today, we're going to hop in a time machine and go all the way back to 2012. Today, we're looking at Maktoys Wheel Loader. Full disclosure: I bought this guy (and will likely wind up with a Hercules, too, if I can find one under $200) more out of curiosity than a belief that Giant will come out as the best Devastator, and to save money I bought one listed as a KO. As near as I can tell, it's identical down to the box, but keep in mind that any quality issues I bring up may or may not apply to the real deal. Wheel Loader's a fairly diminutive Scrapper, and the smallest of the four I have, although that's pretty much par for the course for Maketoys. As you can see with his Voyager Combiner Wars counterpart (and Reveal the Shield Jazz), he's definitely closer in size to a Deluxe. So let's address the elephant in the room... this guy really doesn't look much like Scrapper. His torso, which is sorely lacking in purple, is dominated by his alt-mode cab, his thighs are a very dark gray, and he's carrying wheels on his forearms instead of his shoulders. At least his arms are green, his bucked on his back, and his head sculpt is fairly Scrapper-esque, if a little dark, but honestly if I took my Generations Scoop toy, painted him green, and put Wheel Loader's head on him it'd look a lot more like Scrapper. To be totally fair to Maketoys, though, they've always had more stylized designs, and in 2012 (well, actually earlier, since they did their yellow Giant first) MPs weren't really big yet and 3Ps were taking more cues from the Classics/Henkei/Universe/Generations line, which itself wasn't always G1-accurate. I still don't like it, though. Wheel Loader doesn't have the best articulation by modern standards, but again that seemed more acceptable back then. His head's on a ball joint. His shoulders are on ball joints, and the way they're cut you really only get maybe 45 degrees of lateral movement. He's got a bicep swivel, but no wrist swivel or any other hand articulation. His elbow is a single hinge, but it'll get you well over 90 degrees. His waist is actually on a ball joint, so in addition to a waist swivel he's got a bit an an ab crunch. His hips are ball jointed and can go all the way forward, backward, or out to the side. He's got a thigh swivel, and his single-jointed knee can bend all the way due to his transformation. He's got a hinge in his foot to provide a small degree of ankle tilt. Maketoys' love of ball joints does give their figures a sort of "action-figure" feel, when they work well. In this case, though, Wheel Loader's a little loose, and that makes him feel a bit more fiddly than fun. Since I got these guys in a gift set, it's more accurate to say "Giant comes with..." than saying that anything comes with Wheel Loader. However, based on the instructions, this purple rifle belongs to him. Design in 2012 (and earlier) is clearly not what it is today. While I can forgive some of the aesthetic choices, it's harder to overlook how Wheel Loader's back is dominated by a combiner port. You can tell it actually sticks out further than his bucket, because there's a partsforming piece pegged on top of it. The fact that it dominates his back probably has more to do with the cab on the front than an aesthetic choice by the designer. From behind, you can also see that Wheel Loader suffers from a lot of the hollowness that we routinely give Hasbro flak for. Wheel Loader turns into a front loader... which is sometimes referred to as a wheel loader. Despite the smaller size Wheel Loader looks really good in alt mode. The partsforming bits on the back are a little out-of-place, but Maketoys clearly put some effort into making Wheel Loader look like a realistic vehicle with smart use of paint and molded detail. The bucket, though, has just one point of articulation, and that's where the arms connect to the vehicle. Like GT's Scraper, the back of the cab is open. In GT's case, the combiner port it revealed at least filled the space. What we have here is a silver and gold metal piston just chilling, and a bunch of hollow space. And speaking of combiner ports, there's a huge one where the grill should be. Maketoys has always been big about making sure all the combiner parts have a place to go in every mode, so one thing they did that GT would repeat just in the last year (which we'll see later) is to make the combined-mode forearms into a portable generators. Wheel Loader has a little fold out hitch to pull one of them. The hitch isn't very secure, though. He also has a place for his gun to tab onto in alt mode. In some ways, Wheel Loader reminds me of GT's Scraper. They both have stylized designs in robot mode. They both have detailed alt modes that are designed to look like realistic front loaders. The thing is, GT's doing it way better. Granted, Wheel Loader is around five years old, and Scraper hasn't had his first birthday yet. And yeah, there's the fact that Scraper cost almost as much by himself as I paid for the whole Giant set. On the other hand, I'm a believer in "you get what you pay for," and if Wheel Loader is showing his age it's because 3P design has come a long way in the last few years. We will, of course, see how Giant turns out in case you just want a nice Devastator and don't care as much about the Constructicons themselves, but if you're looking for a good Scrapper I suggest you spend the extra cash and go with ToyWorld or Generation Toy.
