The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[Dobber]

8 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

Yeh, I'm 95% in if it's from the guys who did TE01. Once I see jet mode. I think this blows the new MP away. 

Agree with you guys, but I have a sneaky suspicion that alt mode will not look too great. The legs look pretty thick from the side in bot mode which will totally screw up the lines of an F-15. Will likely still have the protruding “boobs” in fighter mode too like the Make Toys version. That was the one thing from the early MP versions that was ingenious IMO that 3P versions unfortunately disregarded.

Chris

[Ignacio Ocamica]

16 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

Yeh, I'm 95% in if it's from the guys who did TE01. Once I see jet mode. I think this blows the new MP away. 

Yes, I think so too!! I like it much more than the MP-52. Already preordered this DS-001 at ShowZ Store.

[M'Kyuun]

29 minutes ago, Dobber said:

Agree with you guys, but I have a sneaky suspicion that alt mode will not look too great. The legs look pretty thick from the side in bot mode which will totally screw up the lines of an F-15. Will likely still have the protruding “boobs” in fighter mode too like the Make Toys version. That was the one thing from the early MP versions that was ingenious IMO that 3P versions unfortunately disregarded.

Chris

QFT.  The realignment of the 'boobs' into the jet's intakes was a practical, no-brainer design decision that should have become the norm for Seekers thereafter. As for the chunky legs, by now most of these companies, including Takara, have figured out ways to use panel-fu, or otherwise collapsing structures, to change the shape of parts of one mode to fit the other in a more appealing and accurate fashion, but for whatever reason, when the alt mode is a jet, all bets are off. 

Thank you, Kawamori-san, for being the one beacon of hope in this otherwise dim and disappointing world of transforming jets.

[danth]

Will it have a blue nose cone?

[Dobber]

1 hour ago, danth said:

Will it have a blue nose cone?

Can’t tell yet.  Still no pics of fighter.

I does look like it uses some form of faux canopy or at least a portion of one as you can see some amber clear plastic under/behind the bot head.

Chris

[mikeszekely]

I'm trying really hard not to get into a Legends collection- haven't even bought a Megatron.  But I ordered the four in-stock Magic Square Stunticons and preordered a restock for their Motormaster.  I'll ship all five when Motormaster comes in.

[slaginpit]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm trying really hard not to get into a Legends collection- haven't even bought a Megatron.  But I ordered the four in-stock Magic Square Stunticons and preordered a restock for their Motormaster.  I'll ship all five when Motormaster comes in.

me too but it looks so cool

I think i might get shockwave too

 

[mikeszekely]

14 minutes ago, slaginpit said:

me too but it looks so cool

I think i might get shockwave too

 

Which Shockwave? Magic Square or Newage?

[slaginpit]

Just now, mikeszekely said:

Which Shockwave? Magic Square or Newage?

Newage

[mikeszekely]

27 minutes ago, slaginpit said:

Newage

Yeah... I think I prefer Magic Square's designs most of the time, but Newage might be the better choice for Shockwave. And the Seekers.

[sh9000]

 

[M'Kyuun]

15 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm trying really hard not to get into a Legends collection- haven't even bought a Megatron.  But I ordered the four in-stock Magic Square Stunticons and preordered a restock for their Motormaster.  I'll ship all five when Motormaster comes in.

I'm a huge fan of G1 Megatron's design and transformation, which is why I still like my Apollyon, even if it's a bit outdated aesthetically. MP-36 handled the legs beautifully, but dropped the ball with all the upper torso origami that kinda ruins the nice curved gun slide look that it should have. When NA's came out, I bought it after watching a few reviews; it wasn't the best looking thing in bot mode, especuially those hips, but for its size, it was a remarkably well-engineered and fun fig. Enter Magic Square and their 'just walked off the tv' Megatron. I actually hmm'd and hawed over getting yet another legends class Megs for awhile, but reviews were really good, and the thing just looks amazing, better than the MP. No regrets- such an impressive figure, and it looks incredible. I recommend him.

[mikeszekely]

Got something a bit less commercial and very cool for you guys today.

