The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[mikeszekely]

While I love Dr. Wu's Micromaster-sized Extreme Warfare line, I've been a little more lukewarm on his tapes.  His version of Squawkbox was a so-so Beastbox and kind of crappy Squawktalk that combined to make a pretty awkward robot.  His version of Slamdance fared a bit better, but between tepid reviews and the fact that the G1 toy never released in the US I opted to pass entirely on Dr. Wu's Decibel.  Perhaps they'd have quirks if they didn't have to have to worry about getting both an alt mode AND a combined mode out of a tiny rectangle?  Still, it's nice that the good Doctor is covering those late G1 cassette combiners, because who knows when Hasbro would get around to it?  It took them how long just to get a version of Buzzsaw out there, and we're just now getting Ramhorn (but only as part of a Target-exclusive package).  And speaking of tapes Hasbro's not getting around to, we're still missing two that weren't just part of the US G1 toy line, but characters that had screen time in the Sunbow cartoon.  So I'm turning to Dr. Wu once again for Brutality and Slaughter, his version of Slugfest and Overkill.

Both figures are lacking the cassette decals the G1 toys had, though there's a case to be made that it makes for more cartoon-accurate "robot" modes.  Then again, I think in the cartoon Overkill's biceps, thighs, and tail were white instead of blue, and like most Decepticons he had his eyes colored red in the cartoon, so they're still more toy-colored than anything.  Brutality is very similar to G1 Slugfest, with the most obvious difference being that his legs are more on his sides that directly under his belly.  Slaughter, meanwhile, stays mostly accurate to G1 Overkill but I feel enjoys an overall better shape and proportions than the G1 toy (ignore the fact that his tail is upside down, I fixed it later).

While the early Siege tapes ignored (or in Laserbeak's case, half-heartedly integrated) their accessories, accessories are kind of the good Doctor's specialty.  So naturally, this pack comes with all of the weapons needed for both bots.

Brutality doesn't enjoy a ton of articulation.  His head and tail can bend up, due to transformation, but it ways that break the sculpt.  His head is on a swivel, though, so he can tilt his head like he's confused.  All four of his legs are on ball joints that allow them to swivel at the hips as well as provide some lateral hip movement, but that's really it for him.  Well, it's not like the Siege tapes had the best articulation, either. 

Brutality's weapons have tabs on the sides that fit into the channels that the sliders for his dorsal plates use.

Slaughter, meanwhile, got all the fresh engineering and has much better articulation as a result.  No neck swivel, but he can look straight up and tilt his head down until his chin touches his chest.  His jaws open and close.  His shoulders are on ball joints that swivel and give him about 90 degrees of lateral movement, plus he's got hinged elbows that bend from 90 degrees the anatomically-correct way to 90 degrees the wrong way.  His hips are also ball joints for swiveling and some lateral movement, but not a ton, plus he's got a hinged knee and a hinged digitigrade joint.  And if all that wasn't enough, his tail actually has a pair of hinges as well, which don't have a ton of range but still allow you to get a little bit of side-to-side curl.

Slaughter's weapons have peg holes that plug into small pegs on his sides.

Brutality is one of the most convincing tapes we've seen so far, due to all of the molded details on both sides.  I think he can afford this luxury due to his pretty simple engineering; his head, tail, and dorsal plates transform exactly like the G1 toy.  Really, the only difference is that there's a flap on either side that reveals a gap.  His legs hinge into that gap and tab together before folding the flaps back down to cover them.

Slaughter is where all the engineering went.  His tail rotates 180 degrees and his head folds onto his back, then his entire body splits down the middle.  His limbs arrange themselves along the sides, with holes in his ankles pegging the legs in place using the same pegs the guns do for dino mode.  Finally, his tail splits down the middle and the halves re-fold at the edge of the "tape."  I'm using that word in quotes because he resembles a tape less than even Siege Ravage, with one side largely a white expanse of hollow gaps and the other clearly dinosaur limbs.  I'm not going to judge too hard, though, because that's been pretty par for the course not just for Wu but for Hasbro.  No one seems to care if they actually look like tapes, so long as we've got little rectangles that fit inside Soundwave and Blaster.

Wait... do they fit in Soundwave and Blaster?  For the most part, yes, though Brutality is cutting it close.  Aside from being right at the limit on height and width, he's one of the thicker boys.  I was able to work him in there, but I'd be worried about getting him stuck with the door closed.

End of the day, I think these are my favorite tapes that Dr. Wu has done, at least so far.  Uncompromised by a combining gimmick, these guys focus on being the best dinosaurs you can get out of tiny rectangles.  For Brutality that means fairly basic, very G1 engineering, but I'm not going to complain because he nails the look.  And for Slaughter we get a dinosaur mode that beats the robot/animal modes of just about anything Hasbro's done so far, and if the tape mode's a bit messy that's still par for Hasbro's course.  And at around $25 after shipping they're priced right around what Hasbro would charge for two Studio Series Core-class tapes, so what's good enough for Hasbro seems like it should be good enough here.  So yeah, if you're a fan of Soundwave and want to complete his collection of tape-bot minions, Brutality and Slaughter do a very good job filling Slugfest and Overkill-shaped holes in your collection, and I'd give them a recommend.

[M'Kyuun]

I like cassettes, so I'm a little biased, but I dig these guys. I really like the cassette bots that actually look like cassettes, a fleeting reality these days since Hasbro introduced the smaller scale, so Brutality, AKA Slugfest, hits a certain sweet spot for me. His bot mode is adorable- I particularly love the way his legs store within the tape mode. He's simple by comparison with most of Wu's previous cassettes, all of which had to do double duty as combiners, but he has his charm. Slaughter, AKA Overkill, eschews any pretense of looking like a real cassette, but as Mike mentioned, he makes up for it in spades with an impressive amount of articulation in a very small package. I wish his head was on a ball joint for more expressive poses, but as he is, he's a fun little dino-bot.

Speaking of little dino-bot cassettes, Wu's previous releases, Explosion, AKA Noizu and Supersonic, AKA Gurafi, did not make the most convincing of cassettes either, although their rectangular wafer modes aren't far off- neither have reel details which would've helped sell the notion. Where they fall apart, literally, is in their combination, which relies solely on Explosion's two hinged flaps, which do not have a much-needed "thoop" point for solidarity, closing over two small tabs on either side of Supersonic's robot torso. The connection is tenuous at best, relying on the merest friction and a prayer. It doesn't help that said un-thooped flaps host the hip/shoulder ball joints, which means you have to press in on the shoulders while manipulating the arms in combined mode (Impact Wave AKA Decibel). For something that should have been designed out of the gate to combine, of the three combining cassette teams that Wu has released, this one is the most poorly executed due to there being no other manner of solidifying the combination. It's disappointing, especially since the combined mode looks really good, has great articulation, nice paint apps, and convenient but wholly inaccurate weapon placements.  And, with the merest breeze or vibration, it falls apart into robotic bits that become two pretty decent mini dino-bots (Supersonic's wings are a bit on the thicc side, but at this scale, it's ok). Handling it while typing this, I still can't believe Wu didn't create a stronger connection, especially when the combination was the big selling point. Unfortunately, it's nicer to look at than to play with, at least in combined mode.