  9. mikeszekely
    I don't know jack about his movie, so forgive my ignorance... but why is this a horror movie? Some jerks break into an old vet's home, and... he he gives them a what for? Wrecks their $#!*? I don't know.
  10. mikeszekely
    Were the add-ons peaugh reviewed from Shapeways? I didn't realize. So how does one think this Galvatron is better than Universe Galvatron? Let's see... can his arm support the weight of the cannon? Can he stand without falling over? Those would be big plusses to me. But honestly, I can see picking up a $20-$25 Titans Return Voyager at their local Target on a whim, but springing for the Legends version? And then spending more on add-ons? Should have just bought Mania King.
  11. mikeszekely
    I've heard a lot of great things about MPP10, but I personally don't have one as the official MP-10 is really already bigger than I'd like. I very strongly recommend MP10-V, though. There's something about all that great toy in a smaller package that checks all the right boxes for me, and I swear it's higher quality than my Hasbro MP-10. Definitely my favorite toy that I've bought this year.
  12. mikeszekely
    Aww, you didn't wait for me to review the other Devastators... ...which I will start to do right now, with Generation Toy's Scraper. I'd think that'd be a better name for a bulldozer like Bonecrusher, but if you add a 'p' you get Scrapper, so that's the way GT went. Let's see, silver and purple torso, green arms with wheels on the shoulders, silver thighs, green wheeled lower legs, black head, red visor, silver mouth plate, bucket chilling out behind his shoulders... yep, looks like Scrapper to me. That said, he is a bit more stylized than Combiner Wars Scrapper, especially in the head. The torso also trades out CW's Scrapper's molded G1 sticker details for more symmetrical panels. A little red mixed in there would have been nice, but I love the large flat surface just asking for a Decepticon emblem. Compared with CW Scrapper, we can see that Scraper is roughly Voyager-sized. This would also make them roughly the same size as most of the limb bots in my 3P combiner collection. I like this size; I could justify the ToyWorld Constructicons in my collection because they weren't larger than torso bots, but Scraper is more in line with the bulk of my collection. That being said, there was a lot of hype around ToyWorld's Constructicons as being the first truly "MP-sized" combiner. While I'm a firm believer that everyone can do whatever the heck they want with their toys, it would be my opinion that Scraper is NOT an MP Scrapper. Oh, and I threw in Generations Scoop, too. I could say it's to compare Scraper to a Deluxe-class toy, but honestly it's because Scoop's also a guy who turns into a front loader and carries the bucket on his back behind his shoulders. Transformers that turn into front loaders with buckets on their backs are cool in my book. Scraper's got average modern 3P figure articulation, which is to say it's pretty good. His head is ball-jointed, with a decent amount of up/down range and no problem turning but little in the way of lateral tilt. His shoulders have nice strong ratchets for rotation and a friction hinge for lateral movement. He can get mostly 90 degrees before his tires hit his head, and extending the shoulder reveals some molded pieces. He's got bicep and wrist swivels, and his elbow can bend 90 degrees on a friction hinge. All of his fingers are on a single pin so they can open and close, and his hands are molded so that the trigger finger is a little further out than the other three, which is a nice touch. He's got a waist swivel and universal hips. The his are ratcheted for forward and backward movement. In theory, they could go all the way forward and backward, but in practice you'll get one click shy each way because his leg will hit the cab in the back, and if it goes too far forward it'll force his hip skirts off the ball joints they're on. They're just friction joints for lateral movement and they can go full splits. Now, I've heard the first run of Scraper had sort of loose hips and replacement parts came with another guy in the set, but I'm happy to report that my Scraper has nice, tight hips, so the issue also seems to have been corrected with a running change at the factory. Scraper's got thigh swivels just below the hip joints, and ratcheted knees that get 90 degrees of bend. His feet are kind of odd. Like Maketoys' Vulcan, his feet aren't connected to the end of the leg. Instead, there's a rotating piece on the outside of his leg, just below the tire. That piece has an armature on a hinge so, and the armature terminates in another hinge on the back half of the foot. Meanwhile, the front of the foot is connected to the back on a double hinge with a gap so that when the foot is lying flat the armature is folded under leg between halves of the foot. The rotating part on the leg gives Scraper just a shade of forward tilt and a good amount of backwards tilt, and the hinge connected to foot provides far more inward ankle tilt than you could possible need. The other hinge on the armature is really for transformation, but you can use it to stretch his feet out a little. The double hinge between the