Glac (71)

Without a doubt, the Glacialord set from Fans Project, part of the Retro-Future subset, is one of my favourite 3rd Party releases of all time.

P2504090016_1240740807
First teased way back in 2009, the Glacialbots are a heavy love-letter to both G1, and toy collecting in general.

 

11429745_695710270572950_1519351558_n

 

Before we even get to the toys themselves, lets have some appreciation for the boxes; this set of toys not only homages the perils of collecting old toys, but it does so with a wicked sense of humour.  The back of the packaging is adorned with fake stills from a TV show of Glacialord that never happened, as well as a very G1 like art.  Like Marvel’s Sentry comic, these toys are best appreciated when you play along with the joke, that these are lost toys from the 1980’s that have recently been found, and there is a whole universe of story and character out there waiting to be discovered.

GlacialBots_StickerBook_PaniniSize5

 

All the boxes come pre-worn, with creases, tears, stress-marks and fading all PRINTED onto the box.  The tear on Razorspike’s packaging has been seen a million times on genuine retro toys, and the fading on  Tusker’s packaging makes it look and feel exactly like it’s sat in a window unsold for decades.  Thankfully, this sort of reproduction fading means the toy inside is unharmed, unlike a lot of real sun-faded packaging.

 

glacialbots-450x582

But we’re not done yet!  Anyone who collects Brave knows the peril of trying to find a complete set of something like Silverion, before having to settle for the Korean Sonoking for the fourth member.  This is replicated perfectly with Megazero, so much so that FPCore had a little fun with it, and announced the destruction of the entire shipment of Megazero toys using Google Translate to ensure an accurate Chinglish experience such as; “We regret to inform you that your part of the goods does not reach…”, before putting out a shipment update explaining that replacements had been sourced from Korea after a shipment find: “It was in an old abandoned distribution center just a few hours outside of Busan, that they discovered there were still some of these versions stored away. Although featured in different packaging, this version of Megazero is exactly the same as it’s North American counterpart and come complete with sticker sheets, instructions and accessories…”

 

Glac (37)

 

Amazingly good fun!

And the attention to detail continues when you open the packaging, with the items ship with polystyrene innards, and while we wouldn’t want to see a return to this packaging as standard due to ethical / sustainability concerns, it does nicely homage that 80s toy collecting experience.  Also, it’s worth noting that the included sticker sheets are all half applied, replicating nicely that second hand toy experience.

On to the toys!!!

TAILCLUB

 

Glac (55)

We start with this guy, purely because he was my first experience of the Retro-Future flavour.  Sure, this set had been rumoured for a few years, but out of the blue back in early 2013, Tailclub arrived at my designer friend’s house as FP were looking for feedback on the set.  Immediately, the designer and I were sold on the concept and the execution and gave our positive feedback to FP, so much so that I continually pitched the idea of a sticker set to the poor folks at FP until they acquiesced, and finally this year the sticker book became a reality, and I was lucky enough to write it, including all their official profiles.

Before the team was devolved, Tailclub was a very famous playboy philanthropist, dedicating just enough time to seemingly altruistic exploits to justify his outlandish behaviour on the nightclub scene. Indeed, this is how he got his name.
However, his name still fits, as – arguably – he suffered the most in his devolution, with his behaviour becoming almost feral at times and he often uses his tailclub to speak for him, rarely using words when a swing of the club or a bash on a table will do. This eccentricity has almost led to him becoming ostracised from his faction, but his Glacial-bot team-mates stand by him.

Tailclub tranforms into a Doedicurus, with his alt. mode head forming part of his melee weapon, and his weapon forming part of Glacialords combined Mega-weapon.  He becomes the left-leg of Glacialord as standard.

FANGRO

Glac (43)
Fangro and Tailclub were the first two figures to see production, with a limited and un-publicised stealth-release and immediate sell-out at Botcon 2013.

He’s constantly trying to tell everyone how much of a bad-ass he is. He likes to tell people his motto is “You won’t like me when I’m Fangry”. Ask him about any major battle over the last million years, and he can tell you exactly what it was like and how his participation changed the battle.
This is all a cover, to try and hide the fact that he is the biggest coward on either side of the war. Often seen hiding under fallen enemies during battles, pretending to be dead or injured. It’s not that he is a bad ‘bot, but he has a crossed-wire in his flight or fight circuit, which conveniently shuts-off when combined.

Fangro becomes a Sabre-toothed tiger, with his alt. mode head and tail combining to make a hand-gun for his robot mode, as well as forming the front-end of the Mega-weapon.  He becomes the left arm of Glacialord.