Edited August 9 by M'Kyuun

[sh9000]

DK-56A.

[mikeszekely]

I know the spotlight is on the XTB vs FT Devastator drama, but let's not forget that MMC is still in this fight.  And one of their reps was showing the latest prototypes...

Now, the flat green foot with the toe stub on the Mixmaster leg is cartoon accurate... but it's perhaps too accurate.  We do have confirmation that you do NOT need to transform it that way.

I did really like XTB's Scrapper (FT's wasn't bad in a vacuum, but definitely less good in my book).  But I'm thinking this is the set I'm going to go all-in on.

[tekering]

16 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm thinking this is the set I'm going to go all-in on.

Going all-in on All-Built-In is all-good in my book. 👍

MMC's Combaticons and Protectobots have served me well. ☺️

[mikeszekely]

17 hours ago, tekering said:

Going all-in on All-Built-In is all-good in my book. 👍

MMC's Combaticons and Protectobots have served me well. ☺️

You know, it's kinda weird, but I loved Bruticus, and when Streetwise, First Aid, and Groove came out I thought they were all better than even the Combaticons.  But I wasn't a fan of the fact that I had to go back and consult the instructions on Hot Spot; he just wasn't intuitive enough to go on memory alone, and Blades was kinda weak.  So by the time I was finished I was less in love and more like, "I'm glad that's done."  But Defensor's never been my favorite combiner.  I'm a lot more excited for their Devastator, which looks like it's going to have some pretty crazy articulation.

@M'Kyuunwill be glad to know they don't just have ankle pivots, looks like they've got at least 45 degrees of upward ankle tilt.  And they both have way beyond 90 degrees of knee bend; Scrapper's pulling a full 180!

Lest anyone thing I only care about the combined mode, though, here's the unpainted prototypes in bot mode.

Of course I'll want to see them painted, but Scrapper's looking at least as good as the competition to my eye.  As for alt modes...

...that also works for me.  I dare say that Scrapper's looking much better than Fans Toys, and while there's some details I like on XTB's I think I prefer MMC's.  Really looking forward to these.

Edited August 31 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

On 8/31/2025 at 2:24 PM, mikeszekely said:

You know, it's kinda weird, but I loved Bruticus, and when Streetwise, First Aid, and Groove came out I thought they were all better than even the Combaticons.  But I wasn't a fan of the fact that I had to go back and consult the instructions on Hot Spot; he just wasn't intuitive enough to go on memory alone, and Blades was kinda weak.  So by the time I was finished I was less in love and more like, "I'm glad that's done."  But Defensor's never been my favorite combiner.  I'm a lot more excited for their Devastator, which looks like it's going to have some pretty crazy articulation.

@M'Kyuunwill be glad to know they don't just have ankle pivots, looks like they've got at least 45 degrees of upward ankle tilt.  And they both have way beyond 90 degrees of knee bend; Scrapper's pulling a full 180!

Lest anyone thing I only care about the combined mode, though, here's the unpainted prototypes in bot mode.

Of course I'll want to see them painted, but Scrapper's looking at least as good as the competition to my eye.  As for alt modes...

...that also works for me.  I dare say that Scrapper's looking much better than Fans Toys, and while there's some details I like on XTB's I think I prefer MMC's.  Really looking forward to these.

You're not wrong, Mike. I've long been a fan of MMC's work, and with this being my first glimpse at their all-in-one Constructicons, my bias is rewarded. This most certainly has to be the most challenging of combiners to do as an all-in-one given the amount of partsforming required on the original set and pretty much every set thereafter regardless of scale. MMC takes on the all-in-one challenge and I applaud them for it. If I didn't have so many life expenditures, or potentially pending ones, I think I'd be inclined to go in on this set to replace my old Toy World Constructor. Right now, I'm just looking forward to completing my Hasbro Devastator and I'll likely look at add-on kits for it to make improvements, so that'll be the extent of my Devastator expenditure for the foreseeable future. I'll enjoy this set vicariously via reviews, though. Cheers to those of you who get it, as I think you'll have a banger on your hands.

[pengbuzz]

On 8/31/2025 at 5:24 PM, mikeszekely said:

You know, it's kinda weird, but I loved Bruticus, and when Streetwise, First Aid, and Groove came out I thought they were all better than even the Combaticons.  But I wasn't a fan of the fact that I had to go back and consult the instructions on Hot Spot; he just wasn't intuitive enough to go on memory alone, and Blades was kinda weak.  So by the time I was finished I was less in love and more like, "I'm glad that's done."  But Defensor's never been my favorite combiner.  I'm a lot more excited for their Devastator, which looks like it's going to have some pretty crazy articulation.

@M'Kyuunwill be glad to know they don't just have ankle pivots, looks like they've got at least 45 degrees of upward ankle tilt.  And they both have way beyond 90 degrees of knee bend; Scrapper's pulling a full 180!

Ladies and gentlemen... Psy, featuring Devastator, performing "GANGNAM STYLE"!!!  (@ 1:55):

 

Edited September 2 by pengbuzz

[mikeszekely]

We're getting close to completing two Hasbro combiners now... I'm going to check out a local Target that might have Mixmaster tomorrow morning, and Entertainment Earth is shipping Fireflight and Skydive right now (as long as you order the entire wave of Deluxes, which means also getting Venin and Micronus Prime), so with luck I'll have Devastator and Superion complete in another week or so.  That said, despite being made out of five or six guys, they don't seem all that big compared to the likes of the new Studio Series 86 Megatron or Optimus, who stand roughly waist high to them.  One solution is to buy bigger combiners, but that can be a bit pricey.  The other solution is to buy smaller versions of everyone else, something I've been doing relatively inexpensively with Dr. Wu's Extreme Warfare line.  And I'm happy to say I got the latest set in, Leap and Pulse Gun.

Leap is the inevitable remold of Dr. Wu's Bumblebee into Cliffmumper.  That means most of the parts in red plastic are new, but all the black plastic parts and the engineering are carried over from Bee.  As far as remolds go, he's alright.  I mean, the face is a little off, and quite a bit of the black parts should actually be gray for cartoon accuracy (black is fine for toy accuracy).  They went to the trouble of painting the bumper on his feet, too, though neither the toy nor the cartoon have a black bumper.  Borrowing Bee's engineering means that, like the Hasbro toy, he's missing his spoiler on his chest.

I don't want to judge Leap too harshly, though.  I mean, black on the feet (though a grill, not a bumper), a lack of spoiler on the chest, and black limbs were all errors Hasbro made on their own official Earthrise figure, a figure that came first and was only later remolded to be Bumblebee.  I feel like I can cut Leap some slack when he's like a quarter of the size.

Leap even comes with an accessory: that bazooka he used one time in the entire G1 run.

Wu figures come in pairs, and Leap's partner is Pulse Gun, aka Shockwave.  As robots go, I think Pulse Guncame out a lot better, wiht a nice lilac-and-lavendar pairing and a pretty cartoon-accurate sculpt.  He even comes with a pair of black rubber hoses.