halves of the feet is also meant for transformation but you can use it to point his toes downward if you wish. Scraper's lone accessory is his gun, which is a black piece with a nice silver barrel and a hinge in the handle. There aren't any tabs on the handle or his palms to help him grip it, but the way his hand and thumb are molded provide enough friction on the handle. Plus, there are little notches in the armor on top of his forearm that the gun nestles into. I'd have liked a more secure connection, but I'm not concerned that he's going to drop it or anything. Scraper, as one would expect from a Scrapper toy, turns into a front loader. He's a big, tough-looking loader that looks far more suited to heavy duty work CW Scrapper or Scoop. His wheels are a hard rubber, or at least a rubber-like plastic that is a separate piece from the rim. The bucket's arms have four points of articulation: ratchets where they connect to the torso, pinned hinges where they connect to the bucket, and two addition hinges between them. There's plenty of posing you can do with them, but unlike many of the other Scrapper options out there there's no connections between the arms themselves so the arms don't exactly move the same way at the same time. It's a minor quibble, but something to be mindful of both when posing him in alt mode and when transforming him between modes. There are a lot of nice details on him in this mode: silver paint on the hubcaps, the aforementioned rubber tires, caution marks, painted lights, the painted engine grill, other silver and black paint apps, translucent windows on the operator's cabin, an exhaust pipe on the rear, plus ladders and safety rails (that I'm now realizing I have backward in these pics) as separate, movable pieces. I think he looks more like a real-life front loader than most other options for Scrapper. The illusion is slightly marred, however, by the very visible combiner port in Scraper's cab and, to a lesser extent, by his silver thighs (and the gap between them) poking out between the engine and the cab. Best of all, Scraper's gun stows away in alt mode. You'll recall from my Disorder review that that I have a preference for this vs just setting the weapons off to the side somewhere or pegging the weapon in some random spot on the alt mode. I mean, you can sometimes get away with that on Transformers that turn into military vehicles where you'd expect some kind of weapons, but "car with missile launchers on the roof" or "construction vehicle with a cannon hanging on one side" doesn't exactly say "robots in disguise" to me. Stowing Scraper's gun in alt mode doesn't just hide it away while keeping it on him, it actually provides a little extra stability. Between Disorder and Scraper, it's very clear that GT/TFM are passionate about their products. Scraper's made of quality materials with quality paint apps. He comes in the same sort of packaging that I raved about when I reviewed Disorder. But there are also things about him that were odd, perhaps over-engineered design choices that don't always work in his favor. Rather than the usual open flap/fold out fist/close flap method of transforming his fists his fists are spring-loaded and pop out whenever you open the cover. Neat, sure, but his fists don't feel as solid as other figures, and at best you have a flap hanging on the back of his arm. Then there's those safety rails. Sure, they had a degree of realism to the alt mode, but they do nothing in leg mode and if you transform them the "correct" way they sit on the front of his arms and hinder his elbow articulation in bot mode. Fortunately, you can just fold them around to the back of the arm, where they can helpfully hold down the fist-flap (which is probably why you never see photos of the "correct" transformation). In transforming him to alt mode, rather than simply allow the elbow joint to bend 90 degrees backward GT set it up so you have to turn the arm 180 degrees at the bicep, then to keep the ladder on the outside you unpeg it and fold it out, spin it around, then fold it back down and peg it on the other side. And instead of collapsing the thighs into the legs, GT put a joint in the thighs so that the thighs bend there and at the knee to go perpendicular. The joint is just a friction joint, and there are no tabs or anything to keep the thigh together in robot mode. It's worth noting that the joint is pretty stiff; it doesn't move when you move his knee joint, although it does have a tendency to move when you're trying to move his leg forward at the hip. On the whole, though, I think these are relatively minor complaints. Truth is, I dig Scraper a lot. He's well-built and well-toleranced, which we know isn't always the case with even official Transformers toys. I really do dig the design a lot, and he's got an intangible "fun" factor that makes me want to play with him and transform him. I'd definitely recommend Scraper if you want a good Scrapper toy. However, I think it should be clear by now that one good figure doesn't guarantee five or six good figures, and it definitely doesn't guarantee a good combined mode. I like him enough to try the rest, though, so be sure to watch this space in the coming weeks/months for their reviews.
