The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[Dangard Ace]

The DNA upgrade kit for TFxGodzilla is peak.  This is what Takara Tony should've release.  

 

[mikeszekely]

46 minutes ago, Dangard Ace said:

The DNA upgrade kit for TFxGodzilla is peak.  This is what Takara Tony should've release.

I've been really looking forward to this kit.  I'll review it proper when I get mine, but painting Grimlock gray and calling it a day was a huge letdown.  This kit really looks to take the figure from dud to stud.

I like supporting domestic small businesses when there isn't a huge price difference, and with DNA it was often even cheaper to buy from TCP than ShowZ in the pre-tariff days.  But TCP has gotten to be BBTS slow lately.  If it weren't for the fact that it's CNY and nobody's shipping anything for the next week anyway I'd cancel my preorder and just buy from ShowZ.

[M'Kyuun]

6 hours ago, Dangard Ace said:

The DNA upgrade kit for TFxGodzilla is peak.  This is what Takara Tony should've release.  

 

I didn't go in for this variation, but I'll add my two cents and compliment the good changes that the DNA kit make towards making him more Godzilla-y. As you said, TT should have released it like this themselves, especially with Gojira being a Japanese icon.

[Dangard Ace]

7 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I didn't go in for this variation, but I'll add my two cents and compliment the good changes that the DNA kit make towards making him more Godzilla-y. As you said, TT should have released it like this themselves, especially with Gojira being a Japanese icon.

13 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I've been really looking forward to this kit.  I'll review it proper when I get mine, but painting Grimlock gray and calling it a day was a huge letdown.  This kit really looks to take the figure from dud to stud.

I like supporting domestic small businesses when there isn't a huge price difference, and with DNA it was often even cheaper to buy from TCP than ShowZ in the pre-tariff days.  But TCP has gotten to be BBTS slow lately.  If it weren't for the fact that it's CNY and nobody's shipping anything for the next week anyway I'd cancel my preorder and just buy from ShowZ.

I didn’t buy this variation until I saw the DNA kit.   IMO TT half assed it and wasn’t worth my money.  
 

Too bad DNA couldn’t save Kiryu Prime.  Wasn’t feeling that one at all even with DNAs kit.  

[m0n5t3r]

On 9/24/2025 at 4:11 AM, mikeszekely said:

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. 

Sorry for resurrecting an old post. Wasn't sure where this goes... thanks for this and other YT reviews, I finally received my regular MD005 OP copy. Although I had to wait almost 3 months for this 4th batch to become available... good thing though, cuz I got in before the price increase. 

Amazing. All this for only $35. And the subtle aesthetic improvements make a world of difference... better colors (imo), no visible screws and seams, windshield options with no holes, head options, chrome wheels and rubber tires. Plus, qc on this thing (at least my copy) is close to perfect, which, sadly, I can't say for 1 out of every 2 or 3 Hasbro TFs I get, especially when they started with those open window packaging (paint touchups, joint tightening etc.)

Wishful thinking, but I wish all TF releases would be like this.

 

Edited February 21 by m0n5t3r

[mikeszekely]

1 minute ago, m0n5t3r said:

Sorry for resurrecting an old post. Wasn't sure where this goes... thanks for this and other YT reviews, I finally received my regular MD005 OP copy. Although I had to wait almost 3 months for this 4th batch to become available... good thing though, cuz I got in before the price increase. 

Amazing. All this for only $35. And the subtle aesthetic improvements make a world of difference... better colors imo, no visible screws and seams, windshield options with no holes, head options, chrome wheels and rubber tires. Plus, qc on this thing (at least my copy) is close to perfect, which, sadly, I can't say for 1 out of every 2 or 3 Hasbro TFs I get, especially when they started with those open window packaging.

Wishful thinking, but I wish all TF releases would be like this.

 

My original thinking was that I'd be fine with SS86 Optimus for regular colors, and that I'd just get the Magnus and Nemesis versions of MD005... but then I went and preordered the Optimus colors.  My just arrived this week, and I showed it to my wife alongside SS86.  I asked her to guess which one was the KO, and she picked the official.

One of the smokestacks on my copy was a little loose, but that wasn't a big deal since I'd bought some aftermarket stacks for the official.  Once I swapped them onto MD005 the figure is darn near perfect.  My only serious complaint with the mold is that the fillers they added to the parts of Prime's legs that fold up from his calves do too good of a job; one of those cutouts on the official figure is the right shape to plug in the magazine of Prime's rifle, allowing you to store it without putting it in the trailer.

Speaking of trailers... I prefer the blue stripes of the G1 toy (among other toys).  I ordered the Toyhax trailer labels.  I'll put them on the MD005 trailer and get the look I want while allowing the official trailer to remain pristine.

[m0n5t3r]

My thinking now, of course, is I saved some money . I canceled my preorder for the SS86 when I heard about the heel issue and I never got around to getting one whether online or when I saw it in a couple of stores in HK (Takara ver.). Didn't think it was worth the price anymore and I had also just gotten DCS OP to replace the Earthrise OP I sold off... and I was content at the time. I am planning to get that Magnus version when it becomes available from my go-to seller.

Edit: I was pleasantly surprised to find that my fusion cannon already includes batteries . The one I was watching online didn't have any batteries included in his copy.

Edited February 21 by m0n5t3r

[sh9000]

GX-85 Upgrade Kit.

[mikeszekely]

Go Better's stuff has kind of gone downhill.  I try to avoid the 3D printed stuff these days, unless it adds something more substantial than gap fillers.

I just had TCP ship my stash.  It's all DNA kits.

[rsvictor1976]

I love this Godzilla Megatron upgrade.

[Dangard Ace]

Behold....Galvatron.   

 

 

[mikeszekely]

Is that the XTB one?  How are you liking it?  Both it and Sovereign 2.0 look like an improvement on Sovereign 1.0, just not enough to make me feel like buying either of them.

[Dangard Ace]

Yup it's XTB Abaddon.  I like it just fine.  Only messed with it for 30mins.  Spent more time trying to find a faction symbol I liked.   Eventually used a metallic purple waterslide applique.  It's not overly heavy like Sov 1.0 and I don't have Sov 2.0.   No wish to own Sov 2.0 either.

[mikeszekely]

Takara, left to their own devices, has done or is doing some wild stuff, like a sorta Prime that turns into the Fire Valkyrie from Macross 7, but also a (kind of) a truck.  So it was kind of disappointing that, to celebrate Godzilla's 70th birthday, Takara took Studio Series Grimlock, swapped his robot head with Sludge's, painted him black, labeled him Megatron Type Godzilla, and then called it a day.

While Takara's unwillingness to actually remold any parts made the figure difficult to recommend to any but the most hardcore Godzilla fans, it left a huge opportunity for frequent upgrade kit maker DNA to step up and "fix" the figure.  And what they ultimately delivered was DK-67 Monster King.  This kit includes a new robot head, new beast mode toes, new beast mode arms, a new beast mode head, robot feet fillers, robot forearm fillers, a beast back part, a beast tail part, a beast tail extender, and a connector part.  It should also come with a pair of screws, but mine didn't.  😒

So we'll start in beast mode.  Remove these three screws on the stock head.  It'll pull part into all these pieces... which you can put back together and toss in a bag or drawer or something.