The main point of contention here vs Sunbow will, of course, be his backpack being a lighter color due to being made from the barrel instead of the butt of his gun mode.  Again, though, this is something Hasbro/Takara has done twice themselves, with bough the Siege toy and the MP (though the MP had a more cartoon-accurate cover to put on it and use as a stand in gun mode), so it's pretty forgivable on a figure that slightly shorter than the gun-mode accessory that comes with SS86 Megatron.

Leap's articulation is the same as Bumblebee's; ball joint head that can swivel and look straight up, ball-jointed shoulders that swivel and move 90 degrees laterally, hinged elbows that bend 90 degrees, no bicep, wrist, or waist articulation, ball-jointed hips that go over 90 forward and backward and nearly 90 laterally and provide limited thigh swivels, knees that bend 90 degrees, and feet that can tilt downward but not up and no pivots.  The bazooka has tabs that kind of wrap around his forearm, with a tiny tab inside that fits into a little slot that would hold his arm in place in alt mode.

Pulse Gun's head is on a hinged ball joint with basically no sideways tilt, but he can look downward a little and straight up.  His shoulders are hinged ball joints, mostly for transformation; they swivel and move 90 degrees laterally on just the ball joint.  His elbows are ball joints that bend 90 degrees and provide his bicep swivel.  No wrist or waist articulation.  His hips can go just under 90 degrees forward and backward and 90 degrees laterally on their ball joints, and he's got dedicated thigh swivels.  His knees bend about 60 degrees, which is a little limited, but he's at least got 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

Leap transforms exactly the same as Bee, which is to say his waist swings back and his knees bend the wrong way, his elbows bend the wrong way, then all the black parts get stuffed underneath while his backpack folds over his head.  The wheels fold out of the backpack and the sides of the car fold out from his feet.

Pulse Gun uses a method similar to other modern Shockwave toys; head head folds into the chest, the arms fold up over the head, then the backpack hinges up and covers his forearms to form the barrel.  The outsides of the legs form the grip while the rest of the legs form the butt of the gun... well, mostly.  On this tiny scale, there's still a pretty big gap between the legs, and it's partially filled with a flap from his back.

Aside from, as I mentioned before, Cliffjumper never having a black bumper in either toy or cartoon, I don't have much to complain about here.  It's a tiny, mostly Sunbow-accurate car.  I say mostly because Dr. Wu went to the trouble of painting the lights, which seems nice, until you remember that not only where the lights not colored on the G1 toy/toon but that the Porsche 944 had pop-up headlights, so no silver needed on the hood (and on the bumper it should be an orange turn signal above a white marker light, btw).  I'm nitpicking, though.

My criticisms for Pulse Gun's alt mode are a bit stronger.  As I said before, the legs have large gaps between them.  This is because, rather than have the sides of the legs simply move down and forward to form the grip the legs spin 180 degrees, so the outsides of the legs have to fold down from the inside.  So a panel in his back has to fold out, and it doesn't completely fill the gap, and what it does fill isn't the right color.  It's an extra waist, because that flap could have been his scope, but instead the scope is missing.  Then there's other things, like the visible ball joints, the visible sliders on the legs, the visible feet, and the fact that the grip doesn't actually lock in place.

On the whole, Leap could be better but I feel like it's pretty easy to forgive his flaws at this scale.  Likewise, Pulse Gun's alt mode is kind of half-finished, but the robot mode is super solid and, again, pretty forgiving at this scale.  And this price!  Even now with tarrifs to contend with, this two pack costs me about the same price as a single Hasbro Deluxe.  So, once again, if you're looking for tiny Transformers for one reason or another this set's an easy recommend from me.  Just be aware, this set comes in two versions.  There's this one, with a pretty cartoon-accurate color scheme on Pulse Wave but black limbs on Leap.  There's also a version that uses a slightly brighter red plastic and swaps the black parts with gray on Leap, but uses a much darker purple for Pulse Gun.  I care more about Shockwave, hence the set I picked.  It's really a shame that Wu couldn't have put the gray-limbed Leap with the Pulse Gun I wanted as "cartoon colors" and put the darker Pulse Gun with this Leap as "toy colors", but the Doctor really wants you to buy both sets.😒 

There's also a third version that I have on the way, it uses the Galactic Man deco for Pulse Gun and swaps Leap with Wheel Hub, aka Hubcap.

[Negotiator]

Seems like everyone finally got Mixmaster.  I did have the knee mods ready to go.  here's some before and after.

these are with the new knee joints installed that now center the lower limbs.  The color shade is barely noticeable to the naked eye.

 

[mark-1s]

That looks so much better. I don’t understand why they couldn’t just do that to begin with.

[mikeszekely]

Gonna wait and see what DNA might cook up.

[JB0]

I don't undestand why Dr Wu packaged a toy-inspired Cliffjumper with an utterly hideous toon-inspired Shockwave. It is a weird choice to mix 'em like that, even ignoring my visceral hatred of Shockwave's toon colors.

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, JB0 said:

I don't undestand why Dr Wu packaged a toy-inspired Cliffjumper with an utterly hideous toon-inspired Shockwave. It is a weird choice to mix 'em like that, even ignoring my visceral hatred of Shockwave's toon colors.

So that regardless of whether you prefer to or toon colors you have to buy both sets.😒

[JB0]

On 9/14/2025 at 8:05 AM, mikeszekely said:

So that regardless of whether you prefer to or toon colors you have to buy both sets.😒

Evil! 

[mikeszekely]

33 minutes ago, JB0 said:

Evil! 

They used to be worse!  At least this way you're still getting both G1 characters, just one cartoon-optimized and one toy-optimized.  There was a period where they were packing the G1 guy you really wanted with the repaint (usually Shattered Glass) that you really didn't want.  That's how I wound up with Shattered Glass Inferno (came with G1 Wheeljack) and Slicer/SG Wheeljack (came with Bulkhead).

[sh9000]

DNA's leg parts.

[Convectuoso]

Coming from New Age

[M'Kyuun]

In case anyone else, like me, was wondering, Typho does transform into an Ankylosaur. Compared to the G1 Dinobots, his dino mode is a bit messy and lacks the refinement of the originals, but since the primary intention is for him to form the torso, right arm, and leg skeletons for NA's Dinobots to attach and form Volcanicus, the fact that he can transform at all is a bit of icing on the proverbial cake. I have NA's Dinobots, but I have no real desire to combine them. That said, it's cool that NA is providing that option for those who do. I have the toy deco versions and I wonder if they're going to make up their own toy deco version of Typho. I'd be curious to see what it looks like even if I don't plan to get it.

[mikeszekely]

Me: I love a good "white Optimus" Ultra Magnus... too bad the only one Hasbro gave us is the one that makes up the core of Earthrise Ultra Magnus.  And at least that was Earthrise... I don't think we've had a Nemesis Prime since Siege!

Hasbro: Ok... we'll repaint that toy-style Deluxe Optimus as Magnus, and we'll pack him with a Nemesis repaint of Animated Optimus.  As a Target exclusive with two other guys.

Me, looking at SS86 Optimus: "Not exactly what I had in mind..."

