The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[mikeszekely]

I was shopping for something completely unrelated the other day when I came across an Optimus Prime toy I didn't have, and for only about $20.  So, I wound up picking up Leader King, the first figure from newcomer Galaxy Toys.

I say first, but as near as I can tell this is actually the third version, with the first one having solid windows painted blue, and the second was covered in metallic paint.  This version has clear windows.  I'm told that all of them had diecast... I think I can feel some in the legs, but that's about it.  Maybe the other versions had more?  It's my understanding that the earlier versions had worse QC.

Anyway, if Leader King was the only figure Galaxy Toys released I might suggest that they meant for him to scale with Dr. Wu's figures.  Because, yeah, he's taller than Dr Wu's Optimus, but way shorter than a Core-class toy.  And Dr. Wu's little guys don't have a ton of difference in size, with the recent Datsuns being just a little shorter than their Optimus.  Swapping Dr. Wu's Prime for Leader King puts one of the Dr Wu Datsuns more like eye-to-abs, which seems about right.  But, given that Galaxy Toys went on to release Warpath and Beachcomber, and they're both bigger than Dr Wu's, I guess it's more accurate to say that Galaxy Toys is doing their own scale somewhere between Core and Dr Wu.

I'll concede that there does seem to be on advantage to going slightly bigger... Leader King has better proportions than the slightly-wide Dr. Wu Optimus.  He's cleaner, too, with none of the cab visible on his back... really not much of a backpack, either.  I'd say, for the size, the robot is actually quite good.  My only real complaint is the visible tires on the sides of the legs.

Leader King comes with an ion rifle and an energon axe.  I guess that's enough, especially for the price, but a trailer would have been nice.

The articulation here is pretty decent for the size.  Head's on a ball joint that can swivel, look up and down a bit, and tilt sideways.  Shoulders are also ball joints that swivel and move laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist articulation.  His waist swivels, and he's got some ab crunch.  His hips move backward and laterally 90 degrees, but they fall a bit short of that forward due to his pelvis no having hip skirts or moving in any way.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little over 90 degrees.  His feet bend downward, and the front of his feet are on ball joints so they have a little up/down tilt and a faux ankle pivot.

Leader King holds the ion rifle by sliding the thin handle peg into a tiny hole on either fist.  The energon axe has a hollow carved into it that fits around his entire fist.

Transformation is a bit more complex than Dr. Wu or even the official Core-class toy.  It actually reminds me a bit of a very simplified MP-01/MP-10/Magic Square Prime.  Fold his feet down, slide his legs up over his thighs, rotate his waist 180 degrees, and tab the legs together.  Fold his hands into his forearms and bend his elbows 90 degrees.  Now, use the double hinge in his waist to pull his torso up a bit.  Open his chest windows, fold out his lats with the wheels, slide out the grill and bumper, fold the bumper out, and rotate the whole thing 180 degrees.  Spin the parts with the wheels around so the wheel his facing down, and swivel the panel on the front so it lines up with the grill.  Tuck his head into his chest, and close the windows.  Rock his arms back at the shoulders and swing the arms in over the wheels.  Finally, use the double hinge in the waist to line up a tab on the bottom of his back with a slot at the top of his pelvis.

The truck mode is fine.  Unlike Wu's, the head isn't visible so the cab looks a bit more finished, but I do wish the borrowed a page from Wu or SS86 Prime and found a way to fill that gap on the sides where you can see his pelvis and the top of his thigh.

He rolls ok, but sadly doesn't seem to have any intended storage for his accessories.  That's where a trailer might have come in handy.

Small parts doing a more complex transformation makes Leader King feel a bit more fragile than Dr Wu's little Prime, and as noted the earlier versions seemed to suffer from some QC issues.  I think Dr Wu's pocket-Prime is a more robust option if you want something you can fiddle with often.  Dr Wu's also has the advantage if you just want the smallest Prime for making your Titans or Combiners look as big as possible.  But Leader King is a good alternative if you want a Prime that's a little bigger to scale a bit better with Dr. Wu's carbots, has more articulation, and a bit better proportions and cleaner details.  At the very least, he costs less than I spent at Taco Bell the other night, so you're not risking too much if you want to check him out.

[sh9000]

[mikeszekely]

Ok, at that price the AI children enjoying a birthday cake covered in firearms have convinced me.

[mikeszekely]

Every good Optimus needs a Megatron.  So when I picked up Leader King I picked up Galaxy Toys Destroyer.

I mean, a lot of what I said about Leader King applies again.  Destroyer is still smaller than a Core-class and maybe half the height of something like Magic Square's Megatron, but he's not quite as small as Dr. Wu's Megatron.  But that extra size again translates to better proportions, details like the red on his arms, and a better head sculpt.

He's surprisingly clean, too.  New Age's Legends Megatron and even MP-36 have some pretty ugly backs.  Aside from gaps on the backs of his forearms and hip skirts that could clean up a bit better Destroyer honestly looks better than a lot of bigger, more expensive Megatron toys.  Yeah, Destroyer looks pretty dang good... but looks can be deceiving.  

