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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    I'd seen the post that picture came from, and I don't like that method for a couple of reasons. One, it still leaves him looking messy on top. Two, you can't attach the foot cannons as it leaves both connections on the bottom. And three, going from leg to rhino you have to open up the legs to rotate the waist without popping his hip armor off. I feel like, if you're going to put the robot chest on top, you might as well put the robot feet on the bottom.
  2. mikeszekely
    It looks like UW Bruticus has the same dark head as CW Bruticus. I was really hoping it would be silver or light gray. I agree on the 4-bladed Vortex, could cause more problems than it solves. The shuttle Blast Off looks good from what I can see.
  3. mikeszekely
    Brought it up in the 3P thread, but worth mentioning here. GCIToys (aka Dr. Killenger) just went live with a new web store. They're taking preorders (with early bird pricing) for some Bruticus upgrade sets. I preordered one with new back cannons and new feet for Bruticus and a new head for Blast Off.
  4. mikeszekely
    Hey, it seems that GCIToys' (aka Dr. Killenger) web store went live today. They've got three products up for preorder so far; Gulper, a figure based on IDW Guzzle from the Wreckers series, and two upgrade kits for Combiner Wars Bruticus. One's a set of weapons (two guns and a knife), the other is new feet, new back cannons, and a new Blast Off head. They're doing first-come-first-serve on their orders, and there's some early bird pricing if you order before March. EDIT: Quick question for the Feral Rex owners out there... when you have Fortis in rhino mode, how many of you put him the official way (robot back and feet are the rhino's back) and how many of you just transform him like Bovis (robot chest and shins are the rhino's back). I think the official way helps make Fortis more distinct from Bovis but I think it looks messier, so I'm inclined to transform him like Bovis.
  5. mikeszekely
    That'd be awesome! But no, I didn't see any. If you look at their labels for pretty much any specific toy they're over the top. That's why, aside from faction logos, I've only ever bought their sets for CW Prowl and CW Streetwise. If you just want faction logos, though, they're pretty cheap, which is why I like 'em. You can get Decepticon or Autobot symbols on white or silver (which work on pretty much anything) for around $3.50 a sheet. If you just want outlines, I didn't see any in red or purple, but $4 will get you clear emblems with white or chrome lines.
  6. mikeszekely
    No. I think they're 396 button cells, yeah? That doesn't seem to be a common size. I was originally thinking to just pick some up at a local store, but it looks like I'll have to order some. Yeah, I saw that in Felisaber's instruction book (along with that alternate sword configuration David mentioned to me). The thing is, Predaking's arm cannon has a certain look, and Bovis and Fortis (and, I assume, Talon, Tigris, and Leo Dux's) weapons were designed not just so that they'd combine, but that their combined look would still have the look of Predaking's arm cannon. Felisaber's gun doesn't have that limitation. Sure, they included a way to clip it to the barrel of Feral Rex's cannon, but it didn't need to look like it's integral to the cannon, and wound up looking more like G1 Catilla's gun. I think it benefits from that. While I have no intention of building Feral Rex's ultimate mode, for fun I built a one-armed, no-winged Feral Rex with Felisaber in Tigris's spot, to get an idea of how large the combined Feral Rex is, how sturdy he is, and how much articulation he's got. Some initial thoughts are that he's a good size, comfortably between the five-member CW combiners and CW Devastator. I think it's also impressive how much articulation they've managed to build into a robot made of other robots. For the most part, the Hasbro CW dudes are pretty well-matched in terms of knees, head, shoulders, and hips, and to a degree the wrists., but Rex has a better ball joint on the head, ankle tilts, a little bit of toe bend, more articulate fingers, and he can rotate at the waist. Plus, he manages to get his elbow articulation without exposing the arm-bots' legs and using their knees. And good gravy is Feral Rex sturdy. The Hasbro combiners can't even hold their guns without their elbows drooping, but Rex is staying in whatever pose you stick him in. The only thing you have to watch out for is that you put his sword in his hand so that gravity pulls the blade in the direction that Leo's tail joint doesn't bend in. I'll probably talk about Rex in more detail when I complete him, but these are the basic problems I've found. First, the barrels on his back cannons. One is perfect, the other slides back in a bit when fully extended. I've gotten around that by pushing the other barrel back in to the same length. Two, while folding up the legs on the arm-bots keeps Rex from having that elbow gap from the arm-bot thighs common on Hasbro's combiners, it sort of makes his arms seem short. Finally, it's a good thing that Rex has ankle tilts because Bovis and Fortis are so thick that Rex's legs kind of have to spread a bit. Like my complaints about the individual Feralcons, though, these are pretty minor issues that are completely overshadowed by how amazing MMC's engineering really is. Oh, and hey, no one else has any thoughts on Felisaber's emblem? So far I've got one vote for an Autobot emblem and no thoughts on where to place it.
