Post by Pinwig on Jun 28, 2014 17:27:18 GMT
So I now have Heavy Noisy to go with Air Burst and have had a good play with him this afternoon. There isn’t really anything new here that Air Burst hasn’t already given us. It’s undeniably Brawl, the head is perfect, although the figure himself stripped of his detachable parts is a little skinnier than the ratios the original had, so he doesn’t come across as being the bruiser of the Bruticus limbs he should do.
Packaging is the same top notch affair of last time - very heavy duty cardboard box with a shiny, shiny finish. Plastic insert tray and a nicely produced manual/comic, although the translation is pretty ropey. The comic also supports the notion that the release order for these figures changed. Originally when these came up for pre-order, Swindle was WB01-A, and he is the character that featured in the comic that came with Air Burst. Air Burst is in this one, with Heavy Noisy making an appearance in the last panel as Air Burst did in the first one. So with Swindle now WB01-C we won’t have a comic featuring the character it comes with until Vortex is out. Not that it really matters.
The transformation is fairly close to the original G1 toy, which makes sense really. It does make a tank mode that looks slightly on the small side, Air Burst’s shuttle has more mass, but it is good enough. The turret doesn’t turn far without coming off though. Only one frustration with the actual transformation, and that is the point where the forearms slide up over the elbow joint to conceal it and make the tank treads. This was incredibly stiff on my one. Initially I couldn’t slide the gap shut at all, and then once they were closed I had to use a frightening amount of force to pull the forearm down again to remake the robot. I really thought I was going to yank his arms off.
I was miffed initially to find that the whole of the gun turret section detaches and comes apart into the barrel and the turret, suddenly it felt like I had a partsformer on my hands, but on reflection it works because it makes the transformation of the core robot easier, and gives additional options in robot mode for accessorising.
You can reattach the gun turret in one piece to make him look like the original, but this does add a fair bit of kibble to the back that spoils the streamlined nature of the figure. You can detach the turret and just have the gun on his back, which kind of works, but the best way I’ve found so far is to give him the gun barrel as a rifle, which he can just about hold straight (if his arm is straight), and use the gun turret as a shield.
The end result there is quite pleasing because it bulks up his shoulder area. It would be lovely if the tank gun barrel could sit on his shoulder, there is a hole there (the pistols go in it) but it’s too big to fit in the gap.
Weighing down his arms does mean the articulation is limited. Unadorned it isn’t brilliant, the tank treads prevent any really dynamic poses, but his arms do angle out from the side and there are swivels at the elbows. Once the rifle and shield are on though, it’s pretty much one pose. The legs are better, they have thigh swivels and the ankle tilts also extend into the shins (a product of the transformation), which means his legs can be posed nicely.
The plastic quality is the same as Air Burst. I think these figures and their production are probably set in stone. It’s annoying that they’re Masterpiece scale, but only really knock off Voyager quality in terms of plastics. Both figures so far are nice toys. £60 each is pushing it, going by third party economies of scale they’re about right. It’s easy to compare Heavy Noisy to Toyworld’s Hardbone because they operate in a similar way, what with re-arrangeable weapons and an alt mode based on a tank. Hardbone is the better figure. In every aspect he’s slightly better: size, plastics, design, finish, fun factor, but he has the advantage of being a sci-fi type vehicle whereas Warbotron with their toys are trying to go for something that looks like actual military hardware.
Heavy Noisy doesn’t suffer from looking mono-colour like Air Burst because of the patches of greys and green in his robot, but they are both lacking in detail because of the minimal nature of the paint apps. I said before about Air Burst that what he really needs is a repro-labels upgrade to add some small details and break up the flat colours - Heavy Noisy is the same. I have always hesitated to add extras to my 3P figures - Quakewave doesn’t even have a Decepticon symbol - but I wouldn’t think twice about it with these ones. It would make a huge difference.
The combined form for this not-Bruticus is what made me buy into this series without hesitation, and I’m still heading toward that. After two releases though, my ardour has been dampened a little. These aren’t quite as polished as they could be - I’ve had to cut away a little flashing on this one, and there are sprue marks if you look for them. The construction is good though - joints are all tight and the figures are rigid. However if I was rescuing 3P toys from a burning building, these would come below Quakewave, the Toyworld Headmasters and Warbot Assaulter for sure. They don’t zing, but they are impressive. A good 8/10. I note that the pre-order price for Warbotron’s Afterburner is a little more than the Bruticus limbs, $96 as opposed to $89. I’m wondering if that extra money has been used to polish up the end result slightly. It’d be a good move.
