22 Mar 2016

Fans Project LER-04 Severo

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.

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?

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).

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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!

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 – ???

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

21 Mar 2016

You’re not the Boss of me!

This week, we’ll be taking a look at the Turbomasters, a quick one each day, and then a recap and group shots at the weekend. They are firmly G1, sometimes known as Euro G1.5 and occasionally mistaken for G2 figures. Some people know a few of the molds from Machine Wars and even the Universe line of repaints, but not all the molds have been re-used.

The Turbomaster Cars for instance, were released in 1992 in Europe by Hasbro, and they were also released by Takara as part of the Operation Combination series in Japan later the same year, but they never saw release in the United States, ever, and to date have never had any repaints, retools or reissues.

The gimmick for this series (other than Transforming, of course) was missiles! Lots and lots (and lots, seriously) of missiles. Their rivals are the Predators (sometimes called the Predator Jets, who we will be looking at next week) also has the same gimmick, but with much more generic – and fragile – launchers.

First up, we look at Sub-Commander of the Turbomasters; Boss.

As a robot, Boss looks simple enough. His paint job and stickers don’t do much for him, and only a few things make him stand out from the crowd; One is his incredibly Prime-esque head and faceplate – possibly a case of primus apotheosis, and the second is his pink windshield / chestplate, which may be what confuses some people into thinking of him as a G2 piece. His over-sized weapon also looks quite boss in this mode.

It’s his alt. mode and the simple but fun transformation that make this guy shine. The Turbomasters each have unique missile launchers which can be integrated into their vehicle modes and in the case of Boss this is very much essential to his transformation. His spare missiles can be stored on his alt. mode as pictured and while they can be stored the same way in robot mode, the results are not quite as photogenic.

Obscure European card artwork

Like a lot of the toys from this era, I love this guy. Away from any “Master” gimmicks, be they action, target, head, micro or shell based, and just fun transformations that look like cool cars and fun robots.

Boss has had relatively few fiction appearances, other than a never resolved Dreamwave sub-plot and some appearances in the IDW continuity, certainly nothing that has showcased him like some of the other European figures such as Pyro.

Boss is also known by the name Blizzard in France, and Mach Road in Japan where he was packaged in a two-pack with Flare Jet (Snare) in some of the best packaging I’ve seen, packaging so nice I did start to try and collect them even though I’m a loose collector and I already have both the toys. I’ll try and get some good photos of some of at least one of these two packs for the final article. While nothing about the toy was changed for this release, his packaging artwork was reworked to give him a more toy accurate face.

Japanese Vs. Europe

To date, Boss has had no re-imagining (despite how easy it would be to release him as a retooled CHUG Blurr – are you listening Fun Publications?), third party or official, and his name has not even been re-purposed. He remains a woefully under-used part of the TF lore.

17 Mar 2016

I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE AND I BRING YOU… ugh, Firecons :(

No-one can deny that the early days of Transformers G1 provided us with some real innovation, especially in this early Takara Diaclone and Micro-change toys.

Unfortunately, the good ol’ days only last so long, and pretty soon the reality of business takes over. For Hasbro, this meant designing new toys in house which were cheaper to manufacture and – thanks to the nature of plastic over die-cast – with molds that would last much longer.

As kids, a lot of us might not have noticed the cheap-creep, but I remember my parent’s certainly voiced it as they loved the early years, but were not fans of the later era. As metal disappeared, detailing became simpler, basic gimmicks took over, and sometimes hands disappeared to be replaced with stubs (I’m looking at you Powermaster Prime!), it was easy to see the difference from 1985 to 1987.

This wasn’t always a bad thing, as limitations can often spur creativity – case in point Budiansky and Furman’s writing, and some of the Hasbro designs have a charm and simplicity all of their own. Many toys I disliked as a child I have come to love, including the much maligned Action Masters, and many collectors love their Pretender collections.

But sometimes we get The Firecons.

Despite a fairly cool first appearance in the comic-book, where they went toe-to-toe with Galvatron (spoiler – they lost), nothing could have prepared me for the toys.

Yeah. Any Gee-wunners who go with the fleeting statement that all G1 are better than the toys we get now, need look at these guys. From left to right, we have Flamefeather (blue), Cindersaur(purple) and Sparkstalker (pinky purple), released in 1988 as one of the lower priced figures in the TF range.

