The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[mikeszekely]

7 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

Is this based on any TF character? Looks awesome. I like how clean the profile in plane mode.

Not based on any TF character, but the Chengdu J-20 is a real Chinese fighter jet, and this seems to simply be a Chinese pride sort of thing.  Like the transforming Jiaolong submersible released earlier this year.

[no3Ljm]

32 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Not based on any TF character, but the Chengdu J-20 is a real Chinese fighter jet, and this seems to simply be a Chinese pride sort of thing.  Like the transforming Jiaolong submersible released earlier this year.

Thanks Mike! That is a cool transforming submarine figure as well. I wasn't even aware of that real fighter jet. Thanks for sharing this subrobo.

 

[JB0]

My Nicee finally arrived. After a shipping delay, and then what on the tracking page appeared to be my local post office receiving the package, getting drunk, holding onto it for a week without doing anything, and then sticking it on a truck back to the regional distribution center(who immediately sent it back to them, after which they promptly delivered it). I was actually worried she was mistaken for a PS5 and absconded with for a second. But she made it through eventually.

 

I have not yet had the energy to figure out how to pose her or with what accessories(the illustrated "trading card" in the box shows her parked seated on the hood of her car mode, but I only ordered one). I love the paint job, though.

[M'Kyuun]

8 hours ago, JB0 said:

My Nicee finally arrived. After a shipping delay, and then what on the tracking page appeared to be my local post office receiving the package, getting drunk, holding onto it for a week without doing anything, and then sticking it on a truck back to the regional distribution center(who immediately sent it back to them, after which they promptly delivered it). I was actually worried she was mistaken for a PS5 and absconded with for a second. But she made it through eventually.

 

I have not yet had the energy to figure out how to pose her or with what accessories(the illustrated "trading card" in the box shows her parked seated on the hood of her car mode, but I only ordered one). I love the paint job, though.

Sorry to hear about your Postal woes. I'm no stranger to them, either, but fortunately they're seldom. Anyway, I've had my Nicee for a few months, and I think you'll develop an appreciation for her once you have a chance to play around with poses and accessories. IMHO, she's well made, with both modes looking good, and a transformation that's pretty basic but gets the job done. This is how I keep her posed. She's flexible enough that I've actually got her eyeline sighted down the length of her pistol. 

Edited December 9, 2020 by M'Kyuun

[JB0]

Hot dang! Color me impressed.

[mikeszekely]

@M'Kyuun @JB0 are either of you going to get the Arcee head?

[JB0]

Nah. Face aside, I actually really like the head it came with. Back when it was expected to come with both heads in-box, I was planning to use the "wrong" head anyways.

[M'Kyuun]

Yes, most likely. $20 is a bit steep though, especially when you factor in shipping on top of that.

I figured they'd pack the head with another product, specifically their Windblade, which I'm planning on getting when and if they go forward with it. Thus far, we haven't even seen test shots, so it may or may not happen. I hope it does, as I like the aesthetic, give or take the prominent chesticles. I'd actually prefer a more understated chest, but it is what it is. If the rest of the fig looks good, and her jet mode looks good, I'm down for a copy.

[danth]

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

@M'Kyuun @JB0 are either of you going to get the Arcee head?

Speaking of third party mods.

I stumbled on to some very questionable things when doing a google image search of third party Arcees. There are some seriously wrong mod parts out there. Things I don't want associated with our hobby!

Be careful out there guys!

[tekering]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

I like the aesthetic, give or take the prominent chesticles. I'd actually prefer a more understated chest, but it is what it is.

Couldn't be as overly sexualized as the Flame Toys Furai model... 

[M'Kyuun]

Honestly, I think the Furai model is a little more understated than Nicee, who's both curvaceous and anthropomorphically voluptuous. The Furai is more along the lines of how I'd like Big Firebird to do their Windblade;  anatomically correct but without the large chest. This is nigh perfect, although on an actual transforming toy, the wings are going to have to be larger, so there will be more kibble on BFB's. The styling of the Furai is  downright beautiful; I love the suggestion of all the various bits comprising her body, and the coloration that accentuates it. It's sharp, adds an essential element of her being a mechanical entity, but with the anatomical shaping of a human woman.  It checks all the boxes for me for a well done fembot.  For my own personal tastes, I'd prefer the suggestion of breasts, much like G1 Arcee or  how Windblade is drawn in the comics rather than actual separate breasts, as, from a practical standpoint, a mechanical entity has no need of sexual reproductive organs, and the subtle suggestion of a feminine shape  is apropos.  Just my 2 cents.

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, danth said:

Speaking of third party mods.

