Post by Pinwig on Feb 9, 2014 13:09:52 GMT
Transformazing Toys - Pandora’s Box 01 - Mebsuta
Unlike a lot of people I quite like the Fall of Cybertron era of the Generations line. I enjoyed the game and I liked the style of the characters, but because of Hasbro’s hesitant approach to the toys, some of the figures aren’t realised in the way they should be. To be honest most of the figures aren’t realised the way they should be.
One of the worst offenders is the Prime/Magnus mould, which is too small in comparison to the figures it stands with.
Last year I was looking for a different Prime to put with the FoC figures to make a display, but couldn’t find one that would work. That was when I initially saw this armour kit in it’s repaint guise as a suit for the FoC Prime. I settled on buying it, but in the intervening time added Generations Springer, Sandstorm and Warbot Assaulter to my collection - so the idea of a scaled up Generations Magnus to go with my mini Wreckers crew became more appealing. After all, those other three figures are better all round. The FoC line went back in Pinwig’s special box of unopened Transformers.
I was ridiculously excited about this product. First order from Robot Kingdom, which came quickly and well packaged. The box contains the main parts of the upgrade: two legs and the shoulder mantle, and also various extras including three different types of hands (fist, fist with 5mm hole, open hand) and extra parts which make the original Magnus’s weapons into bigger ones, or add on to the original Magnus’s car mode to give exhausts. There is also a tiny faceplate which makes sense for the Prime version of this. The main thing to note about this whole package is that it doesn’t transform. The original spec for this was that it would form a trailer. This doesn’t do that. There are various fan mode pictures on the net of what the armour can be made to look like, but there are no transformation instructions in the box for that. There is however an interesting picture which shows the shadow (yawn) of a third stage robot, bigger still than this one, so presumably Transformazing have plans for a second upgrade to restore the functionality originally intended.
The final piece in the box is absolutely pivotal (heh), and forms the crux of why my initial excitement with this kit died a death while putting everything together. Let’s get this out of the way now. The armour looks fantastic, but it doesn’t work because fundamentally what you’re doing here is applying a leader scale weight of plastic onto hip joints designed for a very light deluxe. The original figure just can’t hold this all together and stand up.
To begin with I assembled everything and the torso flopped, and on a shiny desk surface the legs did the splits every time. Back to that final piece - Transformazing provide a replacement hip joint for the original Magnus toy to try and strengthen it. So, using the tool they provide to disassemble (and to do this you also need a set of jewellers/watchmakers screwdrivers to get to the two tiny screws holding the torso together) I put in the new hips. Fiddly job, but not impossible. The end result was a ball joint so tight for the torso it wouldn’t move at all, and only a marginal improvement in the strength of the legs.
That done, I threw it all back together and tried to set up for some pictures. The torso was now fine, it held up perfectly, but the posability of the legs is still hampered by the fact that they will slide apart easily on a shiny surface. Fortunately the felt backing in my mini studio helped to hold him up, and to be fair once he is in a pose he will stay in it. My other major bugbear with this is that the press on plate that goes over the hips will fall off at will just by looking at the figure. This small part is designed to come apart to add extra dimensions to the weapons combinations - but it really, really didn’t need to. Who is going to remove that to make a bow and leave his midriff showing the back of the original Magnus’s waist?
The legs open up to store the extra fists, and his backpack opens to store the faceplate, so once this is all together the only thing left in the box are the hips from the original toy.
So once it’s together, what of the final effect? Well, the plastic quality is great and the colours match the original figure seamlessly. The ratchet joints in the knees are fine, nice and clicky, but if you play with them too much the lower leg sections have a habit of detaching from the original figure. In short, the parts themselves are very robust, but once assembled the figure as a whole is one you won’t want to play with. Too much falls off or falls over. But, on the flip side, I think it does look fantastic.
I’ve tried to do this justice with the pictures, although the contrast might be a little high. I think in conclusion I’m still glad that I bought this because it does provide a Magnus to stand with the other triple changers in the same style, but there is a significant amount of faff in replacing hips and putting this together and hoping it’ll stay up. I did toy originally with the idea of ordering both versions of this to bulk up both figures, but I’m pretty glad now I didn’t. I also don’t think I’d buy another upgrade if they actually intend to release one - not unless it turned into an awesome trailer and removed the need for the whole figure to be held together by the original deluxe’s hips. If this was half the price (I paid $72 plus import VAT) I’d recommend it as a fun way to waste an afternoon because the final figure does look good - but for most the problems I’ve outlined would be an out and out deal breaker if the fact it doesn’t transform hadn’t already put you off. Looks nice, but needs patience.