This is a 3D-printed upgrade kit for Generations Selects G2 Megatron by Larkin (of Youtube channel Larkin's Lair).  Unlike the other kits I usually look at, even the 3D-printed stuff, Larkin's stuff is less an intentional move to get into the market for upgrade kits and more he happened to whip something up for his own copy that he showed off on his channel.  He seemed almost surprised that people wanted their own copies of it, so he tweaked the design and made a few to sell on Etsy (note that he apparently only put them up in batches of 20, and as of this writing they're apparently sold out).  So the first thing you're going to notice is that, compared to almost any other 3D-printed kit I've looked at, this one's looking a little rough.  Lines are very visible on all surfaces, especially the undersides, some lines are a little thicker than others, and there's wisps of PLA where the parts were cut off the support rafts.  It looks like something I might print from STL files on my cheap DaVinci Jr... and it might very well be.  But again, Larkin doesn't seem to be doing this to start a little side business, he strikes me as a hobbyist that's just trying to fulfill some of the demand for a kit like this, so I'm not holding it against him.

If you can't tell from the first image, this kit needs to be assembled.  So start by taking the muzzle and barrel and attaching them to the main cannon part.  Your mileage may vary (as the printing itself does), but for me the muzzle fit snugly onto the barrel, but I had to glue the barrel into the cannon.  OK, notice the gear-ish looking section on the cannon?  Take the purple box-shaped part and fit the gear down into it, so the pegs are toward the front of the cannon.  This provides a hinge for the cannon, with the geared part working with a tab in the box as a psuedo soft ratchet.

You can finish off the cannon by taking the great sensor piece and plugging it into the 5mm port on the side of the cannon.

To attach the cannon, lift the barrel and plug the peg on the box into the 5mm port on Megatron's backpack.  Then you simply fold the cannon back down; the shape is designed to fit around Megatron's backpack.

As for the rest of the parts, you get three sets for forearm gap covers.  Larkin included purple, to match Megatron's hands, and green, to match his forearms.  He also included a gray set, in case you want one for Siege or Earthrise Megatron.  The covers just wedge into the gap, and will need to be removed for transformation.  Larkin says he tried to do a hinged design, but the hinges wound up too thin and kept cracking.  If you don't care for them they are, of course, optional.

The last bit is a rifle meant to mimic the original G2 toy's gun.  The sculpt, while a bit rough, is fairly reminiscent of that gun.  However, on the original toy the gun was comparatively small, more like a pistol.  Larkin made his proportionally larger by choice.

Now, and I don't mean to demean the simple part I reviewed earlier to mount the fusion cannon to Megatron's shoulder, but I'm very impressed and pleased with how this looks.  Yes, the print quality is a little rough, and the body shape is really more G1 Megatron than G2 still, but the shoulder cannon is a lot closer to an actual G2 homage than a recolored Earthrise Megs.

Best of all, he can still transform with this kit.  Start by removing the cannon, gun, and forearm covers, and transforming him like you normally would.  Use the pegs on the side of the box part of the cannon to plug into Megatron's forearms, where his fusion cannon would normally go.

The gun can plug into a 5mm port on top of the cannon, or into one of the ones on the sides of the tank.  Likewise, the forearm covers can plug into the rearward ports on the treads; the tabs that help secure them in bot mode have just enough of a lip to get clearance for tank mode there.  You may, if you choose, still use the panel that Hasbro means to fill out the back of the tank.  But, we're tossing aside the fusion cannon and the old tank barrel/sword part; there's no room for it now.

And here we have the completed tank mode.  I mean, that looks pretty good to me, eh?  Sure, the turret lacks the taper in the front from the partsforming chunk, but the lack of taper didn't really bother us on the Siege version, did it?  So as with the robot mode, no, it's not a perfect G2 Megatron (and, at this point, I'm kind of hoping Hasbro does a new properly-scaled G2 Megatron and G2 Laser Optimus, although I have no reason to think either are in the works), but it's definitely in the ball park.

The turret still swivels; nothing in Larkin's kit interferes with that.  But, it does one better.  The hinge at the back of the cannon allows it to be elevated in tank mode.  It leaves a bit of a gap under it, but I don't really have a problem with it.