  13. mikeszekely
    Respectfully, I must disagree. While it's certainly toy-accurate to have a green drum, and it does create a certain symmetry in the coloring of his legs, I didn't have Devastator as a kid. My impressions of him are shaped entirely by the cartoon (and even at that, probably 90% by Transformers: The Movie). Cartoon Devy has a purple drum, so any Devy with a green (or gray) drum looks off to me. But if you enjoyed that review (I hope you did!), hang in there! Constructor won't be the only Devastator I'll be looking at...
  14. mikeszekely
    EDIT: Power outage borked up my review. Actually, power outage borked up my whole desktop. While it runs scandisk, I'm fixing this on my laptop... Well, Hades left a bad taste, so how about a palate cleanser? Here's Ku Bian Bao's KBBMP10-V, a roughly Voyager-sized down-scaled version of MP-10. MP10-V isn't a KO the way those KO MP cars I got are. He's not a straight up reverse-engineered 1:1 copy. In addition to being down-scaled, he actually has some mold changes. If he was scaled up so his torso were the same size as MP-10's, MP10-V would have longer thighs and longer lower legs than MP-10, so MP10-V actually has better proportions. KBB also used quite a bit of diecast in MP10-V, so despite being smaller he weighs nearly as much as MP-10 (although I don't have a scale to accurately compare them with). In addition to a fine-looking Optimus Prime toy, KBB through a ton of extra stuff in the box. In addition to the attached head (far left), which is a copy of MP-10's, he comes with three extra heads. One is Orion Pax; I'm not sure where KBB got the design for the other two. I personally think that the default head still looks the best, but if KBB does recolors the way other MP-10 KOs do it might be handy to have alternate heads to make them look more visually distinct. I think the third head would look pretty good on a black Nemesis Prime recolor, for example. He doesn't just come with heads, though. He also comes with a jet pack, his energon-axe, the Matrix, a Megatron gun, his rifle, and a sword. The energon-axe is a down-scaled version of the one that comes with MP-10 and fits over Prime's fist. The Megatron gun is done in diecast. It's quite nice, but due to the curve of the grip and the lack of tabs MP10-V can't seem to hold it. Here's a quick comparison of MP10-V's Matrix with other Matrices I have. The Matrix, of course, fits into Prime's chest. The jet pack has a pair of posts inside. Since it's mostly hollow, it fits over Prime's own back easily, and the pegs secure the jet pack in place by fitting into screw holes near the base of Prime's back. Unlike MP-10's Matrix, MP10-V's has the opening gimmick that MP-01's did. As for the rifle, it does fold up and can still be stored in Prime's back. However, it's no longer spring-loaded, and it doesn't extend the way MP-10's rifle does. Let's be fair... MP-10's rifle was already not the best-looking rifle and it seemed, IMHO, a little smallish for for him (I often displayed my MP-10 with MP-01's gun). While MP10-V's rifle certainly fits neatly into his hand, it's inability to extend makes it look even worse. As for the sword, if I'm not mistaken it appears to be based on one of the Age of Extinction toys. Like the Megatron gun, the swords is entirely diecast with some nice gold paint in the blade. MP10-V can hold it, but there's no tabs for his palms so it's entirely friction. MP10-V doesn't come with a trailer, but supposedly KBB is making one and it'll be sold separately. Let's get into the meat and potatoes of this review, shall we? I'm not going to go too much into aesthetics or articulation, because he's basically MP-10 and almost everyone who's into Transformers is at least familiar with at least one version of the MP-10 mold. What I'm mostly going to do is compare him with MP-10, talk about what's different, and show him off with a few other figures for a sense of scale. Ok, the first time I wrote this, before the power outage, I detailed all the tiny differences. And you know what? I don't feel like doing all that again. Visually, you can see how MP10-V's got some slightly different paint apps here and there (back and truck shots to follow). So I'll just focus on differences that might not be clear