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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    And now we wrap things up with the combined form of Military Motorsquad Multiplexer, or M3, whom you might know better as Fansproject's version of Menasor. Bear with me for a minute, though, because I want to talk about the process of getting him combined and how we're going to use every piece of Diesel to do it (BTW, you don't need the cars' guns for combined mode, but each car has a place to store their weapons still). If you took them off, put the hip panels back on Diesel and set him aside for a minute while we look at the other half of the trailer. We'll start by taking the doors, the chunk on the doors, the wheels, and the sword hilt off. At this point, the trailer is the same upside down as it is right side up, and if you wanted to you could put the wheels and sword hilt on the other side and flip it over. But don't do that. That's the opposite of what we want to do. Instead, pull the trailer apart longways, using the seams as a guide. One side will have the fists and a sword tip, but once you pull those out you're left with two identical sections of the trailer and two pieces of panel. The panels stick together, then the sword tip clips around and pegs into one side while the other slots into the sword hilt to form M3's sword. The trailer doors fold and combine with the the disassembled chunk, just like when we made Diesel's sniper rifle, but in a slightly different configuration. Now it's M3's gun. Back to the remaining pieces of the trailer. There's a shoulder connector in each half, take those out, and I recommend attaching them to Down Force and Last Chance before attaching them to Diesel. Meanwhile, the trailer sections split one more time. One piece folds up to become a foot, complete with little rubbery nibs to prevent the feet from slipping and sliding, and the other folds up to become half of a lower leg. All that should be left is the part with the wheels. It goes on M3's chest. Then it's just a matter of attaching the legs (backward, then rotate them around to lock them on), sticking the cars on the legs, and sticking the arms on. M3 holds his weapons with no problem, at least on my copy, but he has storage for them if you prefer. As I mentioned in Last Chance's review, the chunk that hangs off of the trailer door fits into his forearm. The leftover shotgun parts clip onto the outside of the panels on his back. The sword can be clipped on the inside of either panel. And so, the grand reveal! Here he stands next to his Combiner Wars counterpart. Let's ignore articulation or the quality of the individual bots a moment and just focus on looks. Right away, M3 has a huge advantage over CW Menasor in that he actually looks like Menasor. The crest is the same as the G1 toys instead of having oddly Unicron-ish horns, he's got a boxy torso that's longer than it is wide, and he's got the boxy chunks on his shoulders. He's got more black, too; CW Menasor already has gray thighs and would be showing a lot more gray if it weren't for Blackjack on his chest. Of course, we're not going to ignore the other factors. CW Menasor is a loose, fiddly mess with a tiny waist and awful hips that can barely stand. M3, on the other hand, is tight and secure. Technically, from the waist up, both figures are similarly articulated. Both have heads that turn from side to side and can look up and down. Both have shoulders that can rotate and swing out to the side. Both have bicep swivels from the arm-bots's waists and elbows from the arm-bots' hips and/or knees. Both have waist swivels, although CW Menasor's is more for transformation and his crotch armor moves with his top half. Both have wrist swivels and finger articulation, but due to how they connect M3 has a little bit of a wrist hinge, plus each finger on M3's hands are individually articulated with a ball joint where they connect to the hand and one knuckle at the midpoint of each finger. M3 has slots on his palms to fit tabs on his weapons and actually curls his fingers around the handles, too, instead of having a 5mm peghole at the thumb. Below the waist, M3 really starts to leave CW Menasor in the dust. He's got actual ratcheted thigh swivels, as opposed to simply turning the lower legs at the connector port (although he can do that too, if you wish). His ratcheted universal hips work, in theory, the same as CW Menasor's, but in practice they have more detents and stronger ratchets so they actually support the weight of the figure, and his thighs aren't held together by a single thin tab that won't fall apart when you play with it. Both have ratcheting knees, but M3's finishing blow is that he actually has ankles. The lack of ankles is a problem for the entire CW line, and between them and looser joints in general they tend to look best and are most stable standing straight up, maybe holding up a weapon if the arm doesn't droop. Now, M3 has two joints in his ankle, a ratcheted forward/backward joint for transformation that holds a big ol' ball joint. Combined with better jointing all around M3 can get some action poses for sure, and the rubber on his feet and strong hip joints means he won't be doing the splits. Before we get carried away, there are a few issues I should point out (beyond issues I mentioned in the individual figures' reviews). He's got a bit of a gap in his chest. His chest plate covers it from the front, but from the top it's still open around his neck. Also, under his chest plate, there's a really obvious screw. Worse, that screw is actually the on the back of Diesel's head, and depending on how it's sitting it might show some additional gaps. The way the wrist pegs on Down Force leaves that wrist a little loose. I haven't had any problems with him holding his sword (be sure to lock the wheels!), but I've heard others tell of drooping. And, although it doesn't bother me personally some of you may not like the way that the leg bots are really more like shin bots and are basically clipped on in car mode. There's also his size. He's about the same height as a Combiner Wars figure, which I like, but if you want a bigger Menasor you might want to see how TransForMission's shakes out. I'm hearing a Motormaster that's as tall as MP-10, as long as MP-10 in truck mode, limbs around the size of MP cars, and a combined mode taller than Ordin. Finally, the ball joints in his ankles could have been a shade tighter. If he stands up straight, he has a tendency to lean a little forward or a little backward, although you can get him to do it without leaning. So do I recommend him? I'm giving him an enthusiastic yes. Unless the legs really bother you or you want MP Stunticons, he's a better Menasor in every conceivable way than the one that Hasbro actually gave us for your CHUG shelf.