The DNA head also needs to come apart, but there's no screws involved.  Line the cutout in the bottom of the neck with the mushroom peg, and fit the rest of the head back together.  Be careful to make sure that this post sticks into his mouth.

To swap the arms, push the stock arms back until the ball joints pop out of their sockets.  Take the new arms and just push them into the sockets.

For the new toes, remove these three screws from the inside of the beast leg.  Pull the inner half off, and you can wiggle the dino toes off the screw post.  Pop the new toes on, then replace the inside of the leg and start screwing him back together, except for the screw through the dewclaw.

If you're going to use the robot arm filler, line up the screw hole on the hinge with the screw hole on the dewclaw.  Instead of using the stock screw, use the longer screws DNA provided.  In theory, the hinge allows this part to open like a flap so you can fold the wrist out, then fold it back over to cover the gap.  In practice, it doesn't lock in place or even sit flush, and it protrudes a bit from the rest of the limb.  If you're mostly going to keep him in beast mode, where the back of his robot fist fills that gap, I think this part kind of makes it look worse.  I wouldn't bother even if I wasn't missing the screws.

Anyway, now we've just got to do the back and tail parts.  Get used to these steps, because removing and replacing them is going to become a necessary partsforming step.

For the small back part, you'll note that there are hinges between the rows of spines.  You need to fold the outer rows so that they're sticking out at about a 45 degree angle, then line the part up (so the small peg is pointing down into his tail).  Once it's lined up, straighten the spines, and tabs on the sides will kind of slide and grab into hollow spots on the hinges on his back.

Grab this little connector part, and it can store on the underside of this piece as indicated.  Then this piece will sit over the stock tail, with these hinged bits using pegs to grab into peg holes that will lock it into place.

Finally, the tail extender has a 5mm port on it.  It just plugs into the 5mm peg on the end of the part you just attached to the stock tail.

Godzilla mode complete!  And, like @Dangard Ace said, this is what Takara should have done in the first place.  Just a few remolded pieces was all it took to take Grimlock in Godzilla colors and actually make a robot that looks like Godzilla.  As a bonus, the new parts add some articulation.  The new toes aren't just hinged like the stock ones, they're on ball joints so they can swivel into faux ankle pivots.  The new arms have actual working elbows, bicep swivels, and wrist swivels.  The tail extension has a few ball joints that allow it to bend and curl.

As happy as I am with the greatly improved Godzilla mode, this is still a transformer, so lets go to bot mode.  Transformation works mostly the same, except for two things.  First, as I already mentioned, you have to remove all the new back and tail parts.  Second, rather than simply flipping the beast head back, you need to rotate it 180 degrees, then slide it back before you flip it over so that it has the room to sit on the robot's back.

The we have the robot mode parts.  Remove this screw on the back of the stock head, then gently pull it apart and pop the back off of the ball joint.  Open the DNA head the same way, push the back of the head onto the ball joint, fit the front on, and screw it together.  I'll be honest, I didn't mind the Sludge head... it actually did have a sort of IDW-ish Milne-esque Megatron look to it.  But the new head has a more traditionally G1 Megatron face, and a helmet that looks more like Godzilla opened his mouth and Megatron's face was just in there, like how Voltron's face pops out of the Black Lion.

The feet fillers are pretty self explanatory.  Line them up with the cutouts for the hinges and the 5mm ports, then just push them in.

The question now is what to do with all the leftover back bits.  One of the simplest things you can do is take the part where we stashed the little connector part and to move it into the 5mm port, so that a 5mm peg is kind of sticking out.  Then you can take the entire tail and plug it onto an arm, fusion cannon style.  This is Megatron, after all.

Doing that doesn't really leave any place for the smaller back part, though.  So, take the extender off the tail.  Fold the long handle out of the back part, and again angle the outer spines out at about 45 degrees.  The tail can then plug onto the back part to create a handheld weapon.  And, again, we fold the clips under the other tail part and arrange the connector part into the 5mm port with a 5mm peg sticking out.

I'm not sure what you'd call the weapon... a sword?  A lance?  Regardless, he can hold it in one hand, while the rest of the tail can use the connector to plug into a forearm and become a shield.  This is my preferred robot configuration.

But you still have options.  Arrange the connector so that it sticks out a bit further, with the 5mm peg pointing down instead out straight back, and you've got a handle on the shield that he can hold in his free hand.  Or, turn the connector upside down and you'll have enough clearance to plug it into the 5mm port on his back, on the beast mode neck.

DNA can be a very hit-or-miss sort of company.  Their worst upgrade kits can fail to address issues I have with figures while introducing a host of new problems, like the ones they did for Siege Magnus and Galaxy Upgrade Optimus.  Their best kits can fix the biggest complaints I have with a figure, like the simple kit they did for SS '07 Megatron that replaced the ROTF chest with one that was '07 movie accurate.  Most of their kits fall somewhere in the middle.

But this kit?  My friends, this is one of their rare kits that not only fixes my complaints with a figure, it does so in such a thorough and complete fashion that it elevates a figure I wouldn't actually recommend in the first place into a figure I'd happily recommend.  The only downside is the price.  This kit costs nearly as much as the figure, which was already a premium over the standard Leader-class price.  But if you already bought this figure, then this kit is a must-buy delivering night-and-day results.  And if you're into Godzilla and Transformers but wasn't happy with Takara's feeble stock attempt at a crossover, the upgraded results are honestly good enough to made you reconsider buying this toy.

[mikeszekely]

DNA clearly has a hit on their hands with their kit for Godzilla Megatron.  Can they keep the streak going?

The next kit we're going to look at is DK-75, their upgrade kit for Age of the Primes Prima.  This kit comes with a new head, a cape, a shield, a sword, and some bits that plug onto the shield.

Full disclosure, the new head is what sold me on the kit.  It always struck me as a bit incongruent that, from the neck down, Prima seemed to be a G1-ified take on the Covenant of Primus' knight-like design, but they gave him a head with goofy ears based on the gladiator robot from "The Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4" that was retroactively determined to be Prima.  Just my personal option, but I find this decision to be extra unfortunate, as that's the episode that establishes the Quintesson origin for the Transformers, an origin that's been largely rejected in favor of Marvel's Primus origin. 

This new DNA head has wings instead of ears and a face/helmet that's a little bit Covenant, but also a little bit Optimus.  I rather like how it looks.  To swap the heads, you have to pop the stock head off the ball joint, and then just pop the new one on.

As for the cape, lift the top of Prima's backpack (the alt mode bumper) and you'll see a hole between the two blue orbs.  On the plastic parts at the top of the cape you'll find a cutout with a tab that's rounded at one end.  This tab, in theory, goes into the hole on the backpack, with the sides of the part kind of clip around the sides of the bumper.  In practice, the tab doesn't really do much of anything, and it's the friction from the sides clipping on that holds the cape on.  The cape itself is made of cloth, with a wire sewn into the edges so you can pose it.

On the back of the shield you'll find a pair of H-shaped sockets.  All those little bits have S-shaped tabs on them.  For the most part, you'll want to take the bit with the handle on it and plug it into the socket near the top of the shield, and the bit that's smooth on the other sides and plug it into the bottom of the shield.