Some guy in China, whispering: "Oh, I got you, bro..."

I'll be honest, I have no idea who's making these.  They come in a plain brown box with "MD-005" A, B, and C written on it, with check boxes that ostensibly should indicate what variant is inside but none of which were checked on either of the copies I got.  As you can see, they're knock-offs of SS86 Optimus, but in Ultra Magnus white and Nemesis black.  Note that Shattered Glass purple also exists, as well as regular red-and-blue Optimus.  I haven't decided if I want the SG version or not, and the regular Optimus version is sold out at my usual stores.

Now, again, this is MD-005.  There's another KO going around as AS-08.  By all reports, AS-08 is an inferior KO that's uses shoddy materials.  MD-005 does seem to use a different plastic than the official figure, but it's solid and feels good in the hands.  The joints are all solid, some tighter than the official figure.  In short, MD-005 feels like a quality figure.

These two versions (and the SG version) come with the rifle, Matrix, axe, and blast effects that SS86 Optimus came with, but not the trailer, repair drone, Roller, or the other effect parts.  Instead, they come with some alternate heads, a battle damage part, and some filler for the truck mode.  Regular Optimus comes with even more stuff, which I'll bring up if I can manage to get my hands on one.

The heads are probably the most interesting bit.  A lot of people seemed to not like the original SS86 head (left), though I thought it was fine.  But here you also get a season 1 head (middle) and 86 movie head (right), plus a battle damaged version of the movie head.  Personally I kinda like the SS86 head on Magnus, but the movie head for Nemesis.  Swapping them is as simple as yanking one head off the ball joint and popping another one on.

There's a notch in the panels on the sides you have to flip up when you spin the upper body for transformation.  The battle damage part takes advantage of that by using a small tab to plug into it.  Undoubtedly this part was created for the regular version of Prime, to recreate his iconic wound from his battle with Megatron, and whoever's making these figured they already had the part might as well stuff it in with all the colors.

As a (nearly) 1:1 copy of SS86, the transformation is the same.  They did replace the plastic wheels with rubber tires, though.  I didn't test the Season 1 head, but the movie head transforms just fine.

Which brings me to that last filler piece.  It's filler for the back of the cab, designed to look like an AC unit.  One side is flat, the other sloped, so you'll know which way it fits in.  And it just wedges in place, it doesn't tab or lock in.  It's a nice idea, and I don't even mind partsforming it, but there's no place to store it on the robot mode, so I doubt I'll ever really use them.

At roughly $40, these are high-quality figures that deliver the repaints that Hasbro can't/won't.  The extra heads are an especially nice touch.  My only real complaint is that I wish they painted the tops of their crotches, the way the official figure did.  If you're a fan of Magnus, SG Optimus, or Nemesis (@Scyla) then I can comfortably recommend them.  Heck, I'd be in for Delta Magnus, Shining Magnus, or Pepsi Optimus repaints, too. 

[Scyla]

Thanks for the mention @mikeszekely, I usually don’t but KO but if Hasbro never does a Studio Series 86 repaint (the same way they never repainted the Earthrise version) I might have to look into this version.

[edit:] I wonder why they didn’t bother painting a faction symbol. They clearly knew they could get in trouble thus not marking the box with a company name. So why not go all the way and paint the faction logo. It would have been a nice touch 

Edited September 24 by Scyla

[JB0]

On 9/23/2025 at 11:52 PM, Scyla said:

I wonder why they didn’t bother painting a faction symbol. They clearly knew they could get in trouble thus not marking the box with a company name. So why not go all the way and paint the faction logo.

That becomes overt trademark infringement as opposed to the gray area of reverse-engineered molds. Hasbro doesn't own red trucks that become robots, they don't even own a specific implementation of that concept. Physical objects are not typically afforded copyright protection.

But the logos are protected by trademark and easily identified by customs as unauthorized and thus illegal uses of that trademark. If you want your toy robots to make it into the country, you won't print autobrands on them.

[mikeszekely]

With names like "Forklift Warrior," "Hook Warrior," and "Load Warrior," I thought this next guy would be something like "Bulldozer Warrior."  But maybe something was lost in translation, because Dream Star Toys' version of Bonecrusher wound up being called "Pushing Machine Warrior."

Pushing Machine Warrior is, broadly speaking, more of the same from DST.  Gorgeous metallic greens and purples, curves and facets that give the bot an almost organic shape, and minimal visual cues that really recall the G1 character.  No tread legs here... it's actually his arms that form the treads.  The almost entirely green color of the animation is broken up by purples on the chest and gray thighs.  But he's not totally unrecognizable.  The vertical green "straps" flanking the purple on his chest with the red details do a rather good job of recalling G1 Bonecrusher's shovel chest.

The shovel isn't his chest, though.  It's mostly folded into his calves.  The cab protrudes a bit, but it's far from the worse backpack we've seen on a toy.  A few flaps of tread adorn his arms, but the bulk of the mechanical bits can be passed off as shoulder pads.  All-in-all, Pushing Machine Warrior suffers from minimal kibble.

Forklift Warrior, with his sole gun, is starting to turn into something of an outlier.  Pushing Machine Warrior does have his gun, but he's also got a pair of translucent red-bladed shortswords.  Also a big honking leg for the Megatron build-a-figure (that we'll talk more about once he's complete).

Pushing Machine Warrior's head is on a ball joint with great up, down, and sideways tilt.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, but lateral movement is a ratchet in the chest, on the wrong side of the swivel (a common problem on these Warbotron offshoots, and one less easily overlooked on a more expensive "premium" figure than on the Mecha Invasion guys).  They're a bit limited to under 90 degrees, mostly due to the treads on top banging into his head.  His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows bend nearly 180 degrees.  His wrists swivel, and his fingers are individually-articulated with three pinned knucklers on his fingers, while his thumb has a ball joint at the base and two pinned knuckles.  He's got a ratcheted waist swivel with a small ab crunch.  His hips use a soft ratchet to move 90 degrees forward or backward, and a stronger ratchet for 90 degrees of lateral movement.  His thighs swivel, and though his knees are double-jointed (both using ratchets) the kibble in his calves does stop his knee bend at just over 90 degrees.  His feet can tilt up and down, and his toes have a separated up/down tilt, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees.  Aside from the shoulders, you should have no trouble getting this guy into some sweet poses.

Assuming you can get him to hold his weapons.  The thin handles on both the gun and the swords have small slots cut into them.  These slots should, in theory, fit around little tabs in his palms.  In practice he seems to hold the swords ok, but the gun just immediately comes off the tab, leaving the friction in his fingers to do all the work.

And, alas, there's no other storage for the gun in his robot mode.  The swords can go on his back, though.  There's little pegs on the hilts, and they fit into these little ports on the sides of the cab on his backpack.

Transforming this guy is, once again, not particularly hard when you know what you're doing, but made difficult the first time by confusing, unclear instructions.  There's some swiveling involved, but his arms turn entirely into the treads.  His torso opens up and his head folds into the cab, and the bulk of his upper torso.  His legs kind of explode, folding over his calves, but with a number of panels that have to be unfolded just right to make up the front end and shovel. while his feet lay over what's left of his torso to form the rear.  Then the cab kind of swings back in and plugs  on top.

