The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[mikeszekely]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[M'Kyuun]

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

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

Edited August 9 by M'Kyuun

[sh9000]

DK-56A.