TUSKER

Glac (61)

Tusker, the central core and torso for the set, was next to be released.  In a bizarre twist on the standard, he saw release in Canada and the UK first, in very limited quantities at TFCon and Auto Assembly 2013.  In a twist on the usual Scramble City standard, Tusker is NOT the leader of the team;

Forming the central section of Glacialord, Tusker makes up the muscle for the team. He has always taken on the role of protector, even when he was a young ‘Bot he would put himself in harms way to protect those smaller or weaker than him.
Despite this bravery and his obvious strength, Tusker is often teased for his slow speech patterns, and other bots often make the mistake of thinking Tusker is unintelligent. Because of this, Tusker is quite shy and reserved, and chooses to remain quiet most of the time.
You can pick on him, tease him and even threaten him, and he will always walk away (albeit slowly) – but if he sees someone else in trouble or being picked on, he becomes a different beast altogether. It’s this fiery side which comes out when the team is combined and gives Glacialord such ferocity.

Glac (22)
Tusker has two robot mode heads, you can either use the small Soleron head as with the rest of the team, or…

Glac (25)
…use the second, and more proportionate head, even if it is a little 2-dimensional and flat.

Tusker transforms into a mammoth, and his trunk becomes his weapon, and the central part of the combined mode Mega-Weapon.

 

RAZORSPIKE

Glac (52)
Razorspike was released at the same time as Megazero.

Razorspike is the consummate average robot; he’s never exceeded at anything in his entire life, but there is little he cannot turn his hand to at least competently. His tech-spec read-outs are a straight 5 across the board, his grades on any test are a straight “C” average, he would be the biggest also ran in the history of the war if it wasn’t for one fact: he is part of the mighty Glacialord.
You’ve never met another ‘Bot who is as proud of his gestalt mode as this guy is! If you ask Razorspike if he prefers his robot mode or his alt. Mode, he will carefully and concisely weigh all the evidence, before answering “leg mode” without a hint of irony.

Razorspike transforms into a Wooly Rhino, and while his head / weapon doesn’t contribute to Glacialord’s Mega-weapon, it does become a blaster and spiked weapon for his rhino mode. As mentioned above, he becomes the right leg as standard.

 

MEGAZERO

Glac (49)
Megazero is the weakest member of the team on paper, but is actually the secret leader of the Glacialbots.

Although he is one of the weakest members of the team, with the most vulnerable alt. Mode, Megazero is incredibly fast in both modes which has always kept him out of danger. The only thing faster than his (animal mode) feet, is his brilliant, tactical brain. Even devolved into his current form, Megazero uses his advanced processor speeds to make the best of all situations.

Megazero is the secret leader of the Glacialbots.  For any outsiders viewing the group Tusker would appear to be the leader, but secretly Megazero is in charge and passing his orders on to Tusker, who sees this as part of his role as a protector; drawing attention away from Megazero in the event of assassins or mercenaries.

Megazero transforms into a robotic Elk, and his head detaches for his antlers to become a sword weapon for him to weld in robot mode.  Most commonly becomes the right arm of Glacialord.

GLACIALORD

Glac (40)

Glacialord is the combined mode of the Glacialbots!

Megazero’s brain, Tailclub’s brutality, Tusker’s brawn, Razorspike’s positivity and even Fangro’s inner desire to be a brave hero; all of these work together to make Glacialord a true combiner success, delivering a bot who is truly more than the sum of his parts. Individually, every team member has major character flaws and weaknesses, but these are all overcome when they work as a team with excellent cognitive synergy.

Utilising the Scramble City method of combination, any limb can become any other limb.  I tend to break from the preferred method of combination and swap Tailclub and Fangro, as the engineering on Tailclub’s legs mean they can double up as an elbow joint for combined mode.

 

Glac (4)

OVERALL

The figures all fit perfectly into that G1 Scramble City aesthetic and scale, but also encompass a Breast-Master feature that includes a Soleron companion, who is actually the character operating the robot transtector.  The Solerons can ride on top of the alt. modes Dinoking style, or can stay inside their transtector suits in animal or combined mode.

Glac (66)

 

Everything stores away with the individual robots utilising all the pieces in every mode with absolutely zero left over kiddle.  The foot plates / chestplate doubling up as shields for the individal bots.  This is a great feature for those of us who like to transform out Scramble City combiners without digging through part boxes or risk losing bits if you don’t put them away immediately!  The one negative being that the different shields for the different characters give Glacialord different feet, and that is one part of the G1 combiners that I think looks better neater than this set, but that’s such a minor quibble for a beautiful set I feel bad for even mentioning it.  For a while I did have two sets, and I used to have matching feet for the combined mode, but over the years I’ve felt bad straying from the designer’s original intention and have conformed.

 

Glac (68)

On the same lines as the above, the gestalt hands neatly store inside Tusker’s animal feet.  As well as this, the combined mode head is a permanent part of Tusker, similar to how Defensor’s head is a part of Hot-Spot.