From some angles I think he look like a pretty cool bulldozer, though from the rear his obvious robot toes and the ripper dangling off his robot chest are a bit obvious.  DST designed the swords to use their hilt pegs to plug in hear the front of the treads, then the handles unfold and attach to the shovel.  This would probably be a good idea, were it not for the obvious red blades, and the fact that they don't secure anywhere along said blades, making them extremely prone to simply popping off.

That said, the hinges in the sword handles do allow them to articulate with the shovel, which has a few joints and collapsing hydraulic pistons.  The treads don't work, and there's no wheels for him to roll on.

As for his gun, it folds up into a neat little package.  That package, you'll note, as some little pegs on it.  Those pegs can plug into a port on the inside/underside of his chest as part of the ripper.

The back of Megatron's leg can open up to reveal a fist inside.  Swing it out, close it back up, and fold in the heel and toe and you've got one of Devastator's forearms.  Untab the treads, rotate them, and tab them back, remove the gun and scrunch up the ripper (it doesn't actually lock into place as near as I can tell) and fold back the shovel on Pushing Machine Warrior.  You'll find a T-peg that slides into the top of the leg-turned-arm, and two clips will fold down to lock in into place.  And that's his arm mode.

I'm not sure why the DST Aerialbots never really did anything for me, but once again I'm digging the overall design and aesthetic of their Constructicons.  Pushing Machine Warrior is another win in my book, I just wish they'd work on their instructions.

Edited October 23 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

On 10/21/2025 at 2:41 PM, mikeszekely said:

With names like "Forklift Warrior," "Hook Warrior," and "Load Warrior," I thought this next guy would be something like "Bulldozer Warrior."  But maybe something was lost in translation, because Dream Star Toys' version of Bonecrusher wound up being called "Pushing Machine Warrior."

Pushing Machine Warrior is, broadly speaking, more of the same from DST.  Gorgeous metallic greens and purples, curves and facets that give the bot an almost organic shape, and minimal visual cues that really recall the G1 character.  No tread legs here... it's actually his arms that form the treads.  The almost entirely green color of the animation is broken up by purples on the chest and gray thighs.  But he's not totally unrecognizable.  The vertical green "straps" flanking the purple on his chest with the red details do a rather good job of recalling G1 Hook's shovel chest.

The shovel isn't his chest, though.  It's mostly folded into his calves.  The cab protrudes a bit, but it's far from the worse backpack we've seen on a toy.  A few flaps of tread adorn his arms, but the bulk of the mechanical bits can be passed off as shoulder pads.  All-in-all, Pushing Machine Warrior suffers from minimal kibble.

Forklift Warrior, with his sole gun, is starting to turn into something of an outlier.  Pushing Machine Warrior does have his gun, but he's also got a pair of translucent red-bladed shortswords.  Also a big honking leg for the Megatron build-a-figure (that we'll talk more about once he's complete).

Pushing Machine Warrior's head is on a ball joint with great up, down, and sideways tilt.  His shoulders rotate on ratchets, but lateral movement is a ratchet in the chest, on the wrong side of the swivel (a common problem on these Warbotron offshoots, and one less easily overlooked on a more expensive "premium" figure than on the Mecha Invasion guys).  They're a bit limited to under 90 degrees, mostly due to the treads on top banging into his head.  His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows bend nearly 180 degrees.  His wrists swivel, and his fingers are individually-articulated with three pinned knucklers on his fingers, while his thumb has a ball joint at the base and two pinned knuckles.  He's got a ratcheted waist swivel with a small ab crunch.  His hips use a soft ratchet to move 90 degrees forward or backward, and a stronger ratchet for 90 degrees of lateral movement.  His thighs swivel, and though his knees are double-jointed (both using ratchets) the kibble in his calves does stop his knee bend at just over 90 degrees.  His feet can tilt up and down, and his toes have a separated up/down tilt, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees.  Aside from the shoulders, you should have no trouble getting this guy into some sweet poses.

Assuming you can get him to hold his weapons.  The thin handles on both the gun and the swords have small slots cut into them.  These slots should, in theory, fit around little tabs in his palms.  In practice he seems to hold the swords ok, but the gun just immediately comes off the tab, leaving the friction in his fingers to do all the work.

And, alas, there's no other storage for the gun in his robot mode.  The swords can go on his back, though.  There's little pegs on the hilts, and they fit into these little ports on the sides of the cab on his backpack.

Transforming this guy is, once again, not particularly hard when you know what you're doing, but made difficult the first time by confusing, unclear instructions.  There's some swiveling involved, but his arms turn entirely into the treads.  His torso opens up and his head folds into the cab, and the bulk of his upper torso.  His legs kind of explode, folding over his calves, but with a number of panels that have to be unfolded just right to make up the front end and shovel. while his feet lay over what's left of his torso to form the rear.  Then the cab kind of swings back in and plugs  on top.

From some angles I think he look like a pretty cool bulldozer, though from the rear his obvious robot toes and the ripper dangling off his robot chest are a bit obvious.  DST designed the swords to use their hilt pegs to plug in hear the front of the treads, then the handles unfold and attach to the shovel.  This would probably be a good idea, were it not for the obvious red blades, and the fact that they don't secure anywhere along said blades, making them extremely prone to simply popping off.

That said, the hinges in the sword handles do allow them to articulate with the shovel, which has a few joints and collapsing hydraulic pistons.  The treads don't work, and there's no wheels for him to roll on.

As for his gun, it folds up into a neat little package.  That package, you'll note, as some little pegs on it.  Those pegs can plug into a port on the inside/underside of his chest as part of the ripper.

The back of Megatron's leg can open up to reveal a fist inside.  Swing it out, close it back up, and fold in the heel and toe and you've got one of Devastator's forearms.  Untab the treads, rotate them, and tab them back, remove the gun and scrunch up the ripper (it doesn't actually lock into place as near as I can tell) and fold back the shovel on Pushing Machine Warrior.  You'll find a T-peg that slides into the top of the leg-turned-arm, and two clips will fold down to lock in into place.  And that's his arm mode.

I'm not sure why the DST Aerialbots never really did anything for me, but once again I'm digging the overall design and aesthetic of their Constructicons.  Pushing Machine Warrior is another win in my book, I just wish they'd work on their instructions.

Hey Mike, I noticed this in the last sentence of your second paragraph. I think you meant to say, " Bonecrusher's shovel chest".  "The vertical green "straps" flanking the purple on his chest with the red details do a rather good job of recalling G1 Hook's shovel chest." 

I appreciate the look at these guys, although I must confess that my interest is minimal. While I commend DST for their innovative takes, my inclination is heavily towards the G1 look. I will say, however, that objectively, I think this is a superior design over the G1 designs, as the bots tend to be cleaner, the alt modes more realistic, and I assume the full combined mode will likely be clean, highly pose able, and more visually interesting. I figure subjectivity and a heavy dose of nostalgia color my tendency towards the G1 look, but I'll give credit where it's due.