The sword, which is bigger and has a Matrix designed sculpted into it rather than being compatible with Prima's Matrix, still has a 5mm handle and he can hold it just fine.  The handled bit we put on the shield allows him to hold it in his other hand.

If you prefer, though, the handle is hinged and can fold over.  Folding the handle in causes a 5mm peg to fold out, and that peg allows the shield to be plugged into the 5mm ports on Prima's forearms.

As an added gimmick, you can slide the sword point-first through the smooth connector on the bottom of the shield up through the handled connector at the top.  the translucent blue edges of the shield have hinges and can extend outward a bit.  By holding the sword's handle, the combined sword/shield becomes a battle axe.

Up to this point the kit seems pretty good, right?  Bigger sword, cool shield, nice cape, and (IMHO) a better head sculpt.  Unfortunately, the rest of this review is going to be how things start falling apart.

Prima's stock sword had a peg on it that allowed it to plug into 5mm ports on the sides of the bumper on top of his backpack.  But, the cape is covering those ports, and the new sword doesn't have any peg on it anyway.  So how's Prima supposed to store his gear when he's not using it?  Well, for starters, you have to take the shield bit with the handle off, then replace it with either of the other two bits (they're identical) that has the H-shaped tab on both sides.  That'll allow you to plug it into the H-shaped socket on the back of the cap part.  Which... OK, I'm cool with storing the shield on his back, but why didn't DNA simply use a 5mm port on the cape part instead of the H-shaped socket?  Then you could have stored the shield with the same 5mm peg that mounts the shield to his arm, and no extra partsforming step to swap the connectors would have been neccessary.

But then there's the matter of storing the sword itself.  On paper, it seems like you'd want to just slide the sword through the bits on the back of the shield, just like you did for axe mode, except reversed so that the point of the blade goes down through the top first.  But again we've got a little problem.  The blade flares out where those silver edges are on the sides.  This prevents the blade from sliding all the way into the connectors, leaving it sticking way too high on his back.

OK, but a lot of Transformers toys don't bother with bot-mode accessory storage anyway.  So maybe we just make Prima hold his gear.  But a Transformer still needs to transform, right?  Well, for the most part, you transform Prima exactly the same way.  But once you set him down, you run into your next issue... ground clearance.  As you can see, Prima's new face is touching the ground, but his front wheels are not.  Seems DNA made a cool new head that should have been a bit flatter.

Robot mode accessory storage isn't always a thing, but I feel like we've gotten to a point where alt mode storage definitely is.  So how do we store his new accessories?  Well, the plastic part of the cape splits into two pieces.  This allows you to remove the cloth cape.

Now, move the shoulders out of the way a bit, and plug the big tab into hole on the front of Prima's bumper.  Just like in bot mode, the sides kind clip over the the edges of the bumper, and that's what really holds it in place.  But that means that the shoulders do NOT tuck all the way back in.  As for the other plastic part, it plugs onto the two little pegs to form sort of a new grill and bumper, which looks ok, I suppose.

Meanwhile, the sword slides into the shield like you do when you store the whole thing on Prima's back... except we're back to using the handled connector.  Because the 5mm peg on that connector plugs into the 5mm port on the side of the vehicle that's made from Prima's forearm.

And that's it!  There's nowhere to store the extra shield connector, and there's nowhere to store the actual cape.

On 2/27/2026 at 10:40 PM, mikeszekely said:

DNA can be a very hit-or-miss sort of company.  Their worst upgrade kits can fail to address issues I have with figures while introducing a host of new problems, like the ones they did for Siege Magnus and Galaxy Upgrade Optimus.  Their best kits can fix the biggest complaints I have with a figure, like the simple kit they did for SS '07 Megatron that replaced the ROTF chest with one that was '07 movie accurate.  Most of their kits fall somewhere in the middle

This seems to be a case of solidly landing in the middle.  I think the new head and cape do very much improve the robot mode, and sword and shield aren't bad.  But robot mode storage doesn't feel like it was thought out all the way.  Accessory storage in alt mode is worse, as it leaves off the cape.  In that case, you might as well leave off the entire cape, not just the cloth part.  But you probably shouldn't use alt mode at all with this kit since the new head doesn't have enough clearance under the vehicle, anyway.  So, if you like the bot mode improvements and plan to leave Prima in a permanent bot-mode display you might find some value here.  But otherwise I can't recommend this kit.

[JB0]

I'm incredibly disappointed they didn't do anything to fill the gap in the moon buggy roof. Since you aren't gonna be storing the sword blade there with the upgrade kit, there's no purpose to it and the gap is just unsightly.

[mikeszekely]

Took a break took cover some official figures, but I still have a couple more kits to look at.  Today we'll be looking at two, but they're basically the same... DNA's DK-57M kit for Armada Megatron and Tidal Wave, and DK-57G for Armada Galvatron.

As I was saying, both kits are essentially the same thing.  You get new horns, forearm fillers, and new shoulder parts for Megatron/Galvatron.  The only real difference is that the Megatron kit also comes with a few parts for Titan-class Tidal Wave as well, so let's talk about those real quick.

The first part is this simple brick.  If you have Tidal Wave, you may notice that when you have him in his Dark Fleet mode the boat you make from his legs doesn't hold together super well, due to the fairly shallow clips.  This brick wedges into the space above the ankle joint and provides a deeper connection that helps hold the boat together better.

Of course, if you want functional ankles you'll have to remove it for robot mode.  You can store it when it's not in use by wedging it into one of his hollow heels.

My personal copy has been good, but apparently some people where having an issue with the knee ratchets on theirs.  DNA included a fix.  So, we'll need to remove these three screws, then open the shin and the side will come off.  Be mindful not to loose the little purple wheel on the back of the leg!

Remove the spring, remove the top part of the ratchet, and then remove the bottom part.  Out of the box, the bottom of the ratchet has little slots that fit onto these small tabs (circled) on the leg to hold it in place.  As you might imagine, those tabs are kind of small for such a heavy duty joint.  People were basically sheering them off, turning the knees into friction joints.  DNA included four of these bits (middle), two for each knee.  In addition to providing a more solid surface for the ratchet to sit on, they have raised bits that fit into hollows under the ratchet.  The gives the ratchet a much sturdier connection.  Once you've put the DNA parts in, reverse everything to reassemble the legs.

Lastly, Tidal Wave's back was really just an open space with a mini Tidal Wave stuffed inside.  The mini Tidal Wave filled the hollow space, but it's not the prettiest.  So, DNA built a cover that fits over the gap, whether the mini Tidal Wave is inside or not.

You might have notice the asymmetric peg holes on it.  You can remove the parts from Tidal Wave's legs that can be attached to Megatron/Galvatron.  Fold out the pegs (circled), attach them together, and you can give Tidal Wave a winged backpack.  It's not something I'm personally interested in, but it's an option.