Glac (67)

The same below for the combined Mega-Weapon.  It doesn’t just give him a bigger gun for combined mode, it also uses left-over pieces from the alt. modes.  These might seem a minor point to some people, but for me, it just shows extra care and attention to detail, and shows how much thought was put into the planning and design of these amazing toys.

 

Glac (42)

 

Transformation on these is as you’d expect for G1 homages, easy, quick and intuitive.  They’re an absolute joy to handle in all modes.

 

Glac (14)

 

It might be quite apparent by now how much I adore this set.  It does seem that these are not for everyone, and I think that’s a real shame.  These should have been the toys that bridged the gap between G1 collectors / Transformers puritans and the 3P companies, providing a set of toys which are completely new characters and concepts but undeniably G1 throughout without even a hint of Ip theft.  These could have healed the rift between those two disparate collector mentalities.

 

Glac (7)

 

Instead, they seem to have been too G1 for a lot of modern 3P collectors who often put design intricacy and poseability top of their list, but too new and different for a lot of G1 collectors who are happy with the finite nature of their G1 collecting goals.

 

Glac (28)

Thankfully, these did find a place in the hearts of a lot of collectors like myself, who love the concept, execution, and the tongue in cheek nature of their publicity and packaging.

I just wish there were more of them.

ADDENDUM – THE COMPUTRON THEORY

One theory surrounding the Glacialbots that seems to persist, is that he might in some way be a version of Computron.  This may have been compounded by this image circulating, an image perhaps used only to show the interchangeable G1 style limbs:

800px-Glacialord-computron

While there are similarities between colour schemes, and parallels such as the nosecone legs and the antlers of Megazero creating a silhouette similar to Strafe’s weapons, there has never been any official word on this from FP or FPCore, and their continuity is completely separate from any TF lore, so whether Computron / Quantron or any other version of the character exists in the FPCore storyline is unknown.
Although there are references to the characters being devolved, so who knows?

As always, thanks for reading.

-_- 1

I just got a brand new toy in to look at, the fourth in the Fans Project Lost Exo Realm; Severo.

 

I’m quite a fan of FP, I’ve been collecting their stuff since City Commander hit, and have bought pretty much everything they’ve released since then.  Some would say the once undisputed kings of the 3P game have fallen from grace, thanks to Maketoys, MMC and Fans Toys, but another way of looking at it is that FP are keeping it real with their own design choices and aesthetic, rather than switching out to the fashionable choice of Masterpiece style.

-_- 2

Rear box artwork

Which leads to the question; in a world where most collectors have switched to MP, are the Lost Exo Realm figures needed as Dinobots?

-_- 3

Inside box flap

Lets look at the competition; Toyworld have finished their set which started strong and seemed to lose some along the way.  G-Creation Shuraking are over half way through and seem to have really found their audience though there are rumours this might be their debut and swansong.  Fans Toys keep on keeping on with their MP Iron Dibots, with just Stompy to finish the set and their own version of Grimlock as Grinder for those who no longer wish to keep MP08 (original or OS KO) wearing high-heels.  Gigapower still seem intent on releasing their second offering, they might be missing the boat, but offer the biggest bots on the block to compensate.  Last but not least we have the incredibly cool, solid and no drama Fall of Cybertron style figures from Planet X – all five of which are out and looking awesome, with an additional Paddles retool of Sludge for those that need the sixth member (which includes me).

-_- 4

Straight out of the packaging

(Side-note here to mention Iron Factory have a very cool offering on the way as well, but very much their own thing based on the War Within Dynobots and own scale, pre-orders now open)

-_- 8

A Throne fit for a King

So with all those in mind, do FP’s Dinos still have a place?

Let’s have a look at Severo, their version of Grimlock, and then make a decision.

-_- 7

Long Live the King, the King of Kings.

Usually, I’m quick to moan about figures packaged in robot mode; I think alt. mode packaging gives us a valuable fun first transformation (nearly always easier to unfold a figure without instructions than collapsing a robot back down), coupled with the actual reveal of the robot which harkens back to the promise of those original 80s toys: Robots in Disguise.   With this figure, I will make an exception.

throne

A throne fit for nothing.

He’s not the first Grimlock to come with a throne, even the official MP08 figure has had an official throne released, but the difference in quality is worlds apart; the FP version is a solid mold made of durable plastic with a quick wash to give it some texture and bring out the detail, and is also a two piece construction like the Hasbro offering, but screwed together.  If you dropped a screw on the Hasbro version, it would probably tear through it.

-_- 9

Severo’s throne just looks cool, and the option to store weapons on the rear is a sensible one, especially with the Game of Thrones style sword arrangement.  Even without the final figures released and only swords available, this works very well.  Very cool FP, very cool indeed.  I can see people buying the rest of the Dinos just to collect the swords to make this an amazing diorama.  And yes, it includes a crown, slightly bigger than the MP08 version, which actually gives Severo a bit of a Jothri feel, making him look more petulant and dangerous.