  2. mikeszekely
    M3, unless they're the same.
  3. mikeszekely
    I was following Breaux Man's advice to kind of pull toward the spring tab. If you have a better way, I'm all ears.
  4. mikeszekely
    Funny you bring that kit up, I was considering it before M3 even arrived and after PMing with David H I'd puked the trigger on it. Down Force didn't seem like he'd be much worse, since the wing clips onto the parts that are already hanging off his arms. I might just leave the extra wheels off. Mostly I want the kit for Last Chance's rear wing, the torso filler, the arm and elbow filler, and the flat spots to put Decepticon emblems on M3 and Down Force.
  5. mikeszekely
    Continuing the 3P combiner party, today I'm present Last Chance, Fansproject's version of Dead End. Aesthetically speaking, there's stuff I like about both CW Dead End and Last Chance. Since I never had the Stunticon toys, my vision of them is very much the cartoon, so I do wish that Last Chance had a head more like CW Dead End's, although I wish CW Dead End's was darker. All of the blacks and grays look better on Last Chance, really. Dead End's chest is more G1 by virtue of not having most of the hood on it, but it wastes it by being mostly burgundy instead of white, silver, or light gray. Meanwhile, Last Chance has large bits of kibble on his arms, his torso is very un-Dead End by way of aforementioned hood, and (nitpicking) he could use more burgundy on his forearms. Despite the departures from a more G1 cartoon Dead End, though, I really like what Fansproject did with Last Chance. Some of that might be coming off Combiner Wars, where Wildrider was just a head swap from Dead End, but I really appreciate how Last Chance has a very distinct look from T-Bone. He's also the tallest of the team, and he compares more favorably with his CW counterpart. Articulation is pretty much the same as the other cars. His arm kibble doesn't even get in the way much. One thing worth noting is that his hood does come down past his waist joint. To swivel his waist, you have to push the hood out a bit. It can give him a bit of a pot-bellied look, but the hood isn't tabbed down so it's not much trouble. Some people have complained about Last Chance's feet, but I actually dig them. Going to alt mode, Last Chance transforms into a Ferrari XX, which is kind of ironic because, A, it's a Ferrari instead of a Porsche while the guy who actually was a Ferrari is now a Lambo, and B, the XX is a track-only car after the traditionally track-only Formula 1 car is now a street legal car. Personally, I'd definitely have preferred it if Last Chance was a Porsche, like a 918, but there's no denying that Last Chance is looking good here. He nails the burgundy with black windows look of Dead End with none of the extra gray the CW toy added, and his stripe is more gold than the CW's bronze. The silver stripe breaking up the gold isn't toy accurate, but he didn't have a stripe at all in the cartoon, and I think the addition of the silver makes the stripe really pop. Last Chance really compacts into alt mode, making the size difference between him and CW Dead End more apparent. He seems to fit together in alt mode a lot better than the other not-Stunticons, which helps a lot. Like the other not-Stunticons, his weapon hides away underneath in alt mode, and like Down Force his transformation would be a little easier if he had the waist extension that Car Crash and T-Bone have. One special thing I'd like to note... in arm mode, the instructions that come with Diesel specifically tell you to take that extra chunk that hung off Diesel's trailer doors and clip it between Last Chance's legs, like this: That's all well and good, but those parts are needed to form M3's gun. Now, Diesel came with extra parts to make the gun, but not enough extra parts to make the gun and still fill in Last Chance's legs. If you look at pictures in the instruction booklet of M3 wielding his gun, though, you'll see the sides of Last Chance's legs folded in like this: This is, officially, how they're supposed to be in bot mode to fill in the hollow backs of his legs (although I actually prefer them left folded out to give his legs a thicker look). On the plus side, M3 can have his gun now, and it also adds more burgundy to his forearm, which I enjoy. It makes his arm look a little thin, though. So, would I recommend Last Chance? If, like me, your mental image of Dead End is from the cartoon I can't really say that Last Chance is a definitive Dead End, but I'll still say yes. He's a fun little toy that looks great in both modes. Besides, you're in it for the combined mode anyway, right?