Unlike a lot of people I quite like the Fall of Cybertron era of the Generations line. I enjoyed the game and I liked the style of the characters, but because of Hasbro’s hesitant approach to the toys, some of the figures aren’t realised in the way they should be. To be honest most of the figures aren’t realised the way they should be.
One of the worst offenders is the Prime/Magnus mould, which is too small in comparison to the figures it stands with.
Last year I was looking for a different Prime to put with the FoC figures to make a display, but couldn’t find one that would work. That was when I initially saw this armour kit in it’s repaint guise as a suit for the FoC Prime. I settled on buying it, but in the intervening time added Generations Springer, Sandstorm and Warbot Assaulter to my collection - so the idea of a scaled up Generations Magnus to go with my mini Wreckers crew became more appealing. After all, those other three figures are better all round. The FoC line went back in Pinwig’s special box of unopened Transformers.
I was ridiculously excited about this product. First order from Robot Kingdom, which came quickly and well packaged. The box contains the main parts of the upgrade: two legs and the shoulder mantle, and also various extras including three different types of hands (fist, fist with 5mm hole, open hand) and extra parts which make the original Magnus’s weapons into bigger ones, or add on to the original Magnus’s car mode to give exhausts. There is also a tiny faceplate which makes sense for the Prime version of this. The main thing to note about this whole package is that it doesn’t transform. The original spec for this was that it would form a trailer. This doesn’t do that. There are various fan mode pictures on the net of what the armour can be made to look like, but there are no transformation instructions in the box for that. There is however an interesting picture which shows the shadow (yawn) of a third stage robot, bigger still than this one, so presumably Transformazing have plans for a second upgrade to restore the functionality originally intended.
The final piece in the box is absolutely pivotal (heh), and forms the crux of why my initial excitement with this kit died a death while putting everything together. Let’s get this out of the way now. The armour looks fantastic, but it doesn’t work because fundamentally what you’re doing here is applying a leader scale weight of plastic onto hip joints designed for a very light deluxe. The original figure just can’t hold this all together and stand up.
To begin with I assembled everything and the torso flopped, and on a shiny desk surface the legs did the splits every time. Back to that final piece - Transformazing provide a replacement hip joint for the original Magnus toy to try and strengthen it. So, using the tool they provide to disassemble (and to do this you also need a set of jewellers/watchmakers screwdrivers to get to the two tiny screws holding the torso together) I put in the new hips. Fiddly job, but not impossible. The end result was a ball joint so tight for the torso it wouldn’t move at all, and only a marginal improvement in the strength of the legs.
That done, I threw it all back together and tried to set up for some pictures. The torso was now fine, it held up perfectly, but the posability of the legs is still hampered by the fact that they will slide apart easily on a shiny surface. Fortunately the felt backing in my mini studio helped to hold him up, and to be fair once he is in a pose he will stay in it. My other major bugbear with this is that the press on plate that goes over the hips will fall off at will just by looking at the figure. This small part is designed to come apart to add extra dimensions to the weapons combinations - but it really, really didn’t need to. Who is going to remove that to make a bow and leave his midriff showing the back of the original Magnus’s waist?
The legs open up to store the extra fists, and his backpack opens to store the faceplate, so once this is all together the only thing left in the box are the hips from the original toy.
So once it’s together, what of the final effect? Well, the plastic quality is great and the colours match the original figure seamlessly. The ratchet joints in the knees are fine, nice and clicky, but if you play with them too much the lower leg sections have a habit of detaching from the original figure. In short, the parts themselves are very robust, but once assembled the figure as a whole is one you won’t want to play with. Too much falls off or falls over. But, on the flip side, I think it does look fantastic.
I’ve tried to do this justice with the pictures, although the contrast might be a little high. I think in conclusion I’m still glad that I bought this because it does provide a Magnus to stand with the other triple changers in the same style, but there is a significant amount of faff in replacing hips and putting this together and hoping it’ll stay up. I did toy originally with the idea of ordering both versions of this to bulk up both figures, but I’m pretty glad now I didn’t. I also don’t think I’d buy another upgrade if they actually intend to release one - not unless it turned into an awesome trailer and removed the need for the whole figure to be held together by the original deluxe’s hips. If this was half the price (I paid $72 plus import VAT) I’d recommend it as a fun way to waste an afternoon because the final figure does look good - but for most the problems I’ve outlined would be an out and out deal breaker if the fact it doesn’t transform hadn’t already put you off. Looks nice, but needs patience.