-_- 9-2

His robot mode is exactly what you expect; big, strong, and angry-looking.  This is a Grimlock that means business; more Marvel Comics than Sunbow animation – Blaster wouldn’t stand a chance.  I wasn’t expecting it, but there is a nice bit of detailing on the back of his arms which gives a little nod to the War Within Grimlock robot mode (a personal favourite of mine and one I hope to own better executed than the Titanium), it’s little details like this that show the care and attention FP put into this guy, drawing on multiple versions of the character for inspiration.  The head sculpt is interesting, managing to go classic and feral without the overly detailed “exposed teeth” design that has been popular for the character since Maximum Dinobots – I don’t miss it.  He has chunky hips, but nothing distracting, I only mention it because stylistically he closest to the Toyworld re-imagining which – in my opinion – suffered from child bearing / combiner hips.

-_- 14

Melee-Master for the win

He comes with his popular G1 style gun and sword, as well as two massive extra miniguns which work really well on dinosaur mode.  As is tradition with the retail release of the Exo-Realm, he has Target Master style companions, not one, but two.  Pottao and Kottav are mean looking little bruisers that look like they could wipe the floor with most other Solerons.  Each can become a melee weapon, but it’s when you combine the two together into it’s final Melee-Master form that you get a mace like weapon that totally suits old Grimmy.  I mean Severo.  No, I mean Grimlock, this guy is every inch Grimlock.

The transformation is fun, easy and instinctive, enough so that I have been able to do it without instructions both ways.  Obviously, the transformation borrows a lot from previous Grimlocks, who mostly all follow the standard G1 transformation (except Pretender Classics and Don Fig’s CHUG update), which makes him a bit easier to handle ‘structions free, and the legs borrow more than a little from the MP offering.

-_- 12 Opt

So onto Dinosaur mode, how is he?  Honestly, I feel like the neck is too long, and the tail too short.  The neck is probably about right in all honesty, we just expect Grimmy to have a shorter neck due to the original toy and animation model, and I think it looks better than the Toyworld version in all modes for a comparison – as I felt that had a looong neck.  The tail could have down with an extra fold to enable it to be longer whilst still storing in alt. mode, but it’s a small complaint.  It also would have been nice if his claws were separately articulated like the MP, but this might be a good thing given how sharp they are.  Also, I’m not a huge fan of the joints that hold his wings / dino upper chest in place, as they sort of stick up in dino mode, mostly because they double as weapon pegs and posting the miniguns in place does mitigate this look massively, but when un-weaponed they are noticeable, and for the sake of 3-4mm, then could still be functional and less obvious.  Other than these complaints, he looks great in dino mode, especially with his team-mates.

-_- 12

So, does he fit in a collection?  Absolutely, though it depends what you want him for.  If you just wanted a single Grimlock all on it’s own; I recommend MP08 above this, as I love that toy a lot.  However, toys don’t exist in a vacuum and Grimmy needs his team mates.  If you’re looking for MP style, you currently cannot beat out Fans Toys.  If you want combining Dinobots (always controversial to some in the fandom), there are other choices available.  If you want stylised FOC guys, see Planet X because really, they are awesome and their Grimlock analogue Vulcan is extremely awesome.

-_- 10

Severo, Columpio, Velor, and Cubrar

However, if you want a decent re-imagined Dinobot team for your Classics Collection, then I feel that the FP Exo-Realm are the way to go.  The CHUG figure is almost ten years old now (ye gods!), and wasn’t a great figure in its day and has remained all on his own for all that time (although, when you know it’s an update of Pretender Grimlock not G1 Grimlock it makes a lot more sense).

-_- 13

Solerons: Diaclone Drivers and Melee Masters.

The Lost Exo Realm are definitely more than the sum of their parts.  Each release has bolstered the other releases and the closer we get to them being a team, the happier I am.  Are they flawless?  No.  My Columpio needs wrist joints and I always want my Sludge’s to be bigger, and he still needs me to do the hip swap but the after-care replacement parts were at least provided.  I don’t like Cubrar / Slag’s head and his Splinter Cell goggles, but the chrome horns really pop.  I wish Volar / Swoop had more in the way of locking the legs into place and hiding his hands, but he comes with a choice of bodies and look at that wingspan!

-_- 11

4 down, 2 to go.

As a team of re-imagined Dinobots, these guys are the best game in town.  Once you factor in all their weapons, their Melee-Master companions or Diaclone Driver tributes (depending on if you go for the regular releases or convention exclusives), and their choice of G1 or Diaclone colours, they really do become a set that will please most CHUG collectors.  I look forward to their Snarl and their mysterious Fembot completing the team.

ler05

LER05 – ???

Severo is now in stock and available to order from Kapow Toys.