  6. mikeszekely
    No offense taken; my combiner discussions are kind of dominating this thread lately, but that seems to be because this thread has gotten pretty quiet lately. I think a big part of that has to do with 3P's announcing stuff and hinting at more stuff before finishing stuff they already announced. I'm personally a little frustrated with Maketoys, because they had that show to show off their stuff while simultaneously teasing their new Cross Dimension line, but I'm still waiting for them to release Vulcan (you can't even preorder him yet!) so I can complete my not-Defensor. In any case, though, I'm glad you're enjoying the 3P MP stuff, but I guess I'm on the opposite side as you. I'd started collecting the MPs as Hasbro was releasing them, but getting the Hasbro MP-10 and Soundwave was a nightmare, and that was before TRU started jacking up Hasbro's prices ($80 for Prowl?!). I'd long been a CHUG collector, though, and there's something about combiners that makes them so appealing that I have to replace all the Hasbro Combiner Wars toys with better 3Ps (and get 3Ps for the ones Hasbro didn't make).
  7. mikeszekely
    Yeah, at this point the lack of an MP Jazz is becoming a seriously glaring omission. It's weird that even the 3Ps aren't touching him.
  8. mikeszekely
    I don't think it's that no one cares about 3P MPs, it's just that I've been buying a lot of 3P combiners and sharing my thoughts here.
  9. mikeszekely
    Continuing the M3 reviews, today we're looking at Down Force, Fansproject's spin on Dragstrip. I'll get this out of the way up front... Down Force fares the worst against his Combiner Wars counterpart. the fact that Dragstrip was one of the better Combiner Wars molds has a lot to do with that, but Down Force has some issues that make him, in my opinion, the worst if the, er, Military Motorsquad. Right off the bat, you can see that Down Force is quite short compared to CW Dragstrip. All of the cars have been on the short side, but Down Force is the shortest. Stature aside, Down Force is nailing the look. His yellow isn't broken up by big maroon stripes that neither the toy nor the toy had the way the CW does. Personally, I've thought that those stripes spoil that Dragstrip look more than they help break up the yellow. Down Force does a better job breaking up the yellow by having light gray thighs. Down Force also has a fantastic head sculpt, compared to the weird face on CW Dragstrip. Things start to go wrong when we look at Down Force's arms, though. It's not that they're colored wrong, it's that they've got two different bits of kibble. These bits don't peg in, because doing so would affect his articulation, but one part in particular is attached on a rod that's ball-jointed on both ends. It takes effort to get them truly symmetrical, and that effort is wasted because they're not going to stay that way. On his other end, he's got these ridiculous little purple feet. They're tiny because that's all that can tuck under the canopy in alt mode, and they go under the canopy in alt mode because Fansproject went for a more complicated transformation when a simpler one would do... in this case, if the legs just slid out the way the CW figure's did, the bottom of the car could have untabbed and along with the spoiler made the feet. Speaking of transforming the feet, the process would have been A LOT easier if they'd included the same sort of torso extension that Car Crash and T-Bone have. Oh well. Articulation on Down Force is pretty similar to Car Crash and T-Bone. The main difference is that, due to the way they transform, Down Force has some waggle in his wrist. Also, while his feet are ball-jointed like the others, remember that his feet are just the purple parts. His ankle articulation comes off more like toe articulation. And while the kibble on his arms don't actively interfere with with his arm articulation, they do make posing his arms a little more of a pain. Interestingly, Down Force's alt mode isn't a Formula 1 car. It's a Caparo T1, a street-legal two-seater you could actually buy if you had more money than sense. I actually like this idea; since the other three Stunticons are exotic sports cars it makes a certain amount of sense that Dragstrip should be as well instead of an F1 car. Once again, Down Force's gun splits in half and stores underneath. I like weapons that store out-of-sight on cars; I prefer that to weapons that peg onto the sides or roof. Anyway, I don't really have any complaints here, except that those panels with the headlights can be a bit fiddly. So, would I recommend Down Force? I'd say, for a stand alone Dragstrip, no. The Combiner Wars Dragstrip toy is really only losing in the articulation department by not having a wrist-swivel, toe tilts, and a single joint in the elbow, but that's all, and while Down Force looks better Dragstrip is cheaper and a lot less fiddly. That being said, Down Force isn't a bad figure, and if you're in it for the combined mode you might find him a little more disappointing than the others, but you won't hate him.