Packaging is the same top notch affair of last time - very heavy duty cardboard box with a shiny, shiny finish. Plastic insert tray and a nicely produced manual/comic, although the translation is pretty ropey. The comic also supports the notion that the release order for these figures changed. Originally when these came up for pre-order, Swindle was WB01-A, and he is the character that featured in the comic that came with Air Burst. Air Burst is in this one, with Heavy Noisy making an appearance in the last panel as Air Burst did in the first one. So with Swindle now WB01-C we won’t have a comic featuring the character it comes with until Vortex is out. Not that it really matters.
The transformation is fairly close to the original G1 toy, which makes sense really. It does make a tank mode that looks slightly on the small side, Air Burst’s shuttle has more mass, but it is good enough. The turret doesn’t turn far without coming off though. Only one frustration with the actual transformation, and that is the point where the forearms slide up over the elbow joint to conceal it and make the tank treads. This was incredibly stiff on my one. Initially I couldn’t slide the gap shut at all, and then once they were closed I had to use a frightening amount of force to pull the forearm down again to remake the robot. I really thought I was going to yank his arms off.
I was miffed initially to find that the whole of the gun turret section detaches and comes apart into the barrel and the turret, suddenly it felt like I had a partsformer on my hands, but on reflection it works because it makes the transformation of the core robot easier, and gives additional options in robot mode for accessorising.
You can reattach the gun turret in one piece to make him look like the original, but this does add a fair bit of kibble to the back that spoils the streamlined nature of the figure. You can detach the turret and just have the gun on his back, which kind of works, but the best way I’ve found so far is to give him the gun barrel as a rifle, which he can just about hold straight (if his arm is straight), and use the gun turret as a shield.
The end result there is quite pleasing because it bulks up his shoulder area. It would be lovely if the tank gun barrel could sit on his shoulder, there is a hole there (the pistols go in it) but it’s too big to fit in the gap.
Weighing down his arms does mean the articulation is limited. Unadorned it isn’t brilliant, the tank treads prevent any really dynamic poses, but his arms do angle out from the side and there are swivels at the elbows. Once the rifle and shield are on though, it’s pretty much one pose. The legs are better, they have thigh swivels and the ankle tilts also extend into the shins (a product of the transformation), which means his legs can be posed nicely.
The plastic quality is the same as Air Burst. I think these figures and their production are probably set in stone. It’s annoying that they’re Masterpiece scale, but only really knock off Voyager quality in terms of plastics. Both figures so far are nice toys. £60 each is pushing it, going by third party economies of scale they’re about right. It’s easy to compare Heavy Noisy to Toyworld’s Hardbone because they operate in a similar way, what with re-arrangeable weapons and an alt mode based on a tank. Hardbone is the better figure. In every aspect he’s slightly better: size, plastics, design, finish, fun factor, but he has the advantage of being a sci-fi type vehicle whereas Warbotron with their toys are trying to go for something that looks like actual military hardware.
Heavy Noisy doesn’t suffer from looking mono-colour like Air Burst because of the patches of greys and green in his robot, but they are both lacking in detail because of the minimal nature of the paint apps. I said before about Air Burst that what he really needs is a repro-labels upgrade to add some small details and break up the flat colours - Heavy Noisy is the same. I have always hesitated to add extras to my 3P figures - Quakewave doesn’t even have a Decepticon symbol - but I wouldn’t think twice about it with these ones. It would make a huge difference.
The combined form for this not-Bruticus is what made me buy into this series without hesitation, and I’m still heading toward that. After two releases though, my ardour has been dampened a little. These aren’t quite as polished as they could be - I’ve had to cut away a little flashing on this one, and there are sprue marks if you look for them. The construction is good though - joints are all tight and the figures are rigid. However if I was rescuing 3P toys from a burning building, these would come below Quakewave, the Toyworld Headmasters and Warbot Assaulter for sure. They don’t zing, but they are impressive. A good 8/10. I note that the pre-order price for Warbotron’s Afterburner is a little more than the Bruticus limbs, $96 as opposed to $89. I’m wondering if that extra money has been used to polish up the end result slightly. It’d be a good move.