So, yeah, I'm a big fan of this kit.  I might have liked it better if someone like DNA or Go Better did a bit more professional kit (maybe with one that has gap fillers for the insides of his lower legs that could fold out to fill in the back of the tank instead of that awful partsforming panel), but in absence of such a kit this is the best option for turning Gen Selects Megatron from a green-and-purple camo Earthrise Megatron into something actually reminiscent of G2 Megatron in more than colors and alt mode.  If you have Gen Selects Megatron I'd go so far as to call this kit a must-have upgrade for him.  The only catches are the less-polished print quality and the fact that you'll have to stalk Larkin's Etsy in the hope of a restock.

[Convectuoso]

Seems like Deformation Space's next project is Blaster

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQEXiIzgMyE/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

 

[mikeszekely]

Y'know... I keep saying that I'm not a fan of Bayverse designs.  Meanwhile, over in the official thread, I've reviewed almost all the MPM and Studio Series figures.  Here I've reviewed GCreation's M. Wrath, as well as Unique Toy's Peru Kill, Challenger, and Dragoon (Nero is on the way, so I guess I better track down La Hire).  And now, a bit late to the party, I've gone and picked up Newage's Mista, their take on an MPM-style Soundwave.

Ok, there's a couple of things that really jump out at me from this lineup.  First, Hasbro's really delivering inferior quality with their so-called "Masterpiece" movie figures.  Mista is cleaner, more accurate, has more diecast, and better paint than ol' Barricade (whom I only intended to include for scale).  The other thing is similarities with the sculpt on the Studio Series toy.  I mean, they went about things a bit differently and Hasbro was working with a much tinier budget, so Mista's got some extra details on his shoulders, forearms, waist, and chest, plus less kibble on his arms (not so much his legs, but it's arranged so it's less obvious), but the panels on the thighs, the wheels on the backpack, the wheels on the ankles, the taillights near the knees, the spikes pointed toward his collar, the balls and panels on his shoulders, the dinner plates on his forearms, etc are all similar.  I might say that these similarities are because the SS figure was pretty accurate in it's own right, but...

...when you spin them around only one of the two has most of the top of his alt mode barely folded and dangling from his back.  Mista's clean, with more chrome details on the backs of his thighs and spine.  It's almost, but not quite, on the "does this thing actually transform?" level of one of Unique Toys' movie figures.

Mista comes with the gun he used in the movie, as well as a little Laserbeak.  Now, that's all that actually came inside Mista's box.  My copy came packaged in a shipping box with a second, smaller brown box, though.  Inside that box was Ravage.  Now, I don't know if Newage intended Ravage to be a limited first wave bonus or something.  I'm merely pointing this out just in case some copies of Mista don't get a Ravage.

Laserbeak's head is on a ball joint, with another ball joint at the base of his neck.  His wings are hinged at the shoulders for flapping, with another hinge at the "wrist" for spreading his wings.  His tail has a ball joint at the base, with a pin hinge near the tip.  His hips are on ball joints, as are his ankles, but he's got nothing at the knees or talons.  Interestingly enough, he's got molded guns on his underside, and they're attached to the same part as the red "feathers" on his hips.  That part can rotate around his his hip socket.

Ravage is a bit more articulated.  His jaws can open, and he's got a ball joint at the base of his skull and the base of his neck.  HIs shoulders are ball joints, as are his front ankles, but he's got a knee/elbow hinge, too.  There's a ball joint in his chest for some bending, plus a hinge at his waist for arching his back.  His hips are ball joints, with hinges at both his knees and his digitigrade ankles.  His back feet also connect via ball joints.  His tail has a ball joint at the base, plus two additional hinges.  A third hinge allows one of his tail spikes to flip out and point behind him.  There's a turret on his butt that can spin and angle a bit on a ball joint, too, but the guns are tabbed onto the central part and don't move on their own.