For the rest of this review, I'll be installing the kit on Megatron, but unless I say differently this applies to Galvatron, too.  And I like to start with the easy stuff, so we'll start with the horns.  DNA's are slightly taller and a bit more angular.  I thought the stock ones looked fine, but the rubbery material often left them a bit bent.  DNA's are a a harder plastic.  To install on Megatron we simply pop the old ones out and pop the new ones in.  Galvatron is a different story, though.  Despite showing off how the horns could be removed and held as weapons when they revealed Megatron, for whatever reason Hasbro decided to glue Galvatron's horns in.  This makes it difficult if not impossible to remove them without damaging them, and if the tiny glued-in pegs broke off they'd still keep you from inserting the new ones unless you drilled them out.  Long story short, I used the DNA horns on Megatron, but I left Galvatron with his stock horns.

To install the arm fillers, remove the screw on the inside of the elbow, then pull the inner arm bit off.  Note that, like Galvatron's horns, there is a peg that's glued on, and it'll probably break off in the process.  The peg is largely unnecessary, though.  Take the new DNA part, line it up, and screw it back in place.  The screw and the shape of the arm do all the work to keep in in place.

Now for the real work- the shoulders.   Begin by opening the chest flap and removing these two screws.

Turn him over, and remove the two screws from his back, then pull the back cover off.  Behind it you'll find two more screws near the top of his back you'll have to remove.  Then you'll remove a total of four screws from the back of his mid section.  It's a little tricky, trying to work around the turret.

With all those screws removed, you can pull the figure apart like so.  Set aside the legs, back, back cover, waist, and turret.  We'll need those later.  Focus on the upper body.

Remove this screw from the stock shoulder joint.  This will allow you to pull the back off the joint, pull the black transforming bit off, pull the arm off, then remove the front of the joint.  Keep the arm, but you can ditch the stock joint and transforming bit.

Take the front half of the DNA shoulder joint and set it in place.  Slide on the new DNA transforming bit.  Sandwich the DNA arm connector's mushroom peg into it, then put the back of the joint on.

Take the arm and slide it onto the arm connector, then put the other side of the connector on and screw it into place.  Alternatively, you might find it easier to attach the arm to the arm connector, screw on the other half, then sandwich the whole thing into the joint before you put the back cover on.  Either way, once you have all the parts in place, carefully re-assemble the figure by reversing the previous steps.

So what was the point of all this?  Basically, we were replacing the stock single-piece shoulder joint with one that has a mushroom swivel.  See, one of the complaints that a lot of people had with these figures was that shoulder rotation wasn't actually rotation at all, it was a hinge connecting the forearm to the bottom of the tank treads.  You had to lift a flap, then the arm could hinge 90 degrees forward, and that was it.  The mushroom swivel allows the entire arm, including the tank treads, to swivel 360 degrees.  While we're at it, the new forearm pieces have a flap on them.  In bot mode this flap hides the hollow space in the forearm that the hands fold into.  To transform the hands, simply open the flap, fold in the hand like normal, then fold the flap closed.

I was concerned that the new shoulders might not line up right for transformation, as other 3D-printed kits that set out to do the same thing seemed to have that problem.  But, maybe because DNA also replaced those transforming blocks in the chest, I'm happy to report that there are no such issues here.  The shoulders still move up all the way (and the new horns are angled so they just fit between the treads), the blocks swivel and lock into the treads, and the legs still tab into the sides of the blocks.  

I feel like I can give these kits a recommend.  For Tidal Wave, the little brick and the back cover are more nice-to-haves than necessities, but if you're having ratchet issues those knee parts could be a lifesaver.  For Megatron/Galvatron, the horns are forearm fillers are also more nice-to-haves than necessities, but the new shoulder joints, despite the work that goes into installing them, are a major improvement.  The kind I wish someone would have done for the Legacy Laser Optimus mold.  Just as importantly (but never a guarantee with DNA), the kit doesn't introduce or cause any new problems.  There are no downsides to these kits, it's just taking a flawed shoulder design and correcting it to what it should have been in the first place. 

[mikeszekely]

Given the stronger G1 cartoon emphasis on these boards, I suspect that the last two kit reviews I did were probably viewed like, "that's neat what they did, but I didn't buy that figure in the first place."  But I feel pretty confident that a lot of you did go in on the Studio Series 86 Constructicons, yeah?  So maybe you're more interested to see what DNA cooked up for them?  So we'll go in order, starting with DK-70, their kit for Scrapper and Bonecrusher.

While this kit does contain a lot of pieces, roughly half of it is filler parts for Scrapper.  Beyond that, we have a pair of bugles, some new forearms and shoes for Bonecrusher, a new shovel joint for Bonecrusher, and a pin and pin removal tool we're going to need for that joint.

As always, I like to start with the easy stuff.  We've got filler parts that simply slot into the hollow cavity on the inside of his biceps, into his forearms near his wrists, into his calves, and under his feet.  So you can see the difference, the right side of the above image has the DNA parts, the left side does not.

These parts are purely cosmetic and no not affect Scrapper's articulation or transformation.  The only other thing we have for Scrapper is a bugle.  The one for him has a gap in the bottom that c-clips onto his fist.  DNA makes a point of showing that if you leave the fist out when you transform him he can even carry the bugle in alt mode.

For Bonecrusher, we can start by popping his forearms off of the ball joints that are his elbows.  Then, the new DNA forearm pops right back onto the ball joint.  And the most immediate difference you can see (aside from the green plastic not totally matching) is that the forearm (his right, your left) alone is as long as the entire stock forearm and hand.  This brings his new hand more in-line with his hips than his waist, which goes a long way toward correcting his awful proportions.

Another thing that alters his proportions are the shoes.  You can install them by folding his toes down and sliding them into the cutout on the top of the shoe.  The peg on the shoe will fit into the peg hole on his heels.

The last bit is the most difficult.  You need to remove this pin from the hinge that connects the shovel to Bonecrusher's body.  Personally, I had to heat the plastic up with a hair dryer, then hammer the included pin pusher to knock the pin out.  Once you've got it off, pull the smaller segment off the replacement joint.  Line it up so that the the rounded side of the hinge is facing down, and push the replacement pin through it to secure it to Bonecrusher.

Pull the shovel off of the original joint; it's just friction clipped on.  Connect it to the remaining segment of the replacement joint, then fold in the arms.  Use the tab on the joint to plug the shovel into Bonecrusher's tummy.

So what did we accomplish?  As noted, the new forearms and shoes adjusted Bonecrusher's proportions.  It's still not perfect, but he doesn't look like a short fat guy with T-Rex arms anymore.  And technically, the shoes give his feet a more cartoon-accurate shape.  As for the shovel, the separated the actual shovel from the joint on his crotch.  By not linking his crotch to his chest, we've freed up a waist swivel.  My only concern here is that the shovel is simply tabbed into the torso now.  It seems secure enough to me, but I worry that the tab could loosen over time.

As for his included bugle, just slide it through his fist.  There's a wider section that stops in the fist so the fit is secure.

Bonecrusher does have a few changes to his transformation with this kit.  First, you have to remove the shoes.  Ugh, partsforming, I know.  For the new arms, there's a flap on the forearm that opens up, and the hands tuck inside, so the arm still fits where it's supposed to.  Lastly, fold the arms on the shovel out, and swing the crotch hinge up.  Little tabs on the hinge will slide into notches on the arms, connecting the joints, so you can unplug the shovel from the torso and everything is still connected.

Before you tab his leg-treads in place, find these gaps on the inside of Bonecrusher's heels.  The shoes have pegs on the inside of their heels that are shaped like those gaps.  This allows you to plug the shoes into them, so they can chill on the back of the vehicle.