I stumbled on to some very questionable things when doing a google image search of third party Arcees. There are some seriously wrong mod parts out there. Things I don't want associated with our hobby!

Be careful out there guys!

You're referring to a certain chest mod for Fans Toys' Arcee, aren't you?  Yeah, the Big Firebird stuff gets pretty close to the line dividing what's acceptable and what's not (to me), but if you're talking about what I think you are then yeah, that accessory drove a truck full of NOPE and crashed it way over the line.

2 hours ago, tekering said:

Couldn't be as overly sexualized as the Flame Toys Furai model... 

That Windblade really wouldn't be that bad if the red was her whole pelvis and not just her crotch and if they toned down the Nikki Minaj booty.  That said, BFB's Windblade looked fairly promising from the concept art.; I dig it more than Nicee.

[Convectuoso]

[mikeszekely]

Newage's stuff is really making me wish they'd scale up their designs and make some MPs.

[M'Kyuun]

I wish they'd scale up to deluxe and voyager scales to provide alternatives to craptastic Hasbro releases.

[mikeszekely]

2 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I wish they'd scale up to deluxe and voyager scales to provide alternatives to craptastic Hasbro releases.

That too.

[mikeszekely]

XTransbots have lost their minds. $230 for a trailer that turns into Menasor's body, and another $75 for an accessory kit with car shells to beef up the arms.

[sh9000]

https://tfsource.com/3rd-party-figures/mx-12b-gravestone-trailer-x-transbots-masterx-monolith-combiner-berserkars

[David Hingtgen]

That trailer has some pretty sad-looking wheels/suspension, considering how little they have to do besides "be there".   

[sh9000]

I went with The Chosen Prime.

[Lexomatic]

On 12/8/2020 at 4:28 PM, no3Ljm said:

I found this at ShowZStore. Is this based on any TF character? Looks awesome. I like how clean the profile in plane mode.

https://showzstore.com/tfc-toys-chengdu-j-20-black-flash_p2520.html

Splitting the wings into three splayed segments is something that was done with Thundercracker in the IDW comics for a while, during a period when the designs were tweaked to be more Bayformer-ish.

Ooh. The Chengdu J-20 "Mighty Dragon" is a sweet-looking (*) fifth-gen fighter (now that I look), and this toy has one sweet transformation -- very little jet-mode undercarriage kibble, nor robot-mode back- and leg-kibble. Nice color blocking (three shades of grey vs. -- pale blue? mauve?), and the rib-like shapes around the thorax/canopy add some angular contrast to the stealth-curves. Stealthy zig-zags that break up what would otherwise be large blank areas. Head isn't excessively blocked by the shoulder pads. Engine nozzles end up on the calves rather than the feet (personally, this always bothers me -- squashing two very different mechanisms into one spot). I don't see anything that looks like a third-of-jet-on-one-swingarm transformational technique. One of the reviewers is pleased about the die-cast fraction, and indeed it's visible in the calves and feet.

The package photos reveal that it comes with a stand for jet mode, but there's no indication how to support the robot. There's a sniper rifle-ish hand weapon, but I can't tell if it stows in the jet or display stand.

I think I see a couple of spots where a faction insignia (courtesy of Toyhax) could sensibly go in dual-mode or robot-mode-only.

(*) Not the same thing as "effective in any of its intended roles."

(Do we have a thread for transforming toys that are neither Macross, Transformer, nor unlicensed Transformer character? For example, there's the whole since-2017 "52TOYS - Beast Box" line of mostly-dinosaurs that fold into cubes.)

[JB0]

5 hours ago, Lexomatic said:

(Do we have a thread for transforming toys that are neither Macross, Transformer, nor unlicensed Transformer character? For example, there's the whole since-2017 "52TOYS - Beast Box" line of mostly-dinosaurs that fold into cubes.)

There's a generic "super robots" thread, but no generic non-super that I'm aware of.

[M'Kyuun]

I don't believe there is, either. There's a separate topic for 52Toys, which is where I've been posting since starting my collection this year. But yeah, nothing really for generic transforming toys. Then again, there aren't many transforming toys that I'm aware of outside of IPs for which we already have threads. 

[no3Ljm]

21 hours ago, Lexomatic said:

Splitting the wings into three splayed segments is something that was done with Thundercracker in the IDW comics for a while, during a period when the designs were tweaked to be more Bayformer-ish.