from just looking at pictures. And the main differences are: -Slightly different proportions in the biceps, thighs, and lower legs. -Much greater use of diecast. -Sideview mirrors aren't a separate piece. They're molded into the side windows and painted, and they can't fold inward. -The smokestacks are similarly one piece. No more sliding gimmick, and no holes molded in the top. -The stuff inside his chest is different. It's red, not black, and the only cover for the Matrix is the bumper. -In addition to the diecast, I'd say that the plastic quality is much better on MP10-V than at least the Hasbro version of MP-10. When I'm struggling to tell what's actually diecast and what's plastic, that's a good thing. -Crotch doesn't protrude as much, and the yellow translucent pieces on MP-10 are just molded detail painted gold. -Much better joints. I don't know how the original Takara MP-10 was, but the Hasbro one has a reputation for being kind of loose, especially in the hips and knees. Not MP10-V. Every joint is nice and tight. Dare I say, perfect. A look at truck mode. Again, you can see some differences in the painted details, but the big difference here that didn't show up in bot mode is that the feet don't have that slider that brings them together in this mode. MP10-V still has rubber tires and the slots for the upcoming trailer. Rolls perfectly. Now I know that Prime should be bigger than the MP cars according to the almighty Sunbow chart, and I know that there's no way they're going to scale in alt mode, but there are apparently enough scenes in the old cartoon where either Prime was closer to the cars in size or the cars were closer to Prime in size that I actually don't think that MP10-V looks too bad with MP Wheeljack here. In a perfect world, maybe he'd be a little taller (hello, Striker Manus!), but push comes to shove I prefer MP10-V to Wheeljack than MP-10 to Wheeljack. MP10-V with a G1 reissue and Evasion Mode Optimus Prime. Ok, but why those two, you ask? They're all about the same size in truck mode. It's a weird thing to hone in on, but it's probably one of the things I like best about him. It's a truck, only marginally bigger than the original Optimus Prime toy from 1984, that actually transforms into a robot that looks like the cartoon. The MP toys have been doing a good job of capturing the look of the cartoon for awhile, but somehow it's more impressive to me when they're not way bigger than the original G1 toys. But honestly, the toy that looks and scales the best with MP10-V might be ToyWorld's Hegemon. People complained that when ToyWorld released Orion that he was too tall, because people don't like their Primes bigger than their Megatrons. But MP10-V and Hegemon are almost identical in height, and they look so good together you can't help but recreate scenes like their fight on the dam in "More Than Meets the Eye pt. 3". Honestly, I can't recommend this guy enough. He's got better proportions, better joints, and a better all-around feel than MP-10, and the best part is he can be had for around $60. At that price, everyone should get one. If KBB doesn't slack on quality, I'll probably buy one of every and any recolor they do (Nemesis black, Ultra Magnus white, Powered Convoy/Delta Magnus blue, Shattered Glass, Evangelion, BAPE red, BAPE green, Pepsi Convoy, you name it, I want it). Seriously, even if you're thinking you don't need him because you already have MP-10, and MP-10 scales just fine with your MP collection, get one anyway. Display him with your CHUGs. Put him on your desk at work. However you have to justify it to yourself, you won't be sorry.
  15. mikeszekely
    RE/100, meh. Gimme a HG Revive Bawoo.
  16. mikeszekely
    Dang. That's a good price, and the combiner lover in me is VERY tempted, but I'm holding out for the Monstructor recolor/remold.
  17. mikeszekely
    I'm still in for Striker Manus. He looks like a really fun figure and I think he might just be the perfect size for my own "mikeszekely" scale, even without any armor. I'll know better when I have him in hand, but it sounds like there are attachment points for something on Striker. I personally think the talk about Thunder Convoy really just rules out an upgrade for Striker as being Postmaster Prime/Super Ginrai.