The shoe connection is a little looser than I'd like, but they honestly don't look too out-of-place on the back of the bulldozer.  And the new forearms have 5mm ports, so you can still plug his gun into the top (there doesn't appear to be any place for the bugle, though).  One downside, though, is that both arms have 5mm ports.  While that technically lets you plug in more accessories, it removes the smokestack that was on the stock arm.

Bonecrusher's new parts do not affect his combined mode at all, but his shoes don't stay with him.  Instead, you can tab the two shoes together, and notches on the bottoms will fit over tabs on Scrapper's arms (the ones that secured his forearms to his sides in alt mode).  In theory, this gives Devastator a bigger heel and potentially a bit more stability.  In practice, the fit is super loose and provide no benefit to the combined mode whatsoever, it's just a place to stash them.

Scrapper's fillers and both bugles strike me as things that are nice to have, but not exactly necessary.  They don't cause any issues, but the problems they fix are minor enough that you might not care to spend the money.

Bonecrusher's parts, on the other hand, make a big difference.  The arms and shoes go a long way toward fixing his proportions.  The new shovel joints increase his robot articulation, but be advised that the installation is a bit challenging, and you might not want to use those parts if you're not comfortable hammering out pins.  That said, I think fixing Bonecrusher's proportions with the added bonus of filling in some hollow spots on Scrapper probably justifies this kit even if you don't use the shovel hinge, so I'm going to give this kit a recommend.

[Scyla]

While I feel that the new arms for Bonecrusher are an improvement I wonder why they didn’t design whole new arms that gave the toy a more contoured arm, where the upper and lower arms are not a continuous shape. (I know I know cartoon accuracy for the win but the balljoint and entire arm look atrocious)

[David Hingtgen]

I am very toy-centric, so I am awaiting/hoping for a more toy-based recolor of the MMC/Ocular Max Devy.   My last Devastator was G2.  (yes, the actual G2).   

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

I am very toy-centric, so I am awaiting/hoping for a more toy-based recolor of the MMC/Ocular Max Devy.   My last Devastator was G2.  (yes, the actual G2).   

XTB is doing toy decos.  I already reviewed their toon Scrapper and I rather liked it.

[mikeszekely]

More Constructicons, more kits.  This one is DK-71 for Hook and Long Haul.

I lined up all the parts for a shot but forgot to actually take the picture.  Whoops.  Here's DNA's stock photo, which shows a new lower torso and hips, some leg panels, a big thing, a little thing, and two more bugles.  There's also going to be another pin and another pin pusher.

Starting with the easy stuff, Hook gets a bugle... and that's it!  It works like Scrappers; there's a gap in it that c-clips onto Hook's fist.  On to Long Haul...

There isn't much easy for him.  So we'll start by sliding his legs off of their mushroom pegs.  It's not necessary for the next step, but it will be before we're done and it just makes it easier to do it now.

Find and remove these two screws from the inside of Long Haul's legs.  That will allow you to slide the panel with the rear tires off of the outside of the leg.  Replace that panel with the corresponding DNA parts and screw them back in.

The idea here is that the wheels are on tabbed hinges.  You can untab them from their normal position (which we'll still use in alt mode), and then swing them down to tuck in closer near his ankle.  Not necessary, I guess, but it kind of cleans him up a little.

Before we put his legs back on, lift up his chest and remove these four screws.  That will allow you to remove his chest, arms, and backpack from his head and lower torso.

Now we need to knock out this pin.  I did it by lining up the pin pusher DNA included and whacking it with a hammer.  It can be a little daunting if you're not used to removing pins, but honestly it was easier than the one we had to remove for Bonecrusher.  Anyway, keep the top part with his head, and ditch the lower part.

Slide the DNA torso bit in, and used the included pin to connect it to the part with the the head.  Then reattach his chest/arms/backpack and his legs.

The most immediate benefit we're going to see in robot mode is that the DNA parts have a waist swivel that the stock parts did not.  I also like that they don't have any of the stock purple parts.  More cartoon-accurate, I think, but YMMV.

Long Haul's bugle works like Bonecrusher's.  Slide it through his hand, and a thicker part will provide the friction needed to keep it in his fist.

Long Haul's new parts don't affect his transformation, but you probably noticed with have two things leftover.  A big thing, and a little thing.  These parts have nothing to do with either bot in their robot modes, and only relate to Long Haul tangentially in alt mode.

What we're actually going to do is is get the trailer made from the extra Devastator parts.  Take the little thing and it'll latch onto some gaps on the front of the trailer.  Then the big thing uses a tab to plug into the little thing, allowing it to sit on top of the trailer.  To me, the best part about these things is that they add more ports to the trailer.  It never bothered me to have the Constructicons carry their own guns in alt mode, but I never liked that Hasbro was like, "well, Scrapper comes with Devastator's gun, so it's his problem."  So, yeah, the DNA parts add some 5mm ports that you can use to store Long Haul and Hook's guns on the trailer.  But what really makes me happy is that you can store Devastator's gun on the trailer, so all on Devastator's bits go on it.

To be clear, though, I don't think DNA added parts just so Devy's gun could ride on the trailer.  See, one of the complaints that some people had is that they don't like how Devastator's back looks.  I get it, the area behind Hook seems a little messy and empty, then Long Haul's legs/bed is just chilling kind of low on his back.  It doesn't really bother me, I think it's cartoon, accurate, but it definitely bothers some people.

So here's what DNA came up with.  First, clip the big thing onto the area behind Devastator's head.  Then, you can disconnect Long Haul's legs from their normal position, and bend them up higher onto Devastator's back.  The panels in Long Haul's heels that lock them in their stock place will instead clip onto the back of the big thing we stuck on Devastator's back.

We further secure his back by taking the little thing and clipping it onto his butt flap.  The smaller end will grab onto a tab on Long Haul's butt.

And, yeah.  This essentially shift's his dumper bed backpack up higher on his back.  Some people may find that look more balanced, others might not like that you can see it peaking over the top of his back from the front.  But the thing to remember here is that it's optional; even with the new waist/pelvis/hips Long Haul can do the stock transformation.

One final benefit DNA points out in their instructions is that it adds a 5mm peg beside and just behind Devastator's head.  I think the idea is that you can plug Long Haul's gun into it and it looks a bit like the green missile/gun that plugged into the side of Devastator's head on the G1 toy.

I think this kit is a bit like the previous one in that it doesn't really cause any problems and includes a lot more nice-to-haves than necessities.  The main thing here is that it cleans up Long Haul and improves his articulation a bit.  That (and the extra storage for the trailer) was enough to make me go in on the kit, but if I'm being honest I think Bonecrusher needed the help more, which in turn makes this kit feel a bit less necessary.  That said, if you're one of the people who didn't like Devastator's stock backpack, you might find that aspect of this kit is worth the price of admission.  Overall I'd give the kit a recommend, but a softer one that the previous kit.

[mikeszekely]

I got the first two DNA sets for the Studio Series Constructicons, might as well get the third.  This is DK-72, for Scavenger and Mixmaster.

This set contains four new arms, a bumper, some shoes, and (of course) the final two bugles.