I went in on DST's takes on Slingshot and Skydive, as both had better than average Harrier and F-16 modes, an extreme rarity with Transformers figures. Granted, like their Constructicons, DST took a fair amount of liberty with the robot designs, but I like how they look. I stopped with those two, although I think DST did a good job with their takes on Air Raid and Fireflight which gave me hope for their Silverbolt. Unfortunately, the latter fared no better than the vast majority of other companies' takes on the character. To date, I think Fans Toys have made the best version and yet its Concorde mode had its share of flaws, too. However, at least it used the majority of fuselage to form the bot instead of concentrating it all into a giant cube underneath. In the end, I grew disenchanted with DST and once again abandoned any interest I may have had of owning a decent set of Aerialbots. Part of me regrets not going in on the FT Aerialbots, but with lack of space becoming my greatest hurdle in collecting, I'm hoping that either Magic Square or New Age will rise to the challenge. Honestly, I don't have much hope that either would take a different avenue with their Aerialbot designs, but I'd very much love to be proven wrong. 

Edited October 23 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

5 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Hey Mike, I noticed this in the last sentence of your second paragraph. I think you meant to say, " Bonecrusher's shovel chest".  "The vertical green "straps" flanking the purple on his chest with the red details do a rather good job of recalling G1 Hook's shovel chest."

*hurries and fixes original post* I have no idea what you're talking about...🤫

7 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I went in on DST's takes on Slingshot and Skydive, as both had better than average Harrier and F-16 modes, an extreme rarity with Transformers figures. Granted, like their Constructicons, DST took a fair amount of liberty with the robot designs, but I like how they look. I stopped with those two, although I think DST did a good job with their takes on Air Raid and Fireflight which gave me hope for their Silverbolt. Unfortunately, the latter fared no better than the vast majority of other companies' takes on the character. To date, I think Fans Toys have made the best version and yet its Concorde mode had its share of flaws, too. However, at least it used the majority of fuselage to form the bot instead of concentrating it all into a giant cube underneath. In the end, I grew disenchanted with DST and once again abandoned any interest I may have had of owning a decent set of Aerialbots. Part of me regrets not going in on the FT Aerialbots, but with lack of space becoming my greatest hurdle in collecting, I'm hoping that either Magic Square or New Age will rise to the challenge. Honestly, I don't have much hope that either would take a different avenue with their Aerialbot designs, but I'd very much love to be proven wrong. 

I had three out of five of the FT Aerialbots and sold them.  I don't miss them.  If you like heavy blocks of robots with limited posability and unnecessarily complex engineering you might like them, but I didn't care for them, and I especially hated their Silverbolt.

As for DST's, I guess I thought about them they way you think about their Constructicons... kinda neat, but ultimately not G1 enough to hold my interest.  But I think that works out better for me, by most accounts the QC of the Aerialbots was much worse than their Constructicons.  It's funny, I actually though this set wasn't G1 enough, either, but I wanted Scrapper because he looked cool and he's my favorite Constructicon.  I liked him enough that when I saw Hook using his crane as a sickle I figured I'd try one more and liked that one enough to go in on the rest.  Long Haul was a bit of a bear, but Bonecrusher is a return to form.  Can't wait to see how Mixmaster, Scavenger, and Prowl turn out.

[M'Kyuun]

On 10/23/2025 at 12:07 PM, mikeszekely said:

*hurries and fixes original post* I have no idea what you're talking about...🤫

S'all good. 😁

On 10/23/2025 at 12:07 PM, mikeszekely said:

I had three out of five of the FT Aerialbots and sold them.  I don't miss them.  If you like heavy blocks of robots with limited posability and unnecessarily complex engineering you might like them, but I didn't care for them, and I especially hated their Silverbolt.

As for DST's, I guess I thought about them they way you think about their Constructicons... kinda neat, but ultimately not G1 enough to hold my interest.  But I think that works out better for me, by most accounts the QC of the Aerialbots was much worse than their Constructicons.  It's funny, I actually though this set wasn't G1 enough, either, but I wanted Scrapper because he looked cool and he's my favorite Constructicon.  I liked him enough that when I saw Hook using his crane as a sickle I figured I'd try one more and liked that one enough to go in on the rest.  Long Haul was a bit of a bear, but Bonecrusher is a return to form.  Can't wait to see how Mixmaster, Scavenger, and Prowl turn out.

FWIW, The FT figs, and the two Dream Star figs I own, are a bit too fiddly for my liking. I've never transformed either back to its plane mode, and while I do like how they look in their bot modes, I honestly wouldn't miss them if I sold them off. Twenty or so years ago, I championed increasingly complex transformations; however, as I get older and my threshold for patience stretches ever the more taught, there never being much to begin with, I find my enjoyment of the fiddlier transforming toys wanes. I think the CHUG+ toys strike an excellent balance for me, and while I still enjoy picking up the odd third-party fig here and there, mostly legends but sometimes MP or thereabouts, or the odd Macross fig (I've only this year begun collecting a few HMR Macross figs and I very much enjoy them), I find I grow weary at times with some of their transformations. Thus said, I can certainly empathize with your frustration with oft over-complex engineering.

As much as I really like transforming toys in general, when it comes to Transformers, perhaps the tenacious lure of nostalgia has me in its grip more so than other properties, as I'm unabashedly a G1 fan, although I don't subscribe to the plain cartoon look as so many other fans do. I do applaud the artistic license employed by any number of artists and toy makers over the decades, as they keep the franchise fresh, and lines like Beast Wars, Prime, and Animated resonate with me. However, when it comes to stuff like what Cang Toys, Dream Star Toys, or Iron Factory are doing as opposed to the more faithful G1 takes by FT, XTB, Magic Square, New Age, etc, I'm generally moved by the latter over the former, even if I can appreciate what the former are doing. But, I do own two Dream Star Aerialbots and eight IF figs, so I'm not above dipping my toes into the pool of toys with liberties taken. Sometimes variety is nice for its own sake. Anyway, I hope you derive a goodly bit of joy from your DST Constructicons, as they definitely give the old designs a proper shake-up, and while I'm not compelled to have them myself, I can certainly appreciate the direction and outcome of their creativity. As to what I'm assuming is a reference to DX9's take on a MP scaled Prowl, while I was initially interested, I'm not wholly enamored by the toon-slavish elongated shin-dows or their lack of sublime mechanical details ensconced within, one of my favorite aspects of the original Fairlady Z TF design. Too, I'm not a fan of the toonish three-toes details nor the odd oddly zig-zag rear edges of the doors which lack the subtle upsweep on the rear upper tips. The rest of the design looks OK to me otherwise, but for my taste, I'm still over the moon for MP-17 Prowl, one of my top favorite TF toys of all time. It's a dated design at this point (2013- hard to believe!), but it delivers everything I ever wanted from a Prowl figure since I picked up my G1 copy when I was thirteen or so and it continues to enthrall. However, I get that many a fan likes the extreme toon look so, for those fans wanting that in a Prowl figure, this should be the toy they've been waiting for. I hope it turns out to be an excellent figure, as the milking will be epic, and that too is good all around. If it is indeed so, I may even succumb to FOMO and get a copy in spite of myself. I do love me a good Prowl figure. Cheers!