  10. mikeszekely
    So this is kind of interesting. I haven't been paying much attention to DX9's Iron Factory series, because I don't have much use for a ton of little Legends-sized dudes. What makes this release interesting is that DX9 is scaling him as a city-dude, so Lord Scorpion is actually going to be about Voyager-sized. So fans of the old Marvel comics or the modern IDW comics who want a more ordinary-sized Scorponok can get one for their CHUG collection. Maybe make him fight Perfect Effect's Warden.
  11. mikeszekely
    Scraplets! And they found out that you can kill them with water. Oh, and technically Bumblebee was Goldbug at that point in the story.
  12. mikeszekely
    My favorite Marvel story is the one where the Predacons were fighting Megatron. I think the Marvel comics more than the Sunbow cartoon are the reason I love the Predacons. Ironically, although my first exposure to the Seacons was through the story where Blaster and Buster infiltrate the Decepticon's island resort, I kind of like them best from Masterforce... and I kind of hated Masterforce. Marvel also gets major props from taking one of Soundwave's cassettes and putting him in charge of the Decepticons.
  13. mikeszekely
    I agree that if you're going to leave them on that's the way to do it. I still like them better removed, though. In fact, I just unfolded them and stuck them back on the rest of the trailer. In other news, looks like the trade is going through and I'm going to have a Uranos set coming within a week or two. Plus, I sold my iPad and ordered the WuKong KOs of Warbotron Bruticus' limb-bots from TF-Direct, and I already got the shipping notice. Now I just gotta wait for the WuKong KO of Fierce Attack and for MakeToys to release Vulcan...
  14. mikeszekely
    Continuing with the not-Stunticons, here's their leader, Diesel, who is Fansproject's take on Motormaster. This time we're starting with vehicle mode, since that's how Diesel is packaged (vs the cars being packaged as robots. Right off the bat you'll notice that Diesel is the spitting image of Motormaster, toy or toon, while the actual CW Motormaster does not. I mean, even if we forgive the Hasbro toy for not having a trailer, the gray color scheme makes me think of Age of Extinction Galvatron more than Motormaster. Diesel, meanwhile, nails it with the black cab and extra roof windows, as purple as the all the other windows, pulling a gray trailer with a purple stripe. The cab has some nice details, with silver paint on the grill, bumper, and molded smokestacks and yellow paint on the headlights. If I have any complaints at all about this mode, it's the fact that the cab is fixed to the trailer and can't turn, and some bits that become the combiner gun are just stuck on the trailer doors instead of stored inside. Speaking of the trailer doors... for transformation you have to split the trailer in half. The front of the trailer contains most of Diesel, while the back half contains a bunch of extra parts that can technically be attached to Diesel (more on that later), but are really meant for the combiner mode. Now, talking about the rear half, I sort of like the idea that a good portion of Motormaster's trailer is for combined mode; it helps explain why Motormaster is like Optimus Prime-sized instead of Power Master Optimus Prime-sized. And I give Fansproject a lot of credit; the entire back half of the trailer will be used, so you're not left with any leftovers. We'll talk about that more when we we talk about the combined mode, but for now I want to point out that the trailer doors can be removed from the back half of the trailer and put back onto Diesel, sort of giving him a workable alt-mode even when he's not hauling around a bunch of Menasor parts. Transformed, he's a little taller than CW Motormaster, and again he's a whole lot better-looking. I'm not fond of CW Motormaster; his face is derpy, and my impression of Motormaster is the G1 cartoon, where he was predominantly black. Plus, if I had to pick two defining features of Motormaster, it'd be his boxed-in head and his truck cab feet. CW Motormaster has the head, but painting Optimus Prime's feet black is not the same as having a truck cab for feet. Diesel, on the other hand, has more black, he's got the boxed-in head, and while his feet aren't a truck cab his shins are, which I guess is good enough. I mean, it retails a lot of the look, but gives Diesel actual feet to pose on. Aesthetically, I might want his arms to be a little lighter and his thighs darker, and the box around his head could bigger, but any way you shake it he's a better Motormaster than the real thing. I'd say he's got a few more problems than Car Crash and T-Bone, though, and the biggest one is kibble. Most of Diesel isn't as much made from the trailer as it is made from what's inside the trailer. The sides, top, and wheels of the trailer origami up into panels that hang off his back near his hips, the way a VF-19's wings do in Battroid mode. He's also got big blocks hanging from his forearms, and flaps on his upper arms that will constantly bang