Starting with Scavenger, Just pull his entire stock arms off the ball joints in his shoulders.  The new arms pop right onto the ball joint.

The new arms don't function any differently, really, than the stock arms.  The big difference is that they've got built in filler parts on the inside of the biceps and a new flap over the hand-hole.  There is one other minor difference, but we'll get to that in a bit.

The shoes are for Scavenger as well, and they work exactly like Bonecrusher's.  Fold his toes down, slide them into the gaps in the shoes, and plug the pegs on the shoes into the ports on the bottoms of his heels.

As was the case with Bonecrusher, I do appreciate that they give Scavenger more cartoon-accurate feet.  It kind of irks me that the new Studio Series Constructicons are supposed to be more '86 movie accurate, but instead of actually copying the Sunbow designs (or, in Scavenger's case, even the G1 toy) they (that is, Takara, I think) basically said, "our Generations Constructicons were pretty good, let's just do those in a different scale."  Scavenger's feet were never supposed to just be the ends of his treads.

Unfortunately, while Bonecrusher's new arms and shoes fixed his proportions, Scavenger's biggest proportional issue is his massive pelvis.  Which DNA didn't fix.

Scavenger's bugle is the sort that has a gap in the handle that c-clips around his fist.

Since Scavenger's new arms have flaps, you have to open them up, fold the fists in, and then close the flap instead if simply folding the fists in.  Transformation is otherwise the same, except you have the shoes to partsform.  The new arms, which form most of the back of the alt mode, have little tabs on them.  The tabs plug into the bottom of the shoes, so the shoes sit on the back of the excavator.  It's not particularly elegant... I think it's less-well integrated than Bonecrusher's... but it's something.  But the real rub is that they don't have anywhere else to go in combined mode, either.  Keeping them around means giving Devastator a big purple tumor on his right shoulder.

The other set of arms in this set are for Mixmaster.  You don't have to replace his entire arm.  Just slide everything from the bicep swivel down off of the mushroom peg, then slide the new arms into place.  At first glance, there isn't a ton of difference between the new arms and the stock ones, save for a little less detail on the forearm.

Next up, we have the new bumper.  Split it in half, and each half pegs int the stock bumper on the back of Mixmaster's leg.  Which... really does nothing for robot mode.

So what, then, was the point?  The new arms have two advantages, though only one makes a difference in robot mode.  His elbows are now double-jointed, increasing their range from a mere 90 degree bend to a full 180 degrees.

There's his bugle... which looks more like the fart gun from Despicable Me than a bugle.  What was DNA thinking here?  They went to all the trouble to make six unique molds for the bugles, but Scrapper's was the only cartoon-accurate one.  Why not just do Scrapper's six times?  Anyway, there's a 5mm post on the bottom of Mixmaster's bugle, so he can hold it like an actual gun, or there's a 5mm post on the rear so he can hold it more like a bugle.

As is often the case with the new DNA arms, he now possesses a flap that opens for his hand to fold in when transforming.  It doesn't do a ton for his truck mode.  In fact, leaving his fist partially out gives him a place to plug in his bugle.  Meanwhile, the new bumper looks ok.  It's a bit more "heavy duty" than the stock bumper.  But it's also not cartoon accurate, so I'm not sure what's the point here.

The best thing about this kit, specifically the new arms for Mixmaster, comes in his combined mode.  The new bumper gives Devastator a toe, which actually is something he had in the cartoon.  I almost wish DNA had leaned harder into it; instead of giving him a bigger bumper meant to stay on in all modes, they could have given a green panel that covered the entire grill with a big green toe on it, make the foot look even more like the (bad) Sunbow art.

It's the arms that really shine.  The stock arms just kind of hung off the back of Devastator's legs, with the fists showing (another unfortunately holdover from the Generations toy).  On the new arms, not only do the fists fold away, but since the new elbows are double-jointed they can curl all the way up where they actually tab in place, which cleans up the leg mode quite a bit.

When I started reviewing my latest batch of DNA kits a few weeks ago I told you that DNA can be very hit or miss.  So it was almost inevitable that after two Constructicon kits I do recommend we'd wind up with one more that I don't.  I'm just not sure there's enough value here.  Scavenger's new arms are basically the old ones with some gap fillers and tabs for the shoes, and while the shoes are more cartoon-accurate than his stock feet they make his alt mode and combined mode worse.  Meanwhile, the kit does not address Scavenger's pelvis, which was his real issue.  Mixmaster's new bumper isn't cartoon accurate in any mode, and is kind of pointless.  The only reasons to get this kit at all are to complete DNA's set of not-at-all-accurate bugles, and Mixmaster's new arms.  They actually do help clean up his leg mode in a meaningful way.  Is it meaningful enough, though, to justify the entire kit?  Although that was my main reason for buying the kit (and the fact that I needed to hit the threshold for free shipping, otherwise my shipping costs would have been nearly as much as this kit), I think the answer is probably no.

[JB0]

On 3/7/2026 at 4:58 PM, mikeszekely said:

To be clear, though, I don't think DNA added parts just so Devy's gun could ride on the trailer.  See, one of the complaints that some people had is that they don't like how Devastator's back looks.  I get it, the area behind Hook seems a little messy and empty, then Long Haul's legs/bed is just chilling kind of low on his back.  It doesn't really bother me, I think it's cartoon, accurate, but it definitely bothers some people.

 

It's definitely original toy-accurate! But I think general consensus is that the original Devastator is the worst of the combiners and kind of a mess, especially from the back.
Whether toy supremacists or toon supremacists, people seem to want a cleaned-up and idealized Devastator.

[sh9000]

DK-82.

[Axelay]

15 hours ago, JB0 said:

It's definitely original toy-accurate! But I think general consensus is that the original Devastator is the worst of the combiners and kind of a mess, especially from the back.
Whether toy supremacists or toon supremacists, people seem to want a cleaned-up and idealized Devastator.

And this is precisely why Mecha Invasion's Giant Legion is absolutely Devastator perfection for me. I didn't want something slavishly accurate to the animation or the toy - I wanted something better. And it delivers in every conceivable way. I still cannot believe that the whole thing cost me just a little over $300.

[mikeszekely]

Seems like I sure do write a lot about Constructicons.  I suppose I have no one but myself to blame.  After all, I decided that I'm the one that decided to get Mecha Invasion and DreamStar Toys because they're interesting interpretations, but MMC for my G1 Constructicons.  And then, despite deciding to go with MMC, I still have a copy of X-Transbots's Ground Bite (Scrapper).  And now here I am with X-Transbot's Gravedigger, their take on Scavenger.

Initial impression... dang, that looks good.  For better or worse, yes, XTB is chasing that same ultra-Sunbow look that seems to be the preferred style these days, so there isn't a lot of surface detail, and what details we are getting like the vents at the top of his torso and the little squares on the silver torso bit are present on the animation model.  But, especially after just playing with the Studio Series Scavenger toy, I find myself really appreciating Gravedigger's excellent proportions, the mirror finish on the silver parts and the subtle finish on the green plastic that sits somewhere between MMC's "this is obviously a plastic toy" and Fans Toys' "we covered this in metallic paint to look more premium even though the result looks more like a sports car's sheen than a construction vehicle."