  7. mikeszekely
    I guess, if I think IDW, I actually have a third choice- Catilla could be a NAIL. Oh, quick question for the MMC fans... with Bovis, Leo Dux, and Fortis their instructions had issues 3, 4, and 5. Felisaber had 7, which prompted me to look at the Reformatted line and see that Tigris is 6 and Talon was 2, with Terminus Hexatron in the 1 spot. Is the story in the Feralcon's instructions continued from Hexatron's? Like, do I need him if I want to read the whole thing?
  8. mikeszekely
    As expected, Felisaber arrived today. Felisaber is MMC's take on Catilla, an Autobot Pretender whose sole appearances in Transfomers fiction are limited to appearances in the UK-exclusive original Marvel comics where he was initially a Decepticon who eventually joined the Autobots and was killed, and a few cameos in the IDW series. Like Bovis and Fortis, Felisaber is comfortably Voyager-sized, seen here with Combiner Wars Cyclonus. Felisaber is a good-looking robot, no doubt. He's got a slimmer figure than Bovis and Fortis, and less stuff on him than Leo Dux. Like Leo, he's actually got a hatch to hide his bot hand behind when he transforms, has ratchets in his shoulder for forward/backward and inward/outward movement, double-jointed elbows, a ball-jointed head, and a rotating waist, although unlike Leo his tiger claws don't fold back and peg on to his arms, which is a little bummer. From the waist down, he's actually a bit more like Bovis or Fortis. He's got similar feet that tab onto his legs in cat mode the same way, similar pieces on this thighs that a weapon can peg into that rotate to the back of his thighs, and his legs transform by opening a flap, folding the lower leg over the thigh, and closing the flap, just like Bovis and Fortis. And, just like Bovis and Fortis, his back animal legs are folding up into a decorative bit and pegged onto the side of his lower leg. Articulation in his lower body is identical to Bovis and Fortis, except that since Felisaber doesn't have the hip armor bits his legs are less restricted when swinging out to the sides. As an artifact of also being an arm for Feral Rex, his he also has a bit of bend in his mid-section. Felisaber's accessories are a gun and a "gauntlet". Since it doesn't have to become any part of Rex's weapon, the gun is a nice G1-inspired design. It's good that the gun is good, because the gauntlet is terrible. In fact, it's on the ground in the picture because I couldn't get it on him. There's a flip-out tab that's supposed to peg onto the tiger paw. The way it's designed, though, trying to push it in place is 99% more likely to flip the tab back in instead of pegging the tab onto the paw. Felisaber's alt-mode is pretty great. Again, due to the midsection bend that comes with being an arm and the lack of stuff on him that Leo has, he's afforded extra articulation, plus his cat head is on a ball joint. Like the other Feralcons Felisaber's cat mouth opens, and like Leo he doesn't have to show his bot face to do it. That said, the cat mode doesn't have the neck flap that Leo has, and doesn't really hide his bot head as well. In cat mode, the gauntlet can fit onto his head. This is a homage to Catilla's Pretender shell, and it helps to hid the robot head. However, it's very difficult to get off. I wound up popping the entire cat head off the ball joint. Also his gun can peg into either shoulder. As far as being a homage to Catilla, Felisaber is a bit of an odd duck. He's got a lot more yellow and black and a lot less gray that Catilla, and the cat's head sits on this chest like Rampage or Razorclaw instead of G1 Catilla. It's also got red eyes instead of blue. Thing is, though, the G1 Pretenders weren't the most complicated figures even by G1 standards. So while a lot of it is due to the fact that MMC was remolding Tigris (I think) instead of trying to make a truly-accurate Catilla, I think the changes actually make Felisaber a better-looking figure than he would have been if they had gone for G1 accuracy. And the colors help his alt mode strike a balance between Catilla's inside robot's alt-mode and Catilla's Pretender shell. As a "bonus" figure who isn't necessary to complete Feral Rex, MMC has tossed in a few extras with Felisaber that are unnecessary but cool. For starters, there's a hatch on his abdomen. Open it up, and inside is a small robo-penguin, a play on the fact that MMC's logo has a ski-jumping penguin. In addition to the penguin, Felisaber comes with little silicone pads you can put on the bottom of Feral Rex's feet, G1-accurate red hooves for Bovis, a yelling face to replace Bovis' snarling face, and a snarling face to replace Fortis' frowning face. Felisaber's a really great figure. My complaints are pretty limited. As I already mentioned, I'm not a fan of the gauntlet/helmet accessory, since it's too hard to get on in bot mode and too hard to get off in cat mode. Fortunately, you can leave it in the box and not really be missing out on anything. Aside from that my complaints are limited to the fact that his tail doesn't really stay pegged in place in bot mode. There's a little hole on the tip of the tail that pegs onto a little peg on his leg, but on mine it pops off immediately after I peg it into place and let it go. Also, as I mentioned previously, I wish his tiger claws pegged onto the back of his arms like Leo Dux's instead of just sitting there. Finally, I wish that MMC had included a way to hide his robot head better in cat mode. I think these are fairly minor complaints in the face of how good the toy is in every other way. Felisaber is a good toy on his own merits, and I'd say he's worth getting even if you don't plan on using him as part of Feral Rex. Now I have one small dilemma. If Felisaber is going to be a CHUG Catilla, do I make him an Autobot or a Decepticon? Since he goes so well with the other Feralcons, who are my CHUG Predacons, I'm inclined to make him a Decepticon, which G1 fiction backs me up on even if the toy was clearly an Autobot. Second, where should I put his faction symbol? G1 Catilla had it on his cat forehead, which is doable on Felisaber, but may not look as good since Felisaber's cat head faces forward instead of folding down like Catilla's. I'm slightly more inclined to put it on his shoulder, like I did for Leo Dux. So what do you guys think? Autobot or Decepticon? Forehead or shoulder?