into each other. It doesn't really affect his articulation, but if you want his arms straight you have to move the flap out of the way. Oh, and that is indeed the combiner head you see in that hole in his back. When there's not a lot you can do with the flaps or the boxes on his forearms, there are some alternatives to the big panels. In his YouTube review, Breauxman suggests that Diesel will look better if you flip the panels up and rotate the wheels so they're resting on his shoulders. Personally, partsforming doesn't bother me as much as it bother some others, and I'm content to simply pop the panels off of their ball joints. Now, you might notice that I haven't mentioned the trailer door. It doesn't form a part of Diesel's body, and you can leave on the back half of the trailer, but the door also splits in half, and each half folds over on itself to become a pair of shotguns. It's a neat way to integrate Diesel's weapons into his alt mode. If dual-wielding shotguns isn't your thing, that extra chunk that was stuck on the doors can come apart and combine with the shotguns to turn them into a larger sniper rifle. That said, part of the top of the rifle folds down to become a larger handle, and I tend to think of this as more the combiner gun than Diesel/Motormaster's. Well, we all know that articulation can make or break a toy, and we hold expensive 3P toys to higher standards than $15-$25 Hasbro figures. Fortunately, Diesel delivers. His head is on a ball joint, and he's got some good side-to-side and downward tilt, although the upward tilt could be a little better. His waist is a tight ratchet, and his hip are ratcheted universal joints. The outward motion is especially tight, which should provide stability for combiner mode (which we'll find out when we get to that review!). On his arms we've got the usual wrist swivel and double-jointed elbows that go all the way up, although mine are a little loose on the lower-arm hinge. He's got bicep swivels, but they require you to fold out the combiner connectors which, sadly, doesn't look as good as when they're folded in. His shoulder joints are pretty interesting. They can swing outward 90 degrees and rotate all the way around, but there's also a butterfly joint that lets him bring his arm back a bit. Plus, they can move forward a bit on the transformation joint, although this is actually both a blessing and a curse. Blessing, because it gives you a little more posing options, but curse because they're not the tightest joins and they tend to move when you're just trying to rotate the shoulder. Getting back to his legs, he's got ratcheted thigh swivels and ratcheted knees that get a little shy of 90 degrees. The knees suffer a little because you really only get about two clicks back, like the ratchet could have used more teeth, and also because combiner pegs are part of the backs of his knees and you have to be careful to make sure that moving the knee doesn't cause the combiner peg to pop the lower leg apart. Finally, his feet are ball jointed, and he can get an extreme inward ankle tilt off of them, although standing straight or tilting the feet outward is hindered by a tab on top of the foot. Now, if you're the kind of person who likes to keep everything on a figure in all modes and leaving that back half off the trailer off to the side is annoying the heck out of you, take heart; Fansproject thought of you. Basically, you can split the rest of the trailer up into four main chunks, plus the wheels and some parts that stick together to make the combiner sword. These four chunks can be folded around and stuck onto Diesel's shoulders and back as cannons and missile launchers. The wheels can either stay pegged onto one of the trailer bits that are now on Diesel's shoulders, or a little handle can fold out and he can carry it like a shield. The combiner sword can even be carried on Diesel's back, even, although there doesn't seem to be a way for Diesel to wield it himself. If your memories of Motormaster had him wielding a sword, he can carry the Combiner Wars one, though. In any case, if partsforming the panels that are actually supposed to be attached doesn't bother me, I'm not going to waste my time armoring Diesel up with the rest of his trailer because I think it looks dumb. So here's a picture I found on another website. Judge for yourself. So, should you get him? I'd say yes, if a CHUG-scale Motormaster is what you're in the market for. While not perfect, he's got quite a presence and he's miles ahead of the Combiner Wars version. If Masterpiece is more you're thing, though, you might want to wait to see how TransForMission's Havoc turns out. From what we've seen, their not-Motormaster will somehow scale with MP-10 in both bot and truck modes. Be advised, though, that Havoc seems to be even more heavily influenced by Don Figueroa's IDW Menasor than M3.
  15. mikeszekely
    I was referring to the way that Rover and Axle actually do some transforming to become shins.
  16. mikeszekely
    What game is that, sh9000?
  17. mikeszekely
    Spoiler, but you might like Guardia then.