Gravedigger does have a bit of a backpack, but in a way it's almost refreshing to see that he does.  The backpack, with the cab at the bottom corner and the shovel dangling down, is cartoon accurate in a way that the Studio Series toy's collapsed shovel, cab-on-shoulder, mostly backpack-less design simply isn't.  Now, I don't have any issue with cleaning up backpacks on characters that traditionally have backpacks when you're doing a more reimagined version of the character, but if cartoon accuracy is your goal then you should, in fact, be cartoon accurate.  On the other end of the spectrum, though, when a character does have a little backpack, like Optimus Prime, a lot of companies are tempted to stuff a bunch of kibble in it and exaggerate it, like MP-44.  So what I really appreciate here is not simply that Gravedigger has a cartoon-accurate backpack, the backpack is neatly done and more more or less than it needs to be.

MMC's the company doing an all-built-in Devastator, XTB's cool with partsforming.  So, in addition to a cartoon-accurate gun for Gravedigger, you get a weird chunk of green stuff that'll be necessary for arm mode, a big ol' chunk of Devastator arm, and Devastator's gun.  You also get an alternate head for Gravedigger, a replacement back of the head for Ground Bite, and the expected trumpet.  I'm not totally sure what's the thinking with the alternate Gravedigger head, as I think the stock head is a lot more cartoon accurate.  If you do want to switch them the head has a peg on it.  The stock head pops off, leaving a hole behind, that the other head can plug into.

But what's the deal with the parts for Ground Bite?  It's my understanding that, in combined mode, Ground Bite's head was prone to scratching.  So I guess that the replacement has a flap on a hinge that moves the scratch-prone area out of the line of fire.  Ground Bite's head pop's off like Gravedigger's, just that the peg is on the body and the head has the port.  Then you can use a spudger to pry the halves of his head apart and swap the stock parts for the new ones.

Moving back to Gravedigger, his articulation is quite good.  His head is on a hinged swivel that can look down a bit and up about 45 degrees.  His shoulders swivel and can move laterally slightly over 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows bend 180 degrees.  His wrists swivel, and they can fold back into a "stop!" pose.  His thumbs have a hinge that moves the thumb across the palm with two other hinges for bending the thumb's knuckle's.  His fingers have hinges at the base with one additional knuckle hinge- the index finger is separate so it can point, but the other three fingers are molded together.  His waist swivels, though at about 45 degrees his backpack will get in the way.  Fortunately he has 90 degrees of ab crunch that helps get the backpack out of the way.  His front hip skirts are hinged so his hips can ratchet 90 degrees forward, but the rear is fixed so his hips only get about 45 degrees backward.  They also fall a little shy of 90 degrees laterally, but unless you planned on posing him doing a Van Damme split I think there's enough range for most poses.  His thighs swivel, and his double-jointed knees ratchet a little short of 180 degrees.  His feet can tilt up and down, and his ankles pivot about 90 degrees.

Gravedigger's pistol has a tab on it that fits into a slot on either palm.  His trumpet, however, is only designed to fit in his right hand.  XTB's attention to detail comes through on the trumpet, though, as it's designed to sit in his palm with the fingers curled over the keys the way you'd hold a real trumpet, and not simply clutching the bottom of the loop.

Gravedigger's transformation is different than I expected, but not actual difficult when you know what you're doing.  Instead of just folding his arms up to combine with the backpack, you're expanding and spinning them around to fill in the space under his backpack.  Just be mindful of some clearances... if you find yourself trying to bend parts around other parts, there's probably way to move the waist or the backpack to give yourself more clearance.  For a good bit of the transformation you'll kind of have some stuff flopping around, but once everything is in place the result is nice and solid.

Is it cartoon accurate, though?  I think kind of, in the sense that the rear sticks out further than the treads, the cab's in the right place, he's got the two bumps that remind me of a Lego brick on the other side, and the little smokestack on the back.  That said, the animation model has the G1 toy's elbow joint sticking off the front, and Gravedigger is missing that.  Due to how he transforms, there's just a purple panel there that, admittedly, looks kind of out-of-place.  XTB also includes some diecast moving piston parts on the shovel to give it a bit more realistic detail, but I'm not mad about that.

The joints allow the shovel to curl up about yea high, or stretch out about yea far in front of him.  Sadly, due to how he transforms, Gravedigger's top does NOT rotate, so he can only dig what's in front of his treads.

He rolls, though.  The side of the cab opens, technically for transformation as I'd imagine that panel is a bit bigger than the actual door would be.  Despite that, there is a little molded seat in there.  There doesn't seem to be a way to store his gun in this mode, though, despite a good amount of space under the vehicle.  I don't think it's intentional, but you can kind of hook the shovel between the scope and the rest of the gun and hang it from the shovel.

For arm mode, we need the big green bit we haven't talked about yet.  Basically, you extend the circular joint in the middle, then it tucks into the underside, locking in place around Gravedigger's feet.  I suppose, if you don't mind the partsforming, you could leave the joint retracted and use it in vehicle mode, too; it adds the G1 joint detail I was just complaining was missing from the alt mode.  It seems that circular joint is going to be part of the shoulder joint and the connection between Gravedigger and whatever they call their Hook.  As for the rest of the arm, it plugs into the green combined part quite securely and looks to have plenty of articulation that we can discuss more if/when we get to combined mode.

But there is one more thing about the combiner arm I found interesting... the inside is hollow, because otherwise it'd be a much heavier, more expensive piece of plastic.  But XTB seems to have found some utility there, as one side is actually a hinged flap, revealing a little storage compartment inside.

Forgive me for overselling this, but Gravedigger might be the single best figure X-Transbots has ever released.  There doesn't seem to be any major QC issues, and none of the little annoyances that you sometimes run into transforming their figures.  The robot mode is honestly excellent.  This shouldn't come as a total surprise; while I liked MMC's Scrapper and though it delivers the best total package, I did still give Ground Bite an edge for robot mode alone.  Everything I liked about Ground Bite's alt mode is carried over in Gravedigger, but frankly I think Gravedigger has a better transformation and a better alt mode, even if the alt mode isn't totally accurate.  It's really hard to say which set of six combining figures you should buy based on two figures each, only one of which has been done by both companies, but I can say this much: I personally would still lean toward MMC for solid, playable figures that work in all three modes, but XTB is absolutely nailing the robot modes.  If there's something about the MMC Constructions that's just not jiving with you (I've heard complaints like not looking premium enough, robots are too big, combined mode will be too small, bot mode proportions aren't right, etc), then XTB is definitely my second choice.  These guys are good enough that I don't mind double-dipping on Devastator and buying both sets.

[JB0]

The chromed piece was a very poor choice. It makes the rest of the toy look much more unfinished than slavish toon-accuracy usually looks.

[mikeszekely]

12 hours ago, JB0 said:

The chromed piece was a very poor choice. It makes the rest of the toy look much more unfinished than slavish toon-accuracy usually looks.

Agree to disagree.  To be fair, though, I'm not sure how well the finish on the green and purple parts is coming through on my photos.  As I said in my review, it's not the plain, flat green plastic that MMC used for their Constructicons, but it's not the in-your-face polished metallic that Fans Toys uses either.  It's just suggestive enough of metal to make it look like it could be a green construction turned into a robot, and not a plastic toy of a construction vehicle that turns into a robot.