Ooh. The Chengdu J-20 "Mighty Dragon" is a sweet-looking (*) fifth-gen fighter (now that I look), and this toy has one sweet transformation -- very little jet-mode undercarriage kibble, nor robot-mode back- and leg-kibble. Nice color blocking (three shades of grey vs. -- pale blue? mauve?), and the rib-like shapes around the thorax/canopy add some angular contrast to the stealth-curves. Stealthy zig-zags that break up what would otherwise be large blank areas. Head isn't excessively blocked by the shoulder pads. Engine nozzles end up on the calves rather than the feet (personally, this always bothers me -- squashing two very different mechanisms into one spot). I don't see anything that looks like a third-of-jet-on-one-swingarm transformational technique. One of the reviewers is pleased about the die-cast fraction, and indeed it's visible in the calves and feet.

The package photos reveal that it comes with a stand for jet mode, but there's no indication how to support the robot. There's a sniper rifle-ish hand weapon, but I can't tell if it stows in the jet or display stand.

I think I see a couple of spots where a faction insignia (courtesy of Toyhax) could sensibly go in dual-mode or robot-mode-only.

(*) Not the same thing as "effective in any of its intended roles."

(Do we have a thread for transforming toys that are neither Macross, Transformer, nor unlicensed Transformer character? For example, there's the whole since-2017 "52TOYS - Beast Box" line of mostly-dinosaurs that fold into cubes.)

Yeah. That J-20 really looks sweet. Was hoping that it can sit besides my 1/60 scale VF-1's. However, most of the videos I've watched at YouTube really shows how small it is. There's one video that was shown beside a KitzConcept 1/72 VF-1S.

The rifle can be mounted under the jet though it's not advisable to do this when the gears are down.

It can also be mounted under the wing as shown below.

And the arm of the stand can be rotated so you can use it in robot mode.

 

No, I don't think there ever was a 'general thread' for any transforming toy. As for the 52Toys, here's the dedicated thread for it:

 

[no3Ljm]

I was watching a transformation video of FansToys Astrotrain. And it looks awesome for a triple-changer figure. Today's toy engineering really impresses me even for some third party companies who makes this. And in my head, what are the chances that some third party companies will do Sasuraiger's Batrain figure using today's engineering?

 

[Dobber]

Crap, I couldn’t resist...I just ordered the J-20 Black Flash figure.

Chris

[mikeszekely]

Heads up, fans of that J-20 figure.  TFC is apparently going to continue the line.  The next one will be based on China's Z-10 helicopter, and artwork show suggests they could be doing a Chinese Flanker after that.

Not going to guess what the silhouetted ones are, as I'm not an expert on Chinese military craft, although I'd suggest the first one that looks like an F-35 is probably the J-31, which was allegedly developed after PLA-sponsered hackers got into Lockheed and stole terrabytes worth of data on the F-35.

[Dobber]

Interesting....like the Chinese Tiger helicopter knock-off and the Flanker.

my J-20 shipped from Show-Z as well. Looking forward to getting it.

Chris

[David Hingtgen]

The "Flanker" is specifically the J-15, a real-world unlicensed KO of the Su-33.  (I even found the exact photo TFC used, they accidently(?) 'shopped out the airbrake).   

(The J-11 is license-built, so it's arguable just how much of a KO the J-15 is)   

The last silhouette is almost certainly the Y-20.   

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

I think there's a silhouette of the Blackhawk KO helicopter in there too, the Z-20.  I'm in for this line, that gunship looks cool.

[David Hingtgen]

I plan to wait for either a black J-20 (Skywarp!) or see how the Flanker turns out---I suspect that they might only do PLAAF schemes, and not any "proper" Russian Su-33 schemes.   Some Su-33's have awesome aquatic camo I'd love to have.   But I feel that might be "admitting" it's a copy, and against the super-strong "Look at what China can do, totally independently, utterly unique designs unlike anything anyone else has!" vibe they seem to be going for.       

And of course---it's wrong in so many ways, but I'd buy it in a second:

 

[Dobber]

Definitely in for the top line...assuming he remaining two look good.  The bottom 3 not interested in as of now, but if the look good I may be persuaded.

Chris

[anime52k8]

yellow 13 is the only flanker scheme that has ever mattered.

[Xigfrid]

I am trying to find it on aliexpress, and I can’t find it, even the shops that was selling it as pre-order. Anyone has a plausible explanation for this, it looks like this J-20 has been banned from aliexpress ?

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Xigfrid said:

I am trying to find it on aliexpress, and I can’t find it, even the shops that was selling it as pre-order. Anyone has a plausible explanation for this, it looks like this J-20 has been banned from aliexpress ?

No idea. But it's in stock at ShowZ Store. They're reliable; I've bought a ton from them. They ship to many countries from China.