  18. mikeszekely
    Well, as promised, Fansproject's T-Bone, whom you may know as Wildrider. So, like David already said, T-Bone is basically Car Crash with a new head, chest, and alt-mode panels. I think he looks good. He's still on the small side, but he's got a very accurate color scheme. Those red thighs on the CW version? Not toon or toy accurate, although you could make a case that it helps break up the fact that Wildrider (and by extension, T-Bone) are very dark. Another thing is, while I like Car Crash's less-blocky head sculpt a lot, T-Bone's toy-style head is a tad generic and makes me wish Fansproject had gone with a more toon-style. Since he's basically the same toy as Car Crash, I won't go into a lot of detail about his articulation. I'll merely address some stuff that David wrote about. That's not really my experience with him. I mean, he's certainly not as articulate as Himed, but who is? I'd be lying if I said his feet didn't bump his leg panels, but that seems to affect his ability to tilt his feet up. If anything, I think I can get a deeper tilt for a wide-legged stance on T-Bone than I can with Car Crash. In any case, I think it's easy to forget that this set was released in 2013 and judge it by 2016 3P designs, so yes, both Car Crash and T-Bone have their limitations. I don't really think that T-Bone is any worse off than Car Crash, though, and I'm not having any problem getting some nice poses. Moving right along... T-Bone's alt-mode is a Batmobile. OK, so David already told us it's actually a Lamborghini Ankonian, a concept car that, despite all sorts of rumors that it'll go on sale in 2017, exists only in model form. Given that CW Wildrider is just a repaint of Dead End, I appreciate the effort to give T-Bone a unique look, and they definitely nailed the colors. But, since Car Crash is an updated Lambo, might have been nice if Fansproject had gone with an updated Ferrari, maybe a 458 Italia. I can't speak for EVERYBODY, but in my case it's because the tabs may be designed to hold it flush, but they definitely DON'T work perfectly. I can't get the tabs into the slots to save my life. I might look into filing them down. In any case, would I recommend him. Well, if you're in it for a combined Menasor, I don't think there's anything here that will change your mind. I don't think he's disappointing. But I think Lamborghinis are very distinct cars, and I think Car Crash sort of benefits from the fact that if you see a white Lambo with blue trim and red on the hood you're going to think, "oh, Breakdown." I think, especially without the cartoon head, that maybe T-Bone's just not as exciting. If you're looking for a definitive Wildrider, you might want to wait to see how the new 3P Wildrider shakes out. Not part of the review, but, Yep, I bought a set of all five, but I haven't opened Diesel, Last Chance, or Down Force yet. I don't have a ton of free time anymore, since I'm a stay-at-home dad with a wife who's out for 12-13 hours between her job and commute during the week and who wants to do family stuff on the weekend. I'm kind of limited to after the girls go to bed to mess with my toys. Although, I think I've mentioned before that it's pretty easy to have Youtube on in the background while I'm playing with my daughter. I already caught Breauxman's Diesel video, and I have his combined mode video saved in my watch later playlist. Feel free to toss in any tips of your own, though.
  19. mikeszekely
    To be fair, Lamborghini's made several cars now with pretty similar (yet awesome) styling. And spoilers, man! I haven't had a chance to play with T-Bone yet. Ah, I might as well review him next...
  20. mikeszekely
    Instead of continuing with the Guardia team, I'm going to move from my favorite Protectobot to my favorite Stunticon. Presenting Fansproject's Car Crash, their take on Breakdown, with Combiner Wars Breakdown for comparison. So yeah... with his white thighs, blue shins, blocky head, and white arms CW Breakdown is more (cartoon) accurate, sure. And he's a bit bigger; Car Crash is a wee little guy. Honestly, CW Breakdown's whole transformation is pretty close to the original (the front tires stayed on the arms, the arms didn't fold up on themselves, and the legs swung out the same way but they didn't rotate so the back of the car was actually the back of his knee), and Car Crash is upside down with the front of the car becoming his feet. But, the single most important difference between Car Crash and CW Breakdown is that Car Crash is awesome and CW Breakdown is the second-worst of the CW molds. Actually, and it might sound hypocritical of me to say this after complaining that Uranos and the various 3P Devastators out there aren't G1 enough for me, but I LOVE Car Crash's design. Sometimes the CHUG designs and some 3P make some odd choices when updating a character (like making Ratchet an SUV or splitting Bonecrusher's shovel and putting it on the back of his arms instead of making it his chest... I'm looking at you, Generation Toy), but I think Car Crash does it perfectly. I love the head sculpt, I love the angles of his torso, and I love the way the front end moves around to become his legs and feet. He's a good-looking robot. He's got your standard 3P articulation. Head's on a ball joint that lets him look side-to-side and down, as well as tilt his head a little, but looking up isn't his forte. His shoulders are also on ball-joints, but they're also hinged so they can swing out from the ball joint until his shoulders start banging into his head. He's got bicep and wrist swivels, and his single-jointed elbows bend 90 degrees. Waist swivels, knees are on ball joints, thighs swivel, knees bend just a tad more than 90 degrees. His feet are on ball joints and can tilt forward and backward, but the amount of ankle tilt he can get out of them is fairly shallow. Car Crash looks just as sexy in alt mode, although admittedly the Combiner Wars toy fares a lot better here. Lamborghinis are just good-looking cars, although again Car Crash feels more modern by going for a Gallardo-esque look. And yeah, Car Crash is still itty bitty. Transforming Car Crash is 90% easy and very intuitive. The only hang up is his feet; it can be a little tricky to get the red part of the hood to fold behind the part with the headlights without the tires getting in the way. I like the way his gun splits in half and pegs under the car to become the exhaust. It feel like it's been a long time since Hasbro tried to hide the weapons in alt-mode instead of just giving you places to plug a gun to a car's roof. To be fair, I could say the same for 3P, as all the Guardia team has places to plug their guns into their alt modes, but nowhere to hide them. So what's wrong with Car Crash? Nothing, really. He could have a little more articulation in the head and a deeper ankle tilt, and sure I'd love it if he weren't shorter than most Deluxes, but that'd really be splitting hairs. I could maybe also say that there's really nothing that stands out about him, either, like the ab crunch combiner elbows on the Guardia or Feral Rex limbs, the neat way Alberich and Hagen's arms become their rear beast legs, the way Fenrir's beast legs hide in the back of his bot legs, or like half of Troll's transformation. But again, splitting hairs. Bottom line, he's a good-looking bot with the standard articulation that you expect from 3P toys that transforms into a good-looking car via an effective if not groundbreaking transformation. So, regardless of how not-Menasor turns out, Car Crash is a great little figure who is definitely worth owning. (Of course, you won't have to wait long to see what I think of not-Menasor.)
