Technobots. How might I praise them in prose?
Well, let’s take their batty G1 cartoon origins for a start, where a
juiced up hyper intelligent Grimlock makes all five of them in as many minutes
from bits of scrap knocking around Unicron’s disembodied head. Or
how about total asshat Scattershot starting the war all over again in the
Marvel story ‘Peace’? No question about it, long since worn out VHS and comic book wizardry cemented them as
toys I needed. Kudos, good human toy advertisers.
And so we have the eight year old me, bereft of Technobot goodness and harbouring a nigh on murderous desire to wrest Lightspeed, Afterburner et al from my next
door neighbours flaunting clutches. I stayed my killing hand and resigned myself to a world without them. Fast forward three decades and who’s the
winner now, eh?
Quantron - the latest in the MTCombiner Series - follows the success of Maketoys’ Giant Type 61 with another all inclusive boxset, a ballbusting price tag and more of the single minded drive and determination that has come to define this company.
There’s a lot to get through, particularly in a written review, so this will be a two parter. We'll dismember the limbs first.
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| Me, yeah? The answer is me. |
Quantron - the latest in the MTCombiner Series - follows the success of Maketoys’ Giant Type 61 with another all inclusive boxset, a ballbusting price tag and more of the single minded drive and determination that has come to define this company.
There’s a lot to get through, particularly in a written review, so this will be a two parter. We'll dismember the limbs first.
Before I look at the figures themselves, some thoughts on
the manual. Because the way in which it is presented has really done a couple
of the figures an unnecessary disservice. Without a shadow of a doubt, this has
to be the most baffling, user unfriendly yet professionally printed set of
instructions I have come across in a loooong time.
Not that instruction booklets for Transformers, official or otherwise are often truly up to par, but this one, with its baffling use of arrows and confusingly colour coded CAD takes some serious beating. This is a major screw up on Maketoys part and needs to be noted. A well designed and easy to follow guide would eliminate so many needless pages of angry, angry ranting on the Internet.
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| 'WHY?! Primus.. why???' |
Not that instruction booklets for Transformers, official or otherwise are often truly up to par, but this one, with its baffling use of arrows and confusingly colour coded CAD takes some serious beating. This is a major screw up on Maketoys part and needs to be noted. A well designed and easy to follow guide would eliminate so many needless pages of angry, angry ranting on the Internet.
My advice is to spend some time familiarising yourself with
the figures first. I didn’t rush in, I spent a good week and a bit with the
individual figures and modes before considering combining them. And to be
honest, given the price of the set I wanted my moneys worth.
You’ve got five new toys who together make a sixth. Enjoy
them leisurely as you would a fine wine. Balk at the booklets bastardry, use it
as a guide only and figure them out for yourself. The likes of Celeritas and
SonicDrill are small, at times fiddly and are trying something new. It can be
infuriating, but it doesn’t make them bad.
With that in mind, let’s have a quick peek at the four smaller figures that make up Quantron's limbs.
Celeritas
Or Lightspeed. Rocking in at around the same size as a FansProject Stunticon (as well he should given that this set shares more than just a few design similarities with FP’s finger bruising combiner), Celeritas is a nice enough looking robot, sharp of sculpt, probably a bit nondescript and very, very red. His articulation leaves a bit to be desired around the arms – but that doesn’t mean he can’t hit some decent poses.
Transformation can be tricky. The problem lies within the arms. It's a counter intuitive process getting them lined up. Naturally the instructions are as much help as being injected with sodium pentothal by the missus the day after your works Christmas party.
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| Michael Bay was right.. |
Or Lightspeed. Rocking in at around the same size as a FansProject Stunticon (as well he should given that this set shares more than just a few design similarities with FP’s finger bruising combiner), Celeritas is a nice enough looking robot, sharp of sculpt, probably a bit nondescript and very, very red. His articulation leaves a bit to be desired around the arms – but that doesn’t mean he can’t hit some decent poses.
Transformation can be tricky. The problem lies within the arms. It's a counter intuitive process getting them lined up. Naturally the instructions are as much help as being injected with sodium pentothal by the missus the day after your works Christmas party.
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| ..Red is an absolute bitch to capture right. |
His alt mode takes the form of a futuristic car with more than a passing nod to the Mach6 from Speed Racer. In this form Celeritas sports sleek curves and lines, packs gorgeous translucent plastic running throughout his frame (a theme with the set) and is very, very red. This car mode is a real winner, easily surpassing the somewhat lacklustre robot mode.
Overheat
Phwoaar, now we’re talking. A real overhaul of the G1 design, Overheat is probably recognisable as Afterburner by colour only. But somehow, once you have this wonderfully articulated little ‘bot in hand that ceases to be an issue. He just looks cool as hell with missile pods decked out on his wheel kibble, a (somewhat half arsed) sniper rifle and the gloves of a chef taking a delicious pie out of the oven.