  18. mikeszekely
    Let's just get this over with. Here's the combined Hades, TFC's Liokaiser. Yup, that sure looks like Liokaiser to me! Aesthetically speaking, the biggest departures from either the toy or the cartoon are the lack of white thighs and biceps, the noses of the planes sticking out a bit more on the shoulders, the canopy on Rhadamanthus faces outward instead of inward (which I actually prefer), Thanatos' tank top stays attached, and he's got big, black, two-toed feet instead of the little fold-out panels the original toy used. Even his proportions aren't too bad; his waist is a little thin, but that's honestly a problem for a lot of combiners, and having the tanks attach so the side of the tank is a shin instead of the top or bottom makes the legs look thinner, so it's not horrible. Even from the back Hades cleans up pretty well. So for articulation, Hades' head neck is the same ball joint that Rhadamanthus uses. His shoulders are on ratchets for rotation as well as lateral movement, the degree of which I did not test (more on that later). His bicep swivels are the jets' waist swivels, and his elbows are their (friction) hips. He gets just under 90 degrees of bend with is arms transformed like this, which is both the most naturally-proportioned and how the back of Aiakos' box indicates they should be transformed. If you want a double-jointed elbow with much better range, you can transform the jets per the back of Minos' box by rotating them 180 degrees at the waist and extending the legs. Hades' wrists can swivel, and each finger is individually-articulated with each finger hinged at the base with two additional hinged knuckles, and the thumb on a ball joint plus two hinged knuckles. Hades' waist can swivel. His hips are ratcheted for both forward/backward and lateral movement, but I again didn't test the the range. The tanks can twist on their combiner pegs, acting as thighs swivels. His knees rotate via the combiner port inside the tanks on strong ratchets. His ankles are kind of weird. Basically, his feet aren't one solid piece, they're two identical halves with one half acting as the toes and one half as the heel. They can rotate independently, and they they have ratcheted ankle tilts. One neat trick Hades uses to avoid having a bunch of combined mode parts that sit around doing nothing in the other modes is to store Hades' head inside Rhadamanthus' body. When you put him in Liokaiser mode, Hades' head folds out on an armature over Rhadamanthus' head. That's not the trick: other toys have done that over the years. But unless the armature can rotate around the neck, it usually hampers the larger head. TFC's solution was simple: the end of the armature is a peg. Once Hades' head is in place, you can unpeg it and fold the armature back away. Rather than use Killbison's tank top as a gun, the guns that came with Aiakos combine into a gun for Hades. The handle has pegs that fit neatly into peg holes on his palms. He can also carry the spear that came with Hypnos, although there doesn't seem to be any way to secure it in his hand. And, of course, the spear comes apart and he can wield his electromagnetic nunchucku. In terms of size, Hades is about the same height as Warbotron Bruticus, which puts him perfectly in what's sometimes referred to as "Warbotron scale," the borderline standard for 3P combiners now. I'd take some pics to show how he's smaller than Constructor or bigger than the Fansproject/Maketoys bunch, but I didn't want to. Because it's a pain. Because he's a pain. You see, from the waist up, Hades comes out pretty strong. My only complain there was that his elbows really should have been ratcheted (non-ratcheted hips turning into elbows is dated engineering), but even then the friction joints are nice and tight. And Rhadamanthus plugs into Cerberus very securely. But, from the waist down Hades is a train wreck. I mean, I watched Skullface's review and thought, "man, he's exaggerating, he's always kind of negative." I watched emgo's review and emgo didn't seem to have the problems that Skullface did. I'm severely disappointed to tell you that Skullface wasn't exaggerating, he was totally on the mark. Hades' hip ratchets are too loose- not Uranos loose, but loose enough to cause problems. Problems exacerbated by the fact that Hades still uses the same Energon-style combiner ports that TFC has been using since Hercules, combiner ports that have far too much play in the knees. And yeah, the sides of the tanks transformed per the instructions run right up against Hades' thighs so the slightest wiggle in those oh-so-wiggly knees starts to push the sides of the tanks apart. I solved that problem by pulling the top-most segment out so it's not flush, but I've got no answers for the ratchets in the hips and the loosey-goosey knees, and while photographic Hades for this review he fell over two or three times. The only way I could get him to stand is by having him stand up straight, gun hand not holding the gun very high to minimize the weight pulling him forward, and the spear hand actually bracing the spear against the ground. No dynamic poses here. Honestly, I can't recommend Hades. Like, at all. I mean, yeah, if you wanted the Breastforce in your collection they're decent toys individually, but if you want Liokaiser just wait for Mech Ideas. I doubt it could be worse.