  9. mikeszekely
    That's disappointing. CW Motormaster doesn't really look much like G1 Motormaster, and makes for a combiner that misses a lot of Menasor's look. Lonewolf looked like it nailed both of those things and is pretty posable to boot, but reading up on him it sounds like it's pretty much ruined by a simple lack of tabs for a lot of the folding parts. Bummer. Technically, I started with Toyworld's Hegemon and UT's Mania King. Hegemon gets some credit for still being the best Voyager Megatron you can get, but overall I think he's kind of mediocre. I love my Mania King, though. Back when I got them, I hadn't planned on doing much with 3P Transformers, I was just trying to fix what I saw as two major flaws with Hasbro's CHUG line, a mediocre Voyager Megatron and crappy Deluxe Megatron and Galvatron. I decided to try 3P again recently for pretty much the same reason; this time, it's the absence of Predaking in the Combiner Wars line that has me buying up the MMC Feral Rex guys.
  10. mikeszekely
    Nope. They do look like pretty cool toys, especially Minos, but I've never watched Victory (I didn't even manage to finish Masterforce), so I wasn't even aware of Liokaiser as a character until talk of an official Combiner Wars Liokaiser started popping up. Now that I'm getting into 3P toys, there's too much other stuff I want before I start collecting characters I don't even know. I might try to get Lonewolf (anyone have him, or any thoughts on him?) to replace my CW Menasor, then I'll probably take a look at some other characters before I start working on Ordin.
  11. mikeszekely
    Onto my thoughts on Bovis and Fortis, MMC's takes on Tantrum and Headstrong. I'm not going to post about them separately because they are, by and large, the same figure. Once again, I feel like MMC did a pretty good job of capturing the characters. They got the red animal heads behind the robot heads, the red robot heads with yellow faces, the black horns, the yellow torso on Headstrong and the orange torso on Tantrum, black thighs, black feet on Headstrong, red feet on Tantrum, black rhino legs on Headstrong, red bull legs on Tantrum (although with black hooves, which if you prefer red they come with Felisaber), and the (toy-accurate) black biceps (IIRC, Headstrong's whole arms were red in the cartoon). They managed to get the red on Headstrong's arms and the gray on Tantrum's, and they even manged to get little details like the silver plate on Tantrum's chest (toy-accurate, but downplayed in the cartoon), and the black bars in the middle of Headstrong's chest. The biggest departure from the G1 look are the lower legs, which were black on both Tantrum and Headstrong but are orange on Bovis and yellow on Fortis. It throws off the look a little for me personally, but I understand that they did it to keep their alt-mode bodies correctly-colored. In terms of size, Bovis and Fortis are slightly shorter than Leo Dux, and perfectly in line with what you'd expect for a Voyager-class toy. Getting down to the nitty-gritty, Bovis and Fortis aren't quite as good as Leo Dux is, at least as robots. The animal heads don't give Bovis and Fortis' bot heads the same range of motion that Dux's has. The shoulders have about the same range of motion as Dux, but they're not ratchets. The armor on the back of the elbows and the animal legs on the backs of their shoulders mean that Bovis and Fortis can't bend their elbows backwards like Dux, but they do bend far enough forward that they can touch their hand can touch their shoulders. The wrists can rotate but they lack the forward/backward movement of Dux. Like Dux, they can twist at the waist and have ratcheting hips that can bend forward and backward and side to side, but the sides of their thighs prevent them from doing the splits. The legs can rotate around at the knees, and the knees can bend 90 degrees (actually, they can bend farther and do during transformation, but in bot mode that's where the back of the lower legs will hit the back of the thigh). Unlike Dux, they don't have double-jointed knees. The feet attach to the back of the inside of the legs on a swing bar that pegs into the middle of the foot on a ball joint. The foot bends in the middle. This gives them feet that are fairly capable of being posed how you want them to, but they're not as stable on the whole as Dux. Also unlike Dux, there are a few Hasbro-style hollow spots on the inside of the forearms where the wrists fold in (no covers this time) and the lower spots on the inside of the lower legs. I'm also not a fan of the hip armor... they really don't serve any purpose, and even in alt mode aren't pegged into