Speaking of plastic toys of construction vehicles that turn into robots, when I picked up Gravedigger as part of a trade deal I also got X-Transbots' Razor, their version of Bonecrusher, too.

For a lot of people Bonecrusher is probably their choice for the least visually interesting Constructicon, because cartoon accuracy demands an almost entirely green dude, save for the head, hands, and some minor details on his chest.  And, for better or worse, that's what XTB delivered.  Minus a point on cartoon accuracy, though, for using silver of the rectangles between the red details on his chest instead of purple.

XTB also opted for a whitish paint on the round details on the sides of the legs.  Why?  In the cartoon they're green.

So I guess XTB decided to copy the most boring aspects of Bonecrusher's extremely boring cartoon design, but they didn't get it totally right?  To be clear, I find it odd, but I actually like Razor overall.  It's very minor deviations we're talking about on a robot that honestly does a pretty good job overall of capturing the cartoon look.  What's more, like Ground Bite and Gravedigger I think XTB really nailed the proportions.  This isn't always easy; we've seen a ton of 3P's skip actually putting the shovel on their Bonecrusher's chest, and when companies have go for a more traditional G1 design we've ended up with some really wonky proportions, like ToyWorld's version here or the official Studio Series toy.  What's more, not only did XTB do a pretty good job of doing a cartoon-accurate Bonecrusher with good proportions, they did it with one of the smallest backpacks I've seen on the character.

Razor comes with a couple of accessories.  As Devastator's other arm, he's got a chunk of that arm and a green connector part, just like Gravedigger.  He's got his expected gun and trumpet.  But he also comes with an extra head and some extra faces.  There's a cartoon yelling face, and a cartoon blowing face that go on his stock head, replacing his neutral expression.  Then there's a neutral face on a green head, and a replacement smiling face for the green head.  If I'm not mistaken, the blue faces with the yellow eyes are a Marvel somics thing.  I guess it's cool that they included the Marvel head, but in the Marvel comics Bonecrusher also had blue and white arms, blue hands and a blue pelvis, so you're not going to get a totally Marvel-accurate look (though, ironically, the silver rectangles on his chest is closer to Marvel-accurate than cartoon-accurate).

Once again, XTB is delivering on the articulation.  Razor's head is on a hinged swivel that doesn't have a ton of upward range, but his more downward range than Gravedigger.  His shoulders swivel and move a bit over 90 degrees laterally.  His shoulders also have a joint for transformation that, if you untab the shoulder from the body, you can use as a butterfly joint.  His biceps swivel, his double-jointed elbows bend 180 degrees, and his hands are identical to Gravedigger's (his wrists swivel, and they can fold back into a "stop!" pose, his thumbs have a hinge that moves the thumb across the palm with two other hinges for bending the thumb's knuckle's, and his fingers have hinges at the base with one additional knuckle hinge- the index finger is separate so it can point, but the other three fingers are molded together).  His waist swivels, and he's got an ab crunch that's just short of 90 degrees.  From the waist down he's basically the same as Gravedigger... his front hip skirts are hinged so his hips can ratchet 90 degrees forward, but the rear is fixed so his hips only get about 45 degrees backward.  They also fall a little shy of 90 degrees laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his double-jointed knees ratchet a little short of 180 degrees.  His feet can tilt up and down, and his ankles pivot about 90 degrees.

Also like Gravdigger, his pistol has a tab on either side of the handle that lets you plug it into either hand, but the trumpet on has a tab on one side and must be held in his right hand.

In broad strokes, Razor transforms like a lot of Bonecrusher toys.  The pelvis has to split and spread so the legs can become the treads.  The shovel has to get out in front, his head has to tuck in, and his backpack forms the roof of the cab.  And his arms have to shift into the space between his torso and shovel to form the bulk of the vehicle.  Where things get a big different is in just how much of his torso shifts outward with the shovel, so his arms are more like the top of most of the vehicle plus the grill.  I like how the shovel also expands, allowing for the more humanoid Sunbow proportions in robot mode but with an appropriately wide shovel for alt mode.

The end result is not quite as effective as Gravedigger, though.  The treads, shovel, and the top of the vehicle are mostly fine, but the bottom leaves us with visible gaps, leftover shoulder hinges, and the faux shovel hinges from the torso.  Plus, unless I'm doing something wrong, the torso bits don't seem to want to stay tabbed in, causing the back of the vehicle to pop loose.  Dark gray spot where the head was on the G1 toy is a nice touch, though.

Razor rolls, and the shovel has a little bit of articulation.  There's no steering column or controls, but there is a seat under the roof.  As with Gravedigger, there doesn't seem to be any way to store Razor's pistol in his alt mode.

In theory, the transformation to arm mode is a lot like Gravedigger's.  You have to open up the legs a little to work the partsforming shoulder joint between Razor's legs and around his feet.  Then, you take the other partsforming part part and slide it into the gap you made in Razor's pelvis when you spread it out for alt mode.  In practice, I have some concerns here.  On Gravedigger, the partsforming green joint and the rest of the arm actually connect together, and both are connected to Gravedigger, so the combined arm mode feels nice and solid.  Here, the partsforming green joint and the rest of the arm do not touch.  The result is that, while the green part seems very secure and I'm not worried about Razor falling off of the combined mode robot, the rest of the arm doesn't feel as solid.  I'd be worried that if you have this arm holding anything that the weight could cause the arm to slide out of Razor's pelvis, but I suppose time will tell on that.

Oh, and once again the arm part has the little storage cubby.  Interestingly, there's a small rectangular port on the inside of the flap that I don't recall on the arm that comes with Gravedigger (I suppose I'll have to double check that).  Turns out that the port is exactly the side of the bottom of the handle on Razor's pistol.  And note how it's kind of angled?  It seems deliberately designed so that you can plug the pistol in and have the right clearances to close the flap, locking the pistol inside.

Of the three XTB Constructicons I now own, Razor is my least-favorite.  Which, I supposed, kind of works since Bonecrusher is generally my least-favorite Constructicon.  His alt mode feels a little less polished and doesn't hold together as well, and since his combined mode basically is his alt mode all that carries over with the added worry that the forearm connection isn't going to be solid enough.  However, I've already indicated that I'm doing MMC for combined mode, and combined modes are always a separate review.  As standalone MP Bonecrusher, Razor's alt mode flaws are disappointing, but also completely outweighed by how good the robot mode is.  Especially when I think about how MMC is going to have to cram all the connecting joints and the entire gestalt forearm into their Bonecrusher... don't get me wrong, MMC's engineering is pretty amazing, but there have been little concessions to the all-built-in gimmick across both their Bruticus and their Defensor, so it's reasonable to assume their Devastator will have some as well.  I'm going with MMC because I'm banking on them being the best overall across all three modes, but I think there's a very good chance that Razor will wind up being the best individual Bonecrusher.  So I guess, based on my suspicion that MMC will be the best across all three modes, or even that FT will have a better Devastator mode and that's what most people will care about, you might be better off selecting a different set.  But if you're the type of collector that wants one set for combined mode and one set for the individuals, then I'd strongly urge you to consider Razor for your Bonecrusher.