  19. mikeszekely
    Alright, since everything I've ordered from Chinese stores/sellers since late July happened to clear customs and arrive at the same time I shipped my stack I've got a ton of stuff to talk about, so let's get the ball rolling with TFC's Aiakos, their version of Guyhawk. Aiakos recalls to mind the relationship between Hypnos (Drillhorn) and Thanatos (Killbison). Hypnos, if you recall, evoked basically the same silhouette as Thanatos despite being extensively remolded, and that's basically the same thing here. Aiakos is an extensive remold of Minos (Hellbat). Almost every part you can see is new; the only parts that seem to be the same are joints, the feet, and the biceps. Thing thing is, while stuff like the thighs, hip armor, shins, etc might be new molds, they have the same basic shape as Minos, and that keeps him from feeling "fresh." Aesthetically, Aiakos fits well with the rest of his teammates, which is to say that he's a mix of toy, 'toon, and chest that's distinctly neither. It's hard for me to get worked up one way or the other as I don't have particularly strong feelings about the character. I'll say that, for the most part, the design works fine for me, and I still think that the team looks like a super sentai team. The usual complaint that the animal eyes on his helmet should have been painted still applies, but this time I also find myself wishing that they'd painted the beak. I'll give credit where credit is due, they do a pretty good head sculpt. Aiakos nails Guyhawk's big, aviator glasses-looking eyes, and they gave him a sort of condescending smirk. Of course, Aiakos comes with his breast partner, which can attach to his chest and looks nothing like either the cartoon or the toy. For better or worse, Aiakos has the same articulation as Minos; ball jointed head, shoulders hinged for lateral movement where the armor connects to the body and where the arm connects to the armor and mushroom pegged for rotation where the armor connects to the body, double-jointed elbows, bicep, wrist, and waist swivels, universal hips with thigh rotation, single-jointed knees, zero ratchets. His solidly built, and his friction joints are certainly tight enough, but there's a noticeable squeaking when moving some of the joints in his hips. I'm hesitant to say that they're too tight, though, since his hips will become Hades' elbows. The breastplate turns into a little robot bird. If Cerberus' little jaguar is Ravage, then I'd say that Aiakos has Lazerbeak. That comparison isn't totally fair, though, because of all the Hades team Aiakos' partner most-resembles his cartoon inspiration. In theory, his breast buddy also turns into a gun for Aiakos. I say in theory because, like Minos and his partner, the armor around his wrist is too tall and the peg on the partner too short. Fortunately, in a first for the Hades team, Aiakos actually comes with some guns that aren't breast buddies. He's got a pair of long rifles, and one big cannon. That's not all Aiakos comes with. Just like Minos, Aiakos comes with both the left and right combiner hands. There are some differences from the ones that come with Minos, though. They're missing some of the gold and silver paint on the back of the hand, and instead of claws the hands the come with Aiakos end in small holes. Remove the little wrist attachment parts, bend the peg down, and fold the hands in half and guess what? More guns! It's a nice touch that TFC tried to find a use for the hands outside of combined mode. That way, since the feet are integrated into Thanatos and Hypnos, you can use all of the combiner stuff outside of combined mode. That said, they're not the best-looking guns, and I like the claws and paint apps on the hands that came with Minos, so I'm planning on using them. It's also kind of a shame that Aiakos comes with five guns for a six member team. Maybe Thanatos is stuck using his back cannons? Aiakos turns into a MiG-29 fighter jet. The transformation is identical to Minos, for better or worse. I think it's a passable job that, aside from his arms, doesn't carry too much robot kibble on the underside. The color and markings are basically the same as the original toy's, minus the black outline of the gold on the wings. As with the with other jets, the yellow gold from the toys has been replaced with a nice metallic gold and the orange-painted canopy replaced with translucent red plastic. One big difference from Minos, though is that the intakes don't catch on his back during transformation. Like the other jets in the set, Aiakos has working landing gear, a canopy that opens, and the ability to plug his breast partner onto the underside of the jet (really, the same place he goes in bot mode). His front landing gear doesn't really reach the ground. He's also got 5mm ports under his wings, and you can plug weapons in there. However, the joints in his wings aren't really strong enough to support the weight of those guns. In a lot of ways, Aiakos is probably the best of the set. He's everything I liked about Minos with fewer issues. At the same time, I can't help but be a tad disappointed that the best of the set really isn't any better than this. It's not even that he's bad: he's a solid figure in his own right. The thing is, he's $100 at most of the big US stores, and the reality is that 3P has really come a long way just in the last year, and compared to some of the other $100 figures out there right now Aiakos just doesn't feel as good. That said, if you want a Guyhawk (or really, Liokaiser) in your collection it's pretty much this or wait for who knows how long to see how Mech Ideas shakes out. And if you don't mind shopping Ebay you can find Aiakos for around $80 from reputable Chinese sellers. At that price, Aiakos seems like a more worthwhile purchase and is easier for me to recommend.