anything, they just tuck way inside the legs. Once again, the weapons are a bit of a sore point for me. Form is clearly being sacrificed for functionality; the guns and knives have to connect with everyone else's to make Feral Rex's arm cannon and sword. For Bovis, they're really not bad. He's got these serrated knives with spiked handguards that are pretty cool, and some pretty nice twin pistols. Fortis gets shafted, though. His knives wouldn't look too bad, except the handles are just goofy. His guns are okay... they're basically boxes with barrels that can collapse or extend. He can wear them on his arms, but he doesn't have any kind of handheld gun. They both have options for storage, though. In both cases, they put their guns on their forearms or on the outside of their lower legs. Additionally, Bovis can store his guns near his hips on the outside of his thighs or he can carry them in his hands. Both toys can store the knives in the hands, on the hips, on the lower legs, or on the forearms. Plus, Rex's hands can tuck into Rex's feet, and Bovis and Fortis can carry the combined foot/hands on their backs. Now, onto the animal modes. Like Dux, the transformation isn't really complicated once you learn it. Flip the face up into the animal head, flip in the wrists, pop out and position the animal legs, fold the bot arms up into the shoulders, move the sides of the thighs to the back, rotate the waist 180 degrees, open the legs up and fold the lower legs over the thighs (being sure to tuck away the hip armor) and fold the feet out onto the backs of the bot legs. That's actually the trickiest part, since you have to turn the feet in just the right way so that the panel they attach to slips through a gap in the heel. Honestly, the most confusing thing is realizing that the top of Bovis is the bottom of Fortis. And really, I have no idea why they did that. To keep them more visually distinct? To keep Bovis' animal head a little higher and Fortis' a little lower? So that Fortis's feet call back to some black that was on G1 Headstrong's animal back? It just feels a little weird and makes Fortis look a little messier in alt mode. I guess, if you wanted to, though, you could transform Fortis the same way as Bovis. As with their bot modes, their gear can be stored on their alt-mode shoulders, hips, and back. The instructions officially have the knives on the shoulders and the guns on the hips. The foot-hand-cannons store on their backs. If you transformed them according to their official instructions, ridges on the front of the bottom of Rex's foot mate with ridges on Fortis' back, while a fold out prong fits into two slots on Bovis'. Aside from Fortis' back being messy, they both nail their G1 inspirations. Again, though, they're not as articulated as Dux. The animal heads can rotate or look down. Their mouths can open, but doing so will reveal their bot faces inside. Their animal legs can rotate 360 degrees where they attach to their bodies. The lower animal legs and hooves are connected on ball joints so they can bend a little and turn, but they're not as jointed as Dux's animal legs. Likewise, they can turn and bend at the waist a little, but they're basically bricks with animal legs while Dux's lion can get much more dynamic poses. I want to stress, though, that Bovis and Fortis share the same tight joints, multiple tight pegs, and most of the important articulation that Dux has. I also want to stress that while Bovis and Fortis come up a little short compared to Dux they're still good, solid toys with tons of playability. While I haven't looked at Bovis' and Fortis' TFC or UT counterparts the way I did with Leo Dux, I feel comfortable saying that Bovis and Fortis are great representations of Tantrum and Headstrong and that if (like me) you settled on the Feralcons because Leo Dux is a much better Razorclaw than Nemean or Sharp Claw that Bovis and Fortis aren't going to make you sorry that you went with the Feralcons. Felisaber should arrive tomorrow, but Tigris and Talon are still preorders with estimated arrivals of Q1, so I'm not sure when I'll get to them or Rex. But I hope you're enjoying my thoughts on the Feralcons so far.
  12. mikeszekely
    I gotta get me a 3D printer... Yeah, I'm definitely not a fan of the arm extenders. It does stick the arms out a little more like the G1 toy, but CW Devy is a good fit for the cartoon. DA, JET7, are the PE sets with the elbows separate from the set with the cab for Mixmaster? I wouldn't mind giving my Constructicons better elbows, but I think instead of trying to "fix" Hasbro's Mixmaster I'll probably just replace him entirely with Dr. Wu's not-Mixmaster.