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'm unabashedly a G1 fan

Same.

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

However, when it comes to stuff like what Cang Toys, Dream Star Toys, or Iron Factory are doing as opposed to the more faithful G1 takes by FT, XTB, Magic Square, New Age, etc, I'm generally moved by the latter over the former, even if I can appreciate what the former are doing.

Honestly, that's usually the same for me.  I've had basically no interested in anything Cang Toys has done (I like Gundam, and I like Transformers, but it doesn't mean I want my Transformers to look like Gundam🙃), no interest in TFC's Abominus, the only Iron Factory stuff I ever bought was their Bruticus, and DST's Aerialbots did nothing for me.  I dunno why, but their Constructicons grabbed me, though.

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

as I get older and my threshold for patience stretches ever the more taught, there never being much to begin with, I find my enjoyment of the fiddlier transforming toys wanes. I think the CHUG+ toys strike an excellent balance for me

Mostly same, WfC Trilogy, Legacy, SS86, and AotP are giving me a lot of what I originally wanted like 10 years ago but felt the mainline wasn't delivering at the time.  That said, I don't mind more complex stuff if it's good, interesting, or clever, like a lot of what MMC does, or some of Unique Toys' Bayverse stuff.  When I criticize FT's Aerialbots for being over-engineered, I don't simply mean they were fiddly.  I mean they took five steps to do something that could have been done in two, and they somehow nerfed a waist swivel while doing it.  You specifically mentioned how they managed to make Silverbolt less of a Concorde with a brick of robot underneath, for example, but they way I saw it, sure, that block of robot was thinner, but it was still there, despite all the extra engineering that went into smearing that robot brick out and jamming some of it into the fuselage.  Worse, it broke up the line of windows where they added humps to fit everything, so the alt mode looked worse from the top, too.

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

As to what I'm assuming is a reference to DX9's take on a MP scaled Prow

Nope, I meant DST.  He's going to be part of their Constructicon set.  You may or may not recall, when I reviewed their Hook, I showed that he had the standard upper torso mode, but also a leg mode.  In a nod to the IDW comics, you can make Hook a leg in place of Scrapper (who was killed by Spike), and Prowl can form the upper torso.  The head that came with Hook already has the crest for "Prowlestator."

[Scyla]

Yesterday was the 3rd party panel of the Chicago TFCon.

In true FansToys fashion they rained on the parade of DX9 and 01-Studio by announcing their Datsuns and Broadside:

I find it funny that their Scavenger doesn’t look like an undefined blob of a shape (other than FT Bonecrusher):

The only thing I’m going to preorder are the Datsuns. Broadside is interesting but at 700mm (28”) length much too big for me.

Other than that I am super excited for this years exclusive: Fans Hobby Euro G1 Predator Skyquake 

Edited October 26 by Scyla

[anime52k8]

that last one is beautiful.❤️

[sh9000]

Cool.

[mikeszekely]

I just don't care  for FT's entire MO anymore. Announce everything so that you don't buy the competition, only to eventually get an over-priced, overly-complicated figure that values paint and diecast over posability and playability.

Honestly, the only stuff coming out of TFCon that has my attention is MMC's stiff. Specifically their Constructicons. I looked at FT and XTB's Scrappers, but MMC'S looks to be the (G1) set for me.

[M'Kyuun]

16 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I just don't care  for FT's entire MO anymore. Announce everything so that you don't buy the competition, only to eventually get an over-priced, overly-complicated figure that values paint and diecast over posability and playability.

Honestly, the only stuff coming out of TFCon that has my attention is MMC's stiff. Specifically their Constructicons. I looked at FT and XTB's Scrappers, but MMC'S looks to be the (G1) set for me.

There certainly does seem to be an unsettling trend of one-upmanship with Fans Toys, and I'm sure they're all too aware that they have a devoted following that they're all too happy to exploit. For my part, while I own a number of their figures, I'm not a star-struck fanboy. Actually, I'm not a devotee of any particular company, as I'm picky and patient, and I tend to fence-sit waiting for the version of a figure that most appeals to me. I will say, however, that I'm happy with the FT figs I own and I don't regret buying any of them. But their practice in light of other companies' releases is shady, especially when history tells us that a promise of a new figure often takes years to fulfill.

As my collecting is tending to wane, I'm watching most of these conventions with an air of vicariousness; while some things are interesting, the increasing prices and my lack of space conspire towards cultivating an attitude of more looking, less buying, alas. I too, favor MMC for their combiners, as I'm definitely a fan of the all-in-one engineering they've come to master. I would have loved to have had their Bruticus, and I like what they're doing with their Constructicons. I think XTB are doing a great job with theirs as well. I'm especially enamored with the fact that their Long Haul's dump bed can actually dump, an unfortunate rarity. I bemoan the lack of functionality with Hasbro's latest Constructicons' alt modes although they did a good job with Devastator. I thought the Combiner Wars version was a hot mess, but this one looks appropriately G1 and, what's more, unlike its predecessor, this one is solid once combined and lends itself admirably to posing. It speaks to lessons learned, so good job, Takara.

Returning to FT in regard to the above pics, once again the promise of a new Prowl figure incites my interest; however, their too-toon leanings and tendency towards over-engineering for its own sake leaves me cold. I'll be happy when the toon-slavish trend fades and toy designs favor surface details and more of the OG toys' features over the toon's plain and simplified forms. Unfortuantely, according to Evan Brooks at the MCM London Convention this past weekend, Has/Tak are adopting the toonish aesthetic more and more going forward with SS86 which doesn't inspire me. Fortunately, I already have the vast majority of G1 characters that I want from the last few years' releases, and I'm quite satisfied with them in the event they go fully toon and lose my interest completely.

On 10/25/2025 at 11:17 PM, mikeszekely said:

Mostly same, WfC Trilogy, Legacy, SS86, and AotP are giving me a lot of what I originally wanted like 10 years ago but felt the mainline wasn't delivering at the time.  

 

Agree, except I've been wanting it since 1984! 😄 Even as a kid when Transformers were shiny and new as a Western concept, I found the toys extremely lacking for their limitations, chief among them, articulation. When Classics was coming on the scene, I hoped for more G1 designs, but nope- just G1-ish with liberties. That said, I love Classics Mirage, Bumblebee, Hound and Ravage, all designed by Alex Kubalsky. They're still some of my absolute favorite TF figures. I think that was the early allure of MP- the designs skewed towards the toon look well before the main line stuff did and it took them a long, long time to realize maybe the main line should follow suit. I'm glad they arrived at the realization, and the toys have been good to excellent for the most part, but it's lamentable that they didn't come a couple decades ago when prices were cheaper and the toys enjoyed greater parts counts at smaller scales. Imagine had they done SS86 or the current main line in 2007.

On 10/25/2025 at 11:17 PM, mikeszekely said:

Nope, I meant DST.  He's going to be part of their Constructicon set.  You may or may not recall, when I reviewed their Hook, I showed that he had the standard upper torso mode, but also a leg mode.  In a nod to the IDW comics, you can make Hook a leg in place of Scrapper (who was killed by Spike), and Prowl can form the upper torso.  The head that came with Hook already has the crest for "Prowlestator."