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| Weapons combine to form a hammer. Made of missile pods. Not that smart after all. |
Phwoaar, now we’re talking. A real overhaul of the G1 design, Overheat is probably recognisable as Afterburner by colour only. But somehow, once you have this wonderfully articulated little ‘bot in hand that ceases to be an issue. He just looks cool as hell with missile pods decked out on his wheel kibble, a (somewhat half arsed) sniper rifle and the gloves of a chef taking a delicious pie out of the oven.
One thing I don’t like about Overheat’s transformation is
the lifting and rotating of a spring loaded plastic panel within each leg. It doesn’t feel
like it’s going to break but it’s almost like it’s asking you to try when you
first transform him. It could have extended out further or had less pull back on
it and isn't the greatest of design choices.
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| 'nuff said. |
Overheat transforms into a lightcycle. And that’s pretty
much all you need to know.
SonicDrill
Ah.. there’s always one, isn’t there? Maketoys version of Nosecone was the Internet’s new best friend on arrival, owing to the intricate and unique engineering that makes up his three forms and the already flogged to death directions he comes with. It’s also pretty obvious given his pedigree (FansProject M3) that the designer enjoys his complex transformations and doesn’t give a damn if we don’t. Part of me truly respects that uncompromising stance. Part of me wants to hit him with a brick.
Ah.. there’s always one, isn’t there? Maketoys version of Nosecone was the Internet’s new best friend on arrival, owing to the intricate and unique engineering that makes up his three forms and the already flogged to death directions he comes with. It’s also pretty obvious given his pedigree (FansProject M3) that the designer enjoys his complex transformations and doesn’t give a damn if we don’t. Part of me truly respects that uncompromising stance. Part of me wants to hit him with a brick.
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| Gloriously, sublimely articulated. |
As a robot he’s a lot of fun. He has joints everywhere including an ab crunch. Like
Overheat this one deviates from the source a fair whack. I didn’t get this set just for the G1 love letter so when it’s giving me searchlights on the shoulders, some
kind of sci fi eye patch and a big (optional) drill hand as a weapon I am
smiling. Underslung guns too. Nice. Stress marks where his searchlights clip
into? Not so nice. And his colours are probably a bit busy compared to his team
mates.
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| The death of fingertips? |
SonicDrill transforms through a bewildering array of twists and turns and tabs into a solid, okay looking chunk of industrial treaded drill. No rolling wheels in the treads because it’s assumed I’m old enough to know better than to want that kind of functionality. A nice use of translucent red plastic in the cockpit and tons of sculpted detail aside, it’s probably the weakest of the set in vehicle mode. Not in any way bad, just a bit ‘eh?’. Which is a shame considering what you have to go through to get there.
Blindfire
And then the designer goes and drops a total smash hit in the form of the last of our limbs to fall under scrutiny.
And then the designer goes and drops a total smash hit in the form of the last of our limbs to fall under scrutiny.
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| Christmas Number 1. |
This an outrageously good toy.
Sleek, full of hard lines with orange translucent plastic crackling throughout his body like circuit boosters, not only does Blindfire look great he has the poseability to back it up. Weapons wise he has the option of dual blasters or laser swords and is easily the highlight of the four figures being reviewed today.
Compared to Sonic, this Strafe wannabe transforms by
squeezing his legs together, putting his arms to the side and collapsing the
legs. A bit of weapon partsforming forms the front of the jet mode. Seriously, you can pretty much blink and this thing is
in jet mode. Did I say jet mode? Vic
Viper mode. On a shot glass. I mean come on.
On the whole I do rate these four highly.
They're stunning to look at, gel well as a team, throw in some brilliant sci-fi homages and have the fiddle factor I crave in my Transformers. I find it maddeningly brilliant that toys as night and day in complexity (Blindfire and SonicDrill) are packaged together in one job lot. And the nostalgia hit is satisfying despite the stylings of the team being a seriously new take on the originals.
However, the instructions are poor and as a result the toys can become needlessly complex. SonicDrill is hard work regardless (although subsequent transformations are much easier) and Celeritas as a robot is a bit dull. The aesthetics of the set could actually be a criticism depending on what you are after in your updates. G1 this is not. And if you don't like fiddly little things I am proud of you for reading this far.
They're stunning to look at, gel well as a team, throw in some brilliant sci-fi homages and have the fiddle factor I crave in my Transformers. I find it maddeningly brilliant that toys as night and day in complexity (Blindfire and SonicDrill) are packaged together in one job lot. And the nostalgia hit is satisfying despite the stylings of the team being a seriously new take on the originals.
However, the instructions are poor and as a result the toys can become needlessly complex. SonicDrill is hard work regardless (although subsequent transformations are much easier) and Celeritas as a robot is a bit dull. The aesthetics of the set could actually be a criticism depending on what you are after in your updates. G1 this is not. And if you don't like fiddly little things I am proud of you for reading this far.
Wow, that was certainly long. Many thanks to the three of you who stuck with it. Next up, the big guy Metalstorm along with the BIG guy himself.