  13. mikeszekely
    You kind of did talk me into them! But I don't think it's a bad thing. Like I said, I think I would have been happy with the UT ones... I still think their combined Predaking looks the best. But you guys really got me looking at not just the Predaking, but the individual Predacons as well, especially Razorclaw. I could really see how TFC sculpted some interesting toys, but how they went a little too far IMO in redesigning the Predacons. And I could see how UT's Predacons were perhaps a little too close to G1, with an almost too-simple design. MMC's take may not be perfect, but I think they did a good job walking the line between making good-looking toys while staying true to the characters. And now that I have a few in hand, I can say that I'm as impressed with the engineering and quality as I am with the design... although down the line I almost would still like to get Warlord, just to have an in-hand comparison.
  14. mikeszekely
    Thanks for the tips. Yeah, my tail parts peg on, but loosely. Well, loosely for MMC. Normal enough for Hasbro. I stuck half a chest bit to each half of the tail. Looks a little wonky, but it's keeping all of Dux's parts on Dux. Wish there was a peg, though. The chest bits are just held by friction there. Huh. I (pre)ordered a set of Professor Heisenburg's Royal Arsenal guns for Rex. I might not have if I'd know that Dux's gun comes with Tigris. Well, not that it really matters. The Royal Arsenal doesn't look like it comes with a hand weapon for Dux anyway, just the missing shoulder guns (looks like they slip on the combiner pegs). Hmm. I'll probably keep my preorder. It'll be nice to have a gun for Fortis that isn't those arm cannons, anyway, and even if I don't use them all with the Feralcons I'm sure they'll come in handy somewhere. I finished taking pictures for Bovis and Fortis. It's late on the East Coast, though, so I'll wait until tomorrow to write a review.
  15. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I don't know when they started doing that, but you're not alone there. It's pretty dumb, if you ask me, but it is what it is, and a small price to pay for a $3 copy of Xenogears.
  16. mikeszekely
    OK, first I'm going to make some general observations about MMC, then I'm going to talk about Leo Dux. I'll do Bovis and Fortis later, and Felisaber when he arrives next week. Tigris, Talon, and the combined Feral Rex will have to wait until my preorders ship. So, MMC. In general, I'm very impressed. If Leo Dux, Bovis, and Fortis are indicative of MMC's quality I can see why they have so many fans among 3P toy buyers, although I personally don't have a lot to compare different companies (yet?). It starts right away, with the packaging. Each figure comes in a pretty large box with a photo of the bot on the front, which swings open so you can see the toy inside and some cool artwork on the inside cover. The toys are packed securely in a plastic tray with their accessories, and a plastic cover over the tray. The plastic is set with a cardboard backer into the box. Unlike Hasbro, there's just one twist tie around each figure's waist, the plastic tray isn't tied to the cardboard anywhere. Something else I really dig is that the instructions are printed as a book. If you flip the book over, it's a mini comic book. The instruction book is packaged with a bio card inside a plastic sleeve. As for the toys themselves, they're mostly very well engineered. There's plenty of sculpted detail and good use of colors without being overly busy, lots of ratchets, tight joints, and parts that stay pegged together when placed properly. Plus, some of the things they do with their transformations are things that Has/Tak engineers wouldn't dream of doing. The plastic doesn't feel at all like the kind Hasbro uses, but I think that's actually good. It's strong and has a good heft to it. MMC does seem a little cheeky, though. As an unlicensed product, they of course don't come with Decepticon symbols. However, it's super obvious where they go if you get some aftermarket stickers (mine are courtesy of Toyhax, formerly Reprolabels). In fact, Leo Dux has some molded detail on his right shoulder that's just a blank, pentagonal space on his left, where Razorclaw has his symbol. Now, Leo Dux specifically. (Forgive the poor quality of pics... all I have is a cellphone, and with a baby I'm limited to where I can play with my toys and take pics). Leo Dux is MMC's take on Razorclaw. I think it's a pretty good take. They took some liberties, like the projections above his shoulders, the red biceps, the orange mouth plate, other spots of color, the way the waist is designed, and there are back guns instead of shoulder guns. Honestly, though, I think a lot of actual CHUG Transformers take far more liberties, and there are a lot of callbacks to the original Razorclaw toy, like the gold on the knees, the fact that the projections above his shoulders are sort of where the original toy's lion feet sat, the bits of red in his thighs where lion legs showed through his bot legs, etc. The biggest change is actually his weapons. Everything thing he comes with is shown in this first picture. He's got a shield, which is made out of the combined Feral Rex's pelvis armor, and two melee weapons that can either be arranged like a cleaver (left hand) or an oversized single-edged sword (right hand). There's also the black part(s) on the ground. It doesn't seem to have any use or place in bot mode. In lion mode, part of it fills in his chest and part of it is his tail. It's also used to make part of Feral Rex's sword. Leo Dux has no guns, besides the cannons on his back. The weapons are what they are because they're going to combine with everyone else's to make Rex's admittedly-cool sword, but as stand-alone weapons for Leo Dux they're one of his relatively few cons. They're just big, awkward-looking, and he could seriously use a gun. Leo Dux is big for a Voyager, standing a head taller than Combiner Wars Onslaught and a head shorter than MP-10. He's not just taller, though. He's thicker, more solid, and