  21. mikeszekely
    Or MMC, or Unique Toys, or Fansproject, or Warbotron, or... well, I think most groups would do better by now than TFC. Heck, if Hades in any indication, TFC would do a better job now than TFC already did with Uranos. Sad thing about Uranos is that I can forgive almost all the things people don't like about it, I just hate heads of the individual bots. Well, that's the crux of it. I tend to cycle them every couple of days. For example, right now Ordin's combined but until a few days ago they were in individual bot mode. They were bots for about a week; before that they were all in alt mode for a few days. I think, if it came down to just the Devastator mode, that you're right. I'm not totally sold on the look of Gravity Builder, but I might prefer it to Constructor, and the size fits better. But, while Generation Toys' bots have all been pretty good (excluding their Bonecrusher, whom I just loathe with every fiber of my cold black heart), I think ToyWorld's have been been better in both bot and alt mode in every case. But, whatever. Even though I've rushed to replace the four Scramble City-style Combiner Wars guys with 3P, and then only after buying Feral Rex and Ordin, I'm really serious about taking a break for awhile. Aside from wanting to give my bank account a rest, I want to see how the final releases of Constructor and Gravity Builder shake out before committing to a Devastator, Computron was my least favorite combiner in the cartoon, I'm holding off on a Piranacon to both see how TFC's shakes out and to see if someone else doesn't announce that they're doing a better one, and I'm simply not attached enough to any of the other combiners to be in a hurry.
  22. mikeszekely
    Time for a review! Up first, we have Himed, Maketoys' take on First Aid. Of the four Maketoys figures I got today, he was the one I was most excited to get because First Aid is my favorite Protectobot. Here he is with the Combiner Wars version. As you can see, they're about the same size, but Himed carries a lot more detail. It's worth noting that Maketoys is going with a much more stylized look; the Hasbro toy is more G1 in terms of color placement and having those little window panels, and the head is closer to the cartoon, but I dig the way the black on Himed's waist and hips breaks up the red, I dig how Maketoys sort of took the white line of the original toy's combiner port and made it into a cross, and I dig the siren-esque translucent red on his shoulders. It's also nice that he carries some details from the G1 toy, like the wheels on his torso. Best of all, Himed's head is a dead ringer for First Aid's face in the IDW comics. I love it! He does have a little ambulance kibble on his back, but honestly it's a lot less than the Combiner Wars version. It does a good job staying out of the way, and it covers the combiner port. When it comes to articulation, Himed blows the Combiner Wars toy out of the water. His head is on a swivel for left-right movement, but also has a hinge for looking up and down with some fantastic range. His shoulders are on ball pegs that can rotate all the way around and extend about 90 degrees to his side. The ball peg is actually clipped in place and is actually attached on a swivel set behind his arm. You can unclip the peg and rotate the swivel to cheat a little when trying to get some poses. Naturally, he's also got a bicep and wrist swivel, and his elbows are double-jointed, allowing him to reach up and touch his own shoulders. He's got a waist swivel, hips are ball joints that go 90 degrees forward, 90 back, and just shy of doing the splits, and he's got thigh swivels and knees that bend 90 degrees. His feet are on ball joints, but the ball joint is at the end of a rod that swivels for transformation, so his ankles can get some very extreme tilt. The size and combination of joints make Himed feel a lot like a non-transforming action figure, and you can get some great poses out of him. What really sets him apart, though, is that the black part of his abdomen is a joint that will be Guardia's elbow in combined mode. For Himed, though, it makes a fantastic ab crunch, further increasing the number of dynamic poses you can get out of him. In fact, he can do the Iron Man. Transformation is, once you know what you're doing, honestly pretty easy. The most frustrating thing about it that there are a lot of panels that need to be tabbed in place. The resulting ambulance is... cute. It's actually a little shorter and less wide than the Combiner Wars version. It think it's also very accurate to the original. I certainly like it better than the Combiner Wars truck, but I think this is probably the one area where TFC's not-First Aid probably