  20. mikeszekely
    Before I get into the real new stuff, here's some quick tidbits: -Fansproject Function-X6 Knight, aka Sixknight, is a repaint of Function-XV M.A.D.L.A.W. Since Sixknight was the same toy as Quickswitch, just in different colors for the Japanese market, Knight is exactly the same as M.A.D.L.A.W. except colored like Sixknight. While Quickswitch was the toy we had in the States, I don't think he appeared in anything but commercials, so Sixknight has the advantage of appearing in a few episodes of Transformers Masterforce in Japan. Even if he didn't, I like his mix of blues and grays over M.A.D.L.A.W's red and teal. Long story short, read my review of M.A.D.L.A.W, everything applies to Knight except that I like him slightly better. On that note, if anyone wants a M.A.D.L.A.W. that was transformed twice, had a pair of Reprolabel Autobot insignia placed on him, and then was stuck in a Detolf for the last few months for $60 shipped (continental US only), PM me. I got a knock off MP Prowl and MP Wheeljack, mostly for size comparisons but partly curiosity. I don't collect MPs, but the MP cars seem to fit my personal scale. So, yeah, DX9 Invisible is roughly MP-sized. In vehicle mode, he may actually be a little large (although no more so than Sphinx, from what I gather). Same goes for Disorder. Does that make them MP? I'm of the position that you can call the Fansproject Stunticons MP and display them with your official and unofficial MP toys if that makes you happy. On the flip side, as I said I don't consider myself an MP collector, but I think they fit in my collection just fine. As far as I'm concerned, the takeaway is that Disorder, Invisible, MP Wheeljack, and MP Prowl are roughly the same size, and that size is roughly Voyager. And for those of you who are curious, Wheeljack seems fine. I checked a list of known issues people were having with Wheeljack, and the only one I was having (but don't care about) is that the slot for pegging his pistol under the car is too shallow for actually plugging it in. But I've had no trouble getting him to hold his gun, and no trouble securing his torso. His paint seems mostly fine, and his joints seem... ok? I'd prefer them a little tighter, but he's not floppy, and I don't have a real MP car to know if that's just par for them. Prowl likewise looks ok, but his joints are a little looser than Wheeljack's. Most of his joints will still hold a pose fine, but his hips are awful. Oddly, Prowl seems like he's trying harder to be a counterfeit. The box and everything says Takara Tomy; I think you'd have to know what to look for to know that it's a KO. Wheeljack, on the other hand, proudly displays "Takasa Tony" on the box. I don't plan on doing full reviews for either, since I see myself as covering 3P and a KO of an official is basically reviewing an official. But if you guys want the full write up, let me know and I might change my mind. In the mean time, I've got 8 actual 3P figures to photograph for review.
  21. mikeszekely
    No, I generally don't collect figures that size (unless they're made of 5-6 smaller guys). I've watched reviews, though. DX9 has a much better head, and while I get that some people like XTB's curved shins I prefer how DX9 fills out the legs without a ton of kibble panels. Finally, DX9 has the best fusion cannon-to-robot proportions.Not hating on Apollyon; he absolutely destroyed MP5, and I'm not saying that Mightron looks so much better that people who got Apollyon should rush out and upgrade. I do think if someone were shopping for an MP Megatron today that Mightron would win over Apollyon if they were the same price. With Mightron being something like $25-$30 less here's looking that much more appealing. Like I said, though, I do want to see how Despotron shakes out. The latest pics I saw made his legs look kinda chunky, but I'm really impressed with how clean his back is.
  22. mikeszekely
    I still want to see how Maketoys' turns out, but I've been thinking for awhile that Mightron looks pretty good (way better than Apollyon). I don't even think the kibble on his back is too heinous. My biggest gripe is the empty hollow spaces on the sides of his chest. Also, FYI, tons of reviews coming!
  23. mikeszekely
    If I buy any (more) Titans Return toys, it'll have to be the Hasbro ones. You walk into a Target, you see it on the shelf/peg, and it becomes sort of an impulse buy. If I have to think about it enough to order it online, especially when Takara is usually more expensive even before you figure in the import costs, I'd rather just wait for a 3P to one up it. Or in the case of Galvatron, be really happy with the Mania King I already bought to replace the crappy Deluxe-class Galvatron.
  24. mikeszekely
    That's odd. My Target, to the best of my knowledge, never got any and didn't bother to allocate shelf space for it.
  25. mikeszekely
    Wait, wait... I'm mixing up names, but I'm still not sure about "speculation." Yes, Maketoys showed a silhouette for a G1-style Re:Master Seeker with the name "Howling Meteor." That was like a year ago, and with the number MTRM-09. But they also showed a silhouette for MTRM-13 with the name "Galaxy Meteor". Since it was in April, some people thought it was an April Fool's joke. Scaleface at TFW suggested that it might have something to do with Cross Dimension, but back then we didn't know what Cross Dimension was. I don't think anyone ever seriously thought Galaxy Meteor was part of the Cross Dimension line, and I thought it was always clear that Maketoys was doing both an MP G1 Starscream and an MP Galaxy Force Starscream.
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