heavier. As I mentioned, the engineering is very impressive. The cannons on his back can extend then extend and bend so they're firing over his shoulders. His head is on a ball joint. His shoulders have ratchets in the torso for swinging his arms forward and backward, then there's another ratchet inside for swinging the arms out to the side. The arm rotates 360 degrees above the bicep. His elbow joint bends both where it connects to the bicep and where it connects to the forearm, and both joints can rotate forward or backward. His wrists rotate and have a small range of forward/backward motion. He can turn at the waist. His hips are on ratchets that can move forward or backward and side to side, and his hip armor swings inward and outward so his legs have clearance enough for him to do Van Damme-style splits. His legs can rotate inward or outward just above the red on his thighs. The knees, like the elbows, are double-jointed. Just below the red on his thigh bends what in a human would be the wrong way. At the bottom of the knee, where the black lower legs connect to the yellow knee, his legs bend in what we'd consider the correct direction. Then there's his feet, which are designed for maximum stability while providing a range of poses. See, he's got his actual feet, which can move forward or backward where they connect to his shins and have a bend in the middle. The front of the feet are connected in a way so that they can rotate, providing an approximation of ankle tilt. For more stability, Dux has heels that are on a swing arm on the back of his legs, and the heels can rotate on the arm. If that's somehow not enough stability for you, he's got a section that can fold out from behind the foot, bracing the front part of the foot against the bottom of the lower leg (where the ratchets for the pegs that the combiner legs attach to are). Practically, what this means is that you can pose Dux pretty much however you like and his feet are going to hold him up. Transforming him into lion mode isn't particularly difficult; you basically flip up the lion head, his arms become the lion's front legs, his legs collapse into the lion's body, and the lion's lower legs unfold from the sides of Dux's lower legs. There's some interesting stuff going on here, though. For one, the lion's neck actually has a ball-jointed peg that pegs it into the back of Dux's head. Two, there's more to Dux's mane tucked away behind the lion head. Three, there's a flap on a hinge behind the lion head. Part of that thing that has no use in bot mode fits around the flap, then it folds up and fills the gap where the lion head sat in bot mode. The rest pegs between Dux's legs to make the lion's tail. And four, in between Dux's torso and lower body is a thin part that can rotate independently. This is so that it stays on Dux's butt in robot mode when his upper body rotates for cool poses (or so that it stays on Rex's butt when Rex's upper body rotates), but on the lion's back when his lower body has to turn 180 degrees. Five, the bot hands fold into the arm, but there's an actual cover that opens to allow it to fold in and closes to cover it, something you don't really see outside MP's on real Transformers. Finally, the shield/pelvis armor folds into a different configuration and pegs onto the lion's back. Since the lion's front legs are Dux's arms, they have the same wonderful range of articulation. The front claws themselves are ball-jointed, adding to the poses you can get out of lion mode. His back legs can rotate where they connect to Dux's lower legs, and there's two joints in the red part of the legs plus more ball joints for the feet. The back legs are a little more limited since they don't have as much inward-outward range and the joints have less range before the leg parts bump into each other. The tail has two points where it can bend up to 90 degrees, plus you can flip it around depending on whether you want a down-up bend or an up-down bend in the tail. The lion's mouth opens, but sadly the lion's neck doesn't have anything to speak of in terms of articulation. The cannons can be aimed a bit in lion mode. The lion may not be as articulated as the bot, but you can still get a pretty good array of poses out of it, which isn't bad when you figure that we're usually satisfied with spinning tires on cars or fold-out landing gear on planes. Be advised that my Dux came mis-assembled from the factory. There's a part on the inside edge behind the lion's head inside his chest. There's a groove on one side of it that should be facing upward, allowing the flap with the lion's chest parts to fold in. On mine it was assembled upside-down, preventing the chest from being able to fold in. This can be easily fixed by removing the four screws around the cannons on Dux's back, carefully pulling his back off (I say carefully because without the screws both the back and front will come off the waist, the arms could come off the front, thin pieces that give the ratchets their click and sit behind the arms could come off, and the lion's head and neck can come off). The offending part is held in by two screws; remove them, turn the part 180 degrees, then screw everything back together. While the fix isn't too bad, it took me awhile to figure out what was wrong because the instructions are pretty weak, leaving me frustrated and spending time on Google when I wanted to be enjoying my new toy. It's not like even official Hasbro toys don't sometimes have assembly errors, but I'm still going to count this as another strike against Dux. Goofy weapons and assembly errors aside, Leo Dux is a fantastic toy. He's a wonderfully-articulated toy that's solid and sturdy enough to play with a satisfying, if simple, transformation. And, he captures Razorclaw's look (arguably better than TFC's Nemean) while giving it enough of a modern take to avoid looking too dull or simplistic (like UT's Sharp Claw). Unless you're looking for a slightly bigger, broader-chested Razorclaw (Nemean) or a slightly-smaller, more G1-accurate Razorclaw (Sharp Claw), I can't recommend Leo Dux enough.