They transform from three decent enough looking mythological bird monster creatures (a lot of Decepticons went a bit feral cyber-beasty by this era), with some really nice sculpted detailing – albeit with rubber tyres sticking out of their chests – to…

…this. Three decent enough looking mythological bird monster creatures with robots carved onto their backs. Their alt. mode legs retain the same function in robot mode, their robot arms unfold to reveal the very basic (and similar looking) robot heads underneath. The alt mode head, tail and arms just fold behind the robot as mega-kibble, so don’t look behind or turn them around.

I guess much of the sacrifice was due to their gimmick (other than transforming), as the Firecons could fire sparks out of their beast mouths if you ran their alt. mode bellies along the ground, then it was a rush to point the sparks into your friends eyes before they stopped working (the sparks and the eyes!). This was great fun as a kid, for the first week or so until you wore the flint out, and got a rollockin’ from the parents for scratching up the living room table / kitchen counter / doorframe. Usually, this would result in a bit of paint work damage too, which is why the beaks and horns on these guys often have some paint rubbing.

These guys are cheap enough to collect, and an interesting curiouso, though I would suggest the main collecting reasons for these guys are a) nostalgia and b) a sense of completion. But honestly? How is that any different to the rest of collecting? They are also something of a rarity – as they will never be displayed in robot mode in my collection.

Two of the three were later released in Generation 2 exclusively in European markets (please note, European markets often also include Canada, presumably due to the dual language packaging and licensing deals in place), using one of my most hated giummicks; clear plastic. Thankfully, the colours are suitably offensive and G2, so I do dig them. A lot. As much as I might joke about the Firecons, these G2 variations are legitimately hard to find, especially in the United States.

Cindersaur didn’t make the cut, I’ve often wondered if his absence could be explained through gang-molding, as Flamefeather and Sparkstalker appear to share a few colour-schemes in the G1 and G2. However, 16 years later as part of Botcon 2010, they did release a Cindersaur, albeit using the 10th Anniversary of Beast Wars Megatron mold, so it doesn’t really fit. Despite an incredibly cool colour palette that makes me want to immediately do a custom to complete my G2 set proper, I just can’t get behind this toy. It’s just too far from the source for me, and instead of “completing a set” with a mold 16 years remove, it instead starts yet another sub-set it Fun-Pub have no intention of finishing. Points for effort though guys.

Cindersaur? Or just a blue Beast Megatron? You decide.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Japanese releases of these, also in 1988.

As the Decepticon Sparkdash sub-group, we saw Cindersaur re-coloured into a mean looking green and grey as Guzzle, Flamefeather released as Sizzle unchanged, and Sparkstalker in red as Javil. These names are especially confusing if you’re familiar with the names of the Western Sparkabots; Fizzle, Sizzle and Guzzle. We will do an article on these guys in the near future, but if you’d like to see more of the Destron Sparkdash’s, check out Brr-icy’s wonderful blog here. These guys have fantastic packaging, that almost make you want to pay $200 for an unchanged $5 toy in the case of Flamefeather.

In conclusion, the Firecons haven’t seen much love. No CHUG re-imaginings, no Third Party Representation, and only the most token of name re-usage in Bot-Shots, you would have thought they’d have fit well in Beast Hunters. At least Sparkstalker has had a decent showing in the IDW comics (with a name like that, you’d think he’d be a lot more bad-ass) but as yet, it hasn’t let to any new toys. Despite my lack of fondness for the G1, it would be nice to see these guys done well as it could redeem them a little bit. I was hoping to get these from a company like iGear or Mech iDeas as they seemed to fit with their concept of small and cost effective, but alas, thus far we have nothing. Titan Masters anyone?

– CZH / Ceno Kibble / Sid.

16 Mar 2016

DEVASTATION but on a tiny scale……

DX9 are winning with box art alone!!

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16 Mar 2016

BUGS EVERYWHERE!!!

Something that ticks a major box for me with transformers is a tidy robot. Forager from Fanstoys defiantly ticks that box!! check out the pics below.

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There is still time to pre-orders yours HERE!

16 Mar 2016

Is there going to be a dog fight?

Well hound fight to be more specific…..

I picked up a Maketoys Gundog when he came out, and I have to say, I thought he was Awesome, really heavy and well built. But the more pictures I see of Fanstoys Willis The more I think I will end up owning 2 versions of hound!