Somewhere in the back of my mind I'm vaguely familiar with the Prowl as a part of Devastator storyline. I haven't seen or read it myself, but over the years, I remember its being mentioned in some fashion or other, likely here on this forum, the one I frequent most. As to DST's take, oh my, the liberties! I fear it's not for me, but in the interest of completing that story in toy form, it's cool that DST has you covered, in their singular fashion, of course.

[mikeszekely]

Ever since Dr Wu released his version of Cyclonus I've wanted him to do Scourge, too, to complete the trio of new '86 Decepticons.  Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long.  This is Star Shuttle, Dr Wu's take on Scourge.

Putting Star Shuttle with Destroy Emperor (Galvatron) and Wingman (Cyclonus) really show how far the good doctor has come along since starting the Extreme Warfare line.  Destroy Emperor looks positively primitive next to his henchmen!  But I personally think that Star Shuttle is a bit more sharply sculpted than even the relatively recent Wingman.

As good as he looks from the front, as we spin him around we do see quite a bit of alt mode.  You kind of expect that in the wings, but the outsides of his legs and his backpack almost completely hide his robot form when viewed from the back.  Once again, though, I'm inclined to cut some slack to a toy that's shorter than a tube of Chapstick and costs about as much as a Deluxe despite coming packed with a second figure.

This time he even comes with a weapon!  To be totally clear, I'm not sure if every copy of Star Shuttle will come with a gun.  The impression I got was that this is a first run/preorder bonus.

Star Shuttle's got pretty good articulation for his tiny size.  His head swivels, no tilt.  His shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally 90 degrees.  His elbows are ball joints which bend 90 degrees and double as bicep swivels.  His wrists don't swivel, but his waist does.  Hips are ball joints that go 90 degrees forward and laterally, and nearly 90 degrees backward.  He has actual thigh swivels just above his knees, which are hinges that bend 90 degrees.  His toes have some up/down tilt, and his ankles can pivot 90 degrees.  His wings are attached via ball joints, so they can spread and flap for more dynamic poses.

Star Shuttle's tiny hands are too small to practically have peg holes, so instead the handle of his gun is sort of like a c-clip that clamps around his fists.

Star Shuttle's transformation borrows more from the G1 toy than the Studio Series one, with his legs turning inward and his heels folding down to make the front of the vehicle.  His backpack spins 180 and a flap folds out to fill in the gap around his thighs.  His shoulders shrug up and his forearms turn to plug into his cape, which then wraps around to tab in near his waist on the underside.  Then his head turns 180 degrees and flips up, collar and all, so his head crest plugs into the middle engine nacelle.

I think his alt mode came out pretty well, turning into a solid, swooshable little representation of the 3-engined, aerodynamic brick we all know and love (or hate, not judging).  I think the biggest knocks against it are the visible shoulders and ball sockets on the wing joints.  To a lesser extent, the hinges on the backpack flap and wings also seem relatively larger than they might on a Studio Series or Masterpiece figure, but it's the tradeoff necessary to make a figure this tiny that's also durable.

With no wheels to roll on, not alt mode weapon storage, and no moving parts the alt mode doesn't actually do much, though.  I guess it doesn't have to.

And if troop building is your thing (at this price, why not?), good news!  While the Scourge version of Star Shuttle comes packed with an entirely different fellow we'll talk about next time, you can also buy a two pack of Star Shuttle with a brighter blue plastic and a very pale blue in place of white, so Scourge can hang with his Sweeps.

And yeah, everything I keep saying in all my other Dr Wu reviews applies here.  They're not mini Masterpieces the way Newage or Magic Square make their figures.  They're relatively simple, relatively cheap Micromaster-sized figures that do a great job of making your Titans and Combiners look even bigger.  Their small size and small price also makes them easy to collect.  So once again, yes, I recommend Star Shuttle.

[Tking22]

I'm in for FT Windcharger, all I have is the X-Transbots figure, and from day one that has been a place holder, and I've had that figure going on a decade now at least. Every time I've transformed XT Windcharger it's a hassle, such an awful, clunky, piss-poor transformation, and a very meh robot mode end result. Vehicle mode is great, but that bot mode and transformation were just awful, one of the worst third party experiences I've ever had. 

[mikeszekely]

Star Shuttle comes packaged with the creatively named Red Tank, aka Warpath.

In some ways you could argue that Dr Wu did a better job than Hasbro, as he's got white on his shoulders that appears on the character model that the Kingdom toy missed, and the white in his torso leaves a bit more red on his tummy that, again, the Kingdom toy left white.  However, a complaint I'm hearing is that Red Tank took the name a bit too seriously; he's a very vibrant red, not the muted brick color that I think most of us would expect.  I can say that I definitely think they're right, he is too bright.  However, it doesn't bother me a ton, YMMV.

For such a tiny figure the paint is pretty good.  I mean, the treads are entirely red plastic, so they didn't just paint the white parts, they painted the black between the wheels.  Other than that, not a ton to note.  He cleans up about as well as any Warpath toy.

Like most of Dr Wu's little Extreme Warfare dudes, Warpath doesn't come with any accessories.  I wonder if that's why he's done so many minibots?  The G1 minibots didn't come with any guns, so maybe it feels more appropriate?  Truthfully, I know a lot of people want Dr Wu to do more guns for these guys, but at this scale I don't really care.

In any case, Red Tank's head lacks any real articulation.  I mean, you can kind of have him look down, but it's really folding his head into his chest.  Shoulders are ball joints that swivel and move laterally 90 degrees.  Elbows are ball joints that act as bicep swivels and bend 90 degrees.  No wrist or waist articulation.  His ball jointed hips can go forward, backward, or laterally 90 degrees.  The limited movement around the ball is also all the thigh swivel you get.  His knees bend 90 degrees, and he's got a tiny downward foot tilt and little under 45 degrees of ankle pivot.

Red Tank's transformation isn't super complicated.  The head folds into the turret, and armatures shift the shoulders back and down so the arms can form the back half.  The tricky bit is using the joints in the right order to line up the feet and legs, with the inside of the foot flipping out and up to fill in the gap between his legs; if you don't have the order just right or everything lined up, chances are you're going to pop a ball joint out of the socket.

Like the Kingdom toy, the flaps that fold out of the feet still leave quite a bit of a gap between the front treads.  The white/light gray plastic that leaves a white/light gray patch on the rear is more cartoon accurate, though.  Is it a perfect rendition of Warpath?  Probably not, but it's not the worst I've seen, and the tank is maybe an inch in length, so I'll cut him some slack.

There's no wheels or rolling treads or anything, but the turret does spin, and the tank's gun barrel can be angled down slightly or up to about 60 degrees.  A working turret is all you really need in a tiny tank, right?

I'll say this for Red Tank... he's not my favorite Dr Wu figure, but he's not the worst, either.  He's fine.  The fact that he's a main G1 cartoon character means you probably don't want to leave him out, and the fact that he comes with the quite good Star Shuttle means you're probably going to want the whole pack anyway.  So do it!  Do it with the knowledge that the Datsuns are coming...