  17. mikeszekely
    I accidentally posted this in the regular TF thread, but I meant to post here.
  18. mikeszekely
    I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted now. But whoops, I meant to post that in the 3P TF thread, not this one. So, let me get back on track... I hear that GCIToys, who work with Dr. Killenger, are doing an upgrade set for CW Bruticus that will have better barrels for Onslaught/Bruticus' back. I'm excited.
  19. mikeszekely
    More detailed reviews forthcoming, but suffice to say that the Feralcons impressed me enough that I ordered Felisaber with no intention of using him as part of Rex. I also preordered a set of CrazyDevy's guns for the individual Feralcons.
  20. mikeszekely
    Seconded. Or at least a Revive HG. The regular HG is just too old now, and looks sort of chunky and out of place.
  21. mikeszekely
    Leo Dux, Bovis, and Fortis arrived today. I've only had a chance to open and mess around with Leo Dux, so I'll post more when I've had a chance to form some actual opinions. I do have one question, though. What do I do with the two bits of the sword that go inside Dux's abdomen in lion mode and the two parts that make up the tail/sword hilt when Dux is in bot mode? I understand how the pelvis armor/lion butt makes a shield of sorts, but those parts just don't make sense to me. There's a small picture where it looks like at least the chest pieces are on his arm, and the bio card has a cannon weapon on his arm that doesn't seem to actually exist (but kind of resembles the tail and those chest parts, like you're getting read to build the sword). There doesn't seem to be any way to use it as a weapon or attach it to Dux's person that I can see. EDIT: I answered my own questions. Yes, the part the pelvis armor clips onto does pop off Dux's butt and rotates, and should stay on the same side as Dux's back. The rest of Dux's hips and legs rotate around. As for Rex's sword bits not folding in after being attached to the hinge, turns out it was an assembly error (one that's been around since at least Nero Rex). I had to pop his back off, then there's a small piece inside that I had to remove, turn it 180 degrees, then put it all back together.
  22. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I wrote a review a page back. He's my favorite Legends-class of the line, and like I mentioned sorta necessary if you want Bruticus to have a weapon that isn't his back guns (and you don't have Leader Megatron's fun to steal). But officially, his instructions have him fit into the gap where Bruticus' head goes in Onslaught mode, like a backpack. Hmm. Well, CW Cyclonus only has one gun (just a silver recolor of Silverbolt's. I gave it a try, though. I didn't even bother with a picture. On the face of it, it almost looks like it'd be cool with longer, thicker barrels, but depending on the angle you're viewing it from there are a ton of hollow spots on the barrel. Plus, the peg are meant for Cyclonus' hands, and the peg holes on Bruticus' back are shallower. That pushes them out to the side, so they're in the way even if you put Onslaught's arms in the official position. You've got me thinking that 3P replacement barrels would be a great add-on, though. Maybe Perfect Effect will get on that.