As for the main event, Mista's head is on a ball joint at the base of his skull set atop a double-jointed, swiveling neck.  This gives Mista's head some fantastic range looking up, down, some sideways tilt, but also recoiling backward or craning his neck forward.  His shoulders rotate, and although you'll have to move the balls at the top of his shoulders out of the way his shoulders can move laterally about 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel; again, be mindful of his shoulder kibble, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel on ball joints. Each of his fingers are individually-articulated, pinned at the base and at a second knuckle.  His thumbs have both of those hinges, too, but they also have a ball joint in the palm that lets you rotate and fold his thumb as well.  His waist swivels.  His hips can go forward and backward 90 degrees, no problem.  Laterally is a bit more limited unless you start undoing the thigh kibble (which isn't locked into a place anyway).  His thighs can swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  Things get a bit weird at his feet.  The inner two-thirds of his feet are connected to the other third via a ball joint.  This allows part of each foot to tilt up and down as well as pivot, but it looks kind of weird because only part of his foot moves.

Mista can hold his gun by using a pair of tabs on either side of the handle to plug into his palm, then wrapping his fingers around it.  Alas, there's no special way for him to interact with Ravage or Laserbeak.  I guess I didn't expect much for Ravage, but some way for Laserbeak to perch on his forearm or shoulder without just carefully balancing him would have been nice.

Mista turns into a very nice Mercedes SLS AMG (fun fact, in The Last Knight Dirft turns into a AMG GT, which is basically the SLS' successor).  The SLS was slightly shorter, slightly narrower, and not as tall as a Shelby Mustang, so the scale with Barricade here should be pretty close to correct.

Mista's transformation lacks the magic of a Unique Toys figure.  The doors wind up on his back, the rear of the car unfurls into legs, the front sides of the car turn into arms, the nose of the car turns into his chest and the whole thing accordions over his windshield sort of like MPM Bumblebee.  In some ways, the basic layout of his robot body in alt mode is also somewhat similar to the Studio Series toy.  However, some small steps like sliding out the sides of his biceps or folding out the flaps inside his shoulder kibble aren't immediately apparent, and other steps (mostly converting the back of the car into his legs) are rather unintuitive.  Compounding the issue is that the instructions are crammed onto a single sheet, and they're often small and unclear.

Oh, speaking of the Studio Series toy, note the molded gas cap on it.  Mista's missing that detail.

Still, that omission is the only bad thing I can really say about this alt mode.  Pretty much every other detail is present, including some chrome rims, rubber tires, gorgeous silver paint on the body, painted taillights, and bright red brakes.  Seems where the car comes apart for transformation are an unavoidable fact with Transformers, but Newage managed to keep it to a minimum by working with the car's actual seems around the doors, hood, and truck.  Even when viewed from the bottom you might not even be able to tell there's a robot folded up and stuffed in there.  This, combined with the fact that everything tabs together nicely without anything popping loose the way a lot of movieverse toys tend to allows Mista to almost pass for a nice model of a sweet car instead of a transforming toy.

If I do have one other complaint about the alt mode, though, it's that there's really nothing you can do with his accessories in this mode.  Laserbeak and Ravage are forgiveable, I suppose, but I'd have at least liked storage for his gun.  Oh well, at least the gullwing doors open.  There's not much to see inside, though, besides his forearms and hips.

Which kind of brings me back to the robot mode.  Mista's a pretty good figure overall... better and more premium feeling than a Hasbro MPM, better materials than GCreation, but lacking the fun and cleverness of one of Unique Toys' figures.  But, Newage is mostly know for Legends stuff, and it kind of shows.  For as good as Mista looks, his transformation and articulation could be a bit better.  But if I really have one complaint, it's that a lot of stuff doesn't really lock down in bot mode.  The wheels on his back can still move up and down.  The fender kibble around them can move freely around the wheels.  The flaps with the gold-painted detail right over his shoulder sockets doesn't lock in place.  Neither does the front of the car that's bent over his chest.  Flaps fold out of the kibble on his shoulders then just lay over the front of his shoulders.  The fronts of his forearms fold over and tuck in a bit, but don't tab in place.  His thigh kibble moves around.  A lot of the rear of the car wraps around his calves, but the part with the taillights on the outside of his knees just sits there, totally not locked in place.  Even the doors on his back aren't fixed in place.  So you can get him posed, and he'll look really cool on a shelf, sure, but getting him into that pose can be a fiddly experience

The other big gripe I had with Mista was the price.  He was going for around $150, at a time when Challenger had come out for $20 less and the much-larger Dragoon would be around the same price.  Most more similarly-sized figures were closer to $100.  Mista's paint is nice, and I suppose Laserbeak and Ravage have more parts than most accessories, but $150 definitely seems like too much for him.  And, perhaps, for a lot of people, because he didn't exactly sell out, and I was able to grab him with a holiday coupon on top of a sale price at ShowZStore, bringing him down to a much more reasonable $110.  At that price, yes, I'd give him a recommend if you collect MPMs, are a fan of Soundwave, or are a fan of the SLS AMG.