Destroyer comes with a few more accessories than Leader King, which is probably why he costs a bit more.  There's the fusion cannon already on his arm, of course.  You get the stock and silencer for gun mode, and they combine into a turret, which is always nice.  You get the mace from "More Than Meets the Eye," and the pistol and light saber from the '86 movie.  And you get the helmet he uses to control his Optimus double in "A Prime Problem."

Megatron's head is on a hinged ball joint that swivels and can tilt up and down a good bit but doesn't give you any real sideways tilt.  I'll also note that the swivel on the ball is way too tight, but the hinge the stem is connected to is pretty loose.  His shoulders are ball joints, but they swivel and still get 90 degrees laterally.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist swivels, but due to his transformation they can be tilted down.  His waist swivels, and he's got a super loose ab crunch.  This is likely because Destroyer has a ton more diecast in him than Leader King, and while a little diecast used intelligently on a Masterpiece-scale figure can give it a "premium" feel, frankly all it does is put too much weight on too small joints on a figure this size, and Galaxy Toys shouldn't be using it.  I digress.  His hips are ball joints.  Because the skirts on his sides move but not his front or his butt, he can only get them about 45 degrees forward, 75 degrees backward, but a full 90 degrees laterally.  No thigh swivel, which is a bummer since Leader King has them.  Knees bend 90 degrees.  His feet have a slight upward tilt, and 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

The fusion cannon is attached to a peg on Destroyer's right arm.  It can be removed.  The mace has a thin handle that plugs into a hole in either fist.

The same goes for the pistol and light saber, and the helmet simply fits over his head.  The turret built from the stock and silencer also has a tab, so his fusion cannon can attach to it, and it's got little handles on it that fit into the holes in his fists.

Transformation isn't as complicated as you might think.  Turn both of his fists down until the hammers come out.  Slide the left shoulder out, extend the arm laterally and rotate it so you can see the inside of his arm, line up his forearm with his bicep, and slide the whole thing back into his shoulder.  Remove his fusion cannon, and do the same to his right arm (minus the slider in the shoulder).  Open his chest, which will take his right arm with it, and fold in his head.  Fold the T-shaped bit his right arm is attached to out, slide the whole assembly to the other side of chest, and fold it over so his arm is lined up with the other side, and then fold the chest so the arms tab together.  Untab the trigger guard from the barrel on his back, which will allow you to swing it around into the shoulder socket, and fold the barrel down.  Swivel his waist 90 degrees, so the barrel is pointing forward.  In theory*, a double hinge in his waist will swing his upper body out and forward, thumping into place with his arms over his pelvis.  Get his hip skirts out of the way and open the backs of his legs.  Fold the gray parts in the backs of his legs down, then fold the tips back up.  Slide the sides of the legs out a little, and they'll rotate around the lower leg 180 degrees.  Use the ball joints in the hips to drop the legs a little, and bend the knees 180 degrees so his feet tuck up to his arms.  Close the leg flaps so the part you folded out fills the space under the knee, and smush it all together.  Unfold the hip flaps, tab them into his legs to fill out the rest of the handle.  Fold the little trigger out of the double hinge in his waist, and bring the trigger guard around from his back underneath so it tabs into the front of his legs, then finish it off by plugging the fusion cannon onto the top.

*Why "in theory"?  Because, in practice, the tolerances on the hinge that is the sole point of connection between his upper and lower body is terrible.  On my copy, it was fine for robot mode, but too thick to fold over all the way for gun mode.  It kept popping out.  After numerous attempts, I got it to go... but I don't know if I wore out a nub (since it's just friction clipped) or what, but the upper body now will no longer stay attached in robot mode.

Which is a shame, because the gun mode isn't bad.  Sure, his ab greebles are plainly visible on one side, and the handle is proportionally a bit thick, but all the important details are present.  I just wish the tolerances were a bit better... there are tiny tabs on his fists that are supposed to plug into the underside of his feet, but they're pretty worthless.  The hip skirts like to come undone from the legs, too.  It feels like the torso/arms should sit a little flatter.

The stock uses two tabs to plug into the slots on the base of the handle, and that part works fine.  The silencer has a notch cut out for the sight on the barrel, but even lined up and slide on all the way it's like sticking the cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper over your finger- super loose, and the minute you angle it downward it'll slide right off.

Even with a price tag lower than Hasbro charges for Deluxes these days, I can't recommend Destroyer as is.  Poor tolerances an the overuse of diecast that is likely the primary cause of said tolerances leaves Destroyer too floppy in robot mode, unable to tab together solidly in gun mode, and on my copy ultimately broken at the waist.  It's a shame, too, because I actually like the design and transformation a lot; this could have been one of my favorite Megatron toys ever.  Well, you might recall when I wrote about Leader King that the version I got is technically the third version.  Apparently the original suffered from a lot of similar issues.  If Galaxy Toys were to re-release Destroyer in a better-toleranced, all-plastic version I'd change my recommendation pretty quickly.