  23. mikeszekely
    It'd be awesome if they did that, as long as they decide to do it before I put money down on Unite Warriors Bruticus. Like I said, I don't need a Deluxe Groove enough to drop $160 on him, but I will for a shuttle Blast Off. EDIT: The Combiner Wars Onslaught I overpaid for arrived today. I think he might be the best all-around of the Voyagers. His knees lock together better than Hot Spot's, so I'm mostly able to get better poses out of him than Hot Spot. He doesn't have the ladder, which means he can't cheat by leaning on it, but he's got less junk back there and he's got fold out heels to help him. All around, his bot mode is very spot on. His alt-mode is a little weaker. He's got gaps... I think Hot Spot had them too, but Hot Spot seemed to have more junk on him to hide it. I have to give him credit, though... by changing his feet they ditch the fire engine front-end, and by adding bits to his shoulders they create a sort of cab at the other end, giving Onslaught a look that is mostly evocative of his G1 alt-mode and visually different than Hot Spot's. Finally, like Hot Spot he makes a great torso. He doesn't have the wrap-around ladder gimmick, but Onslaught's backpack unfurls nicely into Bruticus's chest and pelvis plate, which helps sell the image. My complaints are fairly small. It's a bit of a bummer than Onslaught/Bruticus' only weapon are the back cannons. In my mind, they're attached to Onslaught/Bruticus' back and necessary to complete the look. Well, this is technically a complaint I have with Brawl, too, and one I easily rectified by deciding that my Leader-class Megatron doesn't need guns besides his fusion cannon. So I swiped his rifle. Separately, Onslaught wields the larger part of the gun and Brawl get the smaller part, and the combined guns become Bruticus' weapon. Easy enough. And of course, there's also Legends Shockwave. Another complaint, easily fixed, is his transformation. Officially, the instructions have you fold Onslaught's feet up, as in alt mode, and extend his arms so that when he bends his elbows his forearms sit on top of Bruticus and the combiner ports are behind his chest. For the feet, I like to leave them down. A smaller bulge at the knee bothers me less than a smaller random bump mid-thigh. As for the arms, I feel like they draw obscure his back cannon, which I think of as part of Bruticus' signature look, and make attaching combiner limbs slightly more of a pain. If you switch the gun barrels around, so the hand pegs are pointing in toward's Bruticus' back, though, you'll have enough room to position Onslaught's arms the same way you do Hot Spot's, keeping Onslaught's forearms out of sight on Bruticus' back and conveniently putting the combiner ports back on top. My last complaint is less easily fixed, but still pretty minor, and that's Bruticus' head. It's the wrong color! It's colored more like the G2 version, with a silver mouth plate and more of a gunmetal color for the "helmet." It seems sort of an odd choice, since in both the animation and the G1 toy the "helmet" is the same color as the mouth plate, and on the toy it's the same color as his chest plate. I'd definitely prefer if CW Bruticus' head were a lighter gray here. Minor complaints aside, Onslaught's a pretty good toy all-around and helps propel CW Bruticus to the best of combiners in the Combiner Wars line (not counting Devastator). Take my pleasure with Bruticus, change some paint apps (gray head on Bruticus, lighter gray on Vortex, a more green/less olive Brawl, replace Blast-Off with an actual shuttle, and slightly remold Vortex so that he has 4 rotor blades, and I'll have no qualms about double-dipping on the Unite Warriors version. Heck, he's awesome enough that I'm even thinking about getting the G2 gift set...
  24. mikeszekely
    Guys, I think I fixed my biggest gripe with Combiner Wars Blast Off. I found another Combiner Wars Vortex at Walmart, so I popped the head off and repainted it myself. I'm waiting for it to dry so I can touch it up. I'll slap some paint on Vortex's body, pop the old Blast Off head on him, call him Blackout, and voila, Galvatronus has another limb to go with Offroad. Speaking of Combiner Wars, on Hasbro's official site if you click on Defensor it lists Blades, First Aid, Streetwise, Hot Spot, and Groove, with no mention of Rook. When you click on Groove, it shows some new artwork of him looking more G1 than the Legends-class in the same sort of style as that Transformers Legends mobile card game, but on the left it says "Groove (Deluxe) combines to form the left arm of Defensor." Now, the image of the combined Defensor has Rook as the left arm and Legends Groove on the chest, but this is still sparking all sorts of rumors of an impending Hasbro release of Deluxe Groove.
  25. mikeszekely
    Oh, I agree that Soundwave just looks off... I think it's because a different head and blue paint on Blaster doesn't make Soundwave. I think the head is pretty spot on, though. But like I said, I doubt he'll be much shorter than MP Soundwave, so if I could stand a CHUG Soundwave that big, I might as well just use the MP one. Likewise, I don't know that I'll even get Blaster. He looks great, but he's just too big. There's a reason why UM and Megatron are the only CHUG Leaders I own. I dig PM Prime. I wish he could make the regular robot and not just the super robot, even more so than Ultra Magnus, but I think Hasbro did a pretty good job of translating that UM mold into PM Prime. I'll probably grab one. I agree that Galvatron is looking pretty awesome. Waaaay better than the old Deluxe-class. I think he's definitely worth buying, and I might. But, awhile back I bought Mania King to replace my Deluxe Galvatron, and I still prefer him to the new one. Sentinel Prime just sucks. I can't think of any reason I'd even want one. Aside from looking crappy in all three modes, Sentinel Prime is dead in most TF fiction. I'm content to leave him dead. I'd rather Hasbro gave us a good Nova Prime. He'd need to be pretty extensively remolded for me to consider getting Astrotrain, too. Even though the classics Astrotrain is pretty ancient by now, it still looks better. As far as the known Deluxes go, Skullcruncher and Hardhead look pretty good. I'm passing on Blurr, though, if the leaked images are the final colors. I'll probably up for Fortress Maximus. I missed out on Metroplex, so I don't even mind too much if he's a remold, as long as he's got the double Headmaster thing going on.
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