[MKT]

Agree on Mista's price; it's the biggest drawback. They were pretty ambitious with the price, and it seems to be at that price point at which Hasbro would put if it was an official product.

Thankfully, it is a very nice toy, & there doesn't seem to be any serious issues or quality failures in the product itself, which is why I picked it up right after the initial first reviews came out. Ravage comes in separate packaging because, if I remember correctly, there were 2 versions during PO stage, and the difference is one comes with Ravage and the other without. Probably this is a way for NewAge to capture data on which price point is more acceptable to buyers for future releases. Once I got past the base price of Mista, the other consideration was whether to pick up the one with Ravage or not. Ravage actually came at a high premium, if I remember, something like the equivalent of $20 or so.

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by MKT

[sh9000]

 

[Convectuoso]

Newest addition to my collection:

Magic Square's Perceptor. 

He looks great, but at least some optional hands should've been included

[sh9000]

XTB.

[mikeszekely]

MMC.

Not going to criticize anyone for going with XTB's- their Groove looks fine, as did their Streetwise.  But I saw the transformation for their Streetwise, and yeah, I'm sticking with MMC.

[Convectuoso]

 

Edited June 24, 2021 by Convectuoso

[Kuma Style]

 

 

[Kuma Style]

 

[mikeszekely]

New haul, @Kuma Style, or just got them back out for pictures?  I managed to get the three main ones.  QC and crowdfunding issues kept me from getting Sunstorm and Acid Storm, but I love how they look.  If they weren't too expensive I'd like to go back and get them (and G2 Starscream) someday.

[Kuma Style]

8 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

New haul, @Kuma Style, or just got them back out for pictures?  I managed to get the three main ones.  QC and crowdfunding issues kept me from getting Sunstorm and Acid Storm, but I love how they look.  If they weren't too expensive I'd like to go back and get them (and G2 Starscream) someday.

Hey hope all has been well, Mike.

This one's a new haul. Had the main three seekers before and sold them. Figured I'd never own them again but a friend was on his way out of collecting and sold them all at significantly less than retail so I had to jump.

Solar Flare is definitely the most fraked up thing MT ever released and I now have no wonder why it put the company on hiatus for so long. Acid whatever on the flip side is issue free and great.

Looking forward to unboxing Dirge later.

[Kuma Style]

[Convectuoso]

I got these today:

So far I've only opened Prime. It's the clear windows version

[Kuma Style]

[mantisfists]

On 6/26/2021 at 6:59 PM, Kuma Style said:

 

 

 

 

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, Kuma Style said:

I have the ToyWorld Coneheads.  Based on Meteor I'd like Endgame better, but I kind of lost faith that MT would actually release the other two.

[sh9000]

 

[M'Kyuun]

On 6/26/2021 at 6:59 PM, Kuma Style said:

Nice pics, Kuma. I lament that I didn't get all three of the original Seekers when these initially came out. I waited and managed to score a copy of Skycrow(Skywarp), and I have Meteor(Starscream) PO'd, along with their version of Thrust, but I'm wondering if either of these is going to come to fruition. I've been waiting on Thrust for over a year.

Anyway, I prefer these figs to Takara's latest MP, and continue to hope Maketoys will come through.

[Kuma Style]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Snip.

They're all coming out and the display is going to be magnificent. However I hope you're enjoy what you own.

2 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Snip

I'm sure Thrust will release just fine.

[M'Kyuun]

4 hours ago, Kuma Style said:

They're all coming out and the display is going to be magnificent. However I hope you're enjoy what you own.

I'm sure Thrust will release just fine.

So Meteor's up in the air, I gather.  

[Convectuoso]

First of NewAge's Coneheads I take off the box