has an advantage. So what are the negatives? Well, I did mention all the tabbing you have to do for alt-mode. The back of his thighs are hollow, which is the kind of bull I expect from Hasbro but not 3Ps. Speaking of hollow, his lower legs are four panels folded around the joint and tabbed together. They're solid enough, but the joint is connected near the back of the lower leg and the back of the knee. Meanwhile, those panels on his knees are actually attached in front of the joint and don't move when he bends his knee. In other words, when he bends his knee you can see the hollow space inside his lower legs. Finally, and this will be a common complaint among these guys, his weapon sucks. It's a single-cast piece that doesn't look a heck of a lot like a gun on one side, and on the other has hollow spots and a tab that make it look both unfinished, and like it pegs into something else (spoiler: it pegs into Axle's gun). While accurate, I think his alt-mode looks a little plain and I'll be checking Reprolabels for an upgrade. Finally, it's not really a complaint, but it'd be cool if these guys were a little bigger. All-in-all, I feel like these are pretty minor complaints. Would I recommend him? Well, the thing is, I'm sure most of you will be buying him for the combined Guardia mode. If you want to know how that's gonna shake out, you can look at pictures or wait until Vulcan is released and get reviews then. As an individual figure, I do recommend him. I think he's got a great bot mode that offers lots of articulation and playability.
  23. mikeszekely
    I know, right? And I swear it's just because they're combiners- I went more than two years with just Hegemon and Mania King (and that's because I thought the official toys for those characters were so bad). In what way do you think TFC did Devy the best? Just because of the way they used Bonecrusher and Scavenger's treads to make Devy's forearms? Hercules may be my least-favorite Devy. Weird individual bot modes (although not as bad as Maketoys'), and the treads as forearms instead of part of the body (and black instead of green and purple) bugs me A LOT more than partsforming. When it comes to forearms, Generation Toys might have the best solution. The forearms are portable generators towed behind Scavenger and Bonecrusher, and can be left attached in both alt-mode and bot-mode. But if you don't like them attached, they can be removed. Plus they have a cool feature where you can flip up the back of Devy's hand and reveal some missiles. I'd probably be all in on Gravity Builder, but I HATE their take on Bonecrusher. All those 3P Devy's, and only Toyworld got Bonecrusher right. If nothing else comes along, I'll probably go for Constructor when I get a third party Devy, but he's by no means perfect. From what I've seen, I don't like the head, his waist will be too skinny, I want a purple drum on Mixmaster, and I don't care for the silver thighs, plus he's going to be bigger than I want. The articulation on those hands, though...
  24. mikeszekely
    Big haul today! First I got a FedEx package from TFSource with the four limb-bots for Maketoys Guardia (not-Defensor). Little later, the mail lady brought me an Ebay order with all five members of FansProject's M³ (not-Menasor). Reviews forthcoming (but playoff hockey takes priority). If that wasn't bad enough, I'm talking to a guy about trading for his Uranos. Yeah, yeah, I know he's not that great, but I gotta have a 3P Superion and for now he's it. And a trade's no money out of my pocket. Money will go into my pocket when I sell my iPad, and then back out to get the four WuKong KO Warbotron Bruticus limb-bots. Not too shabby. That'll leave me two unreleased torsos away from replacing all the Combiner Wars teams except Devastator and the unreleased Computron. I'm going to give my wallet a rest before worrying about them (or the Dinobot combiner, or the Throttlebot combiner, or a 3P Liokaiser or Piranacon, or a Monstructor repaint of FansProject's not-Dinoking).
  25. mikeszekely
    I think I'm still in for Cy-Kill and Leader-1. Like JB0, I had a ton more Gobots than Transformers. In fact, my dad was laid off a couple times when I was young, and Sideswipe and Bumblebee are the only series 1 TF's I had (and even then, I'm pretty sure I got Bumblebee later). I used to pretend my Rest-Q was Ratchet and my Loco was Astrotrain. I never had the regular Cy-Kill, but I had the black and green repaint and the Super Gobot Cy-Kill. As for Leader-1, I had both versions of him and the Super Gobot version. Beyond that, I'm not sure that there are any other characters I like enough to pay $45 for. Maybe Turbo and Crasher.
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