The Darker Side of Transformers #5

This article is written to explain the legal wrangling behind the scenes and what led to the issue between Takara and Philip Morris Inc. In accordance with legal agreements, the images displayed here are for educational purposes only and pictures of the Masterpiece toy have been kept to a minimum. 

Exhaust

"Perhaps you had better start at the beginning"

In the 1970s car company Lancia designed the Stratos specifically for entering into rallying but after numerous successes was entered into racing where it also performed well, making the Stratos a no-brainer for inclusion in Takara's Diaclone Car Robots line.

(c) Great Racing Cars

MP-27 Masterpiece Ironhide

Introduction

Ever since July 2015, when Masterpiece Ironhide was sighted at Transformers Expo Taipei, Transformers fans have been waiting patiently to see just how good a job Takara Tomy had made of one of the fandoms favourite G1 characters. With it's recent release, we all finally get to make our own minds up as to whether or not Ironhide made the transition from cartoon to Masterpiece figure in one piece.

Maketoys MTRM-03 Hellfire Review

Inferno's a dude.

As a kid, the 1986 Transformers UK annual's 'Missing In Action' story saw this image burn itself into my retinas.

This walking fire truck had my attention piqued in one image. Strong. Brave. Flame retardant. Everything I ever aspired to be back in the day.

The UK Marvel comics run found him being besties with Smokescreen, going as far as to sacrifice himself by parking his ship nose first in the middle of a warzone, buying his pal a valuable fighting chance. That's significant commitment to a friendship. Due to the elasticity of comic book continuity he gets another chance at a similar thing in G2 when, his temper ignited by Smokescreen's death, Inferno charges headlong into a suicidal revenge run taking down countless foes and bringing down a building on himself in the process.

And the G1 cartoon saw him as a deeply loyal friend to another Autobot, this time Red Alert, and really enjoying being a giant robot fireman. When some accidentally time travelling cowboys end up in the present day (oh G1!), you know what he does? He hoses them down, saying 'Let me put out their fire for good'. Now, nobody had started a fire. There was no imminent danger of a fire. But he's a giant robot fireman and dammit he'll make that line work.

This was obviously cool as all hell to me and saw me nag and nag and nag my parents to get me one buy the toy for myself.

So yes, he's a bit of a dude.

Thanks to the powers of sorcery I have another production sample from Maketoys to look at. Hellfire is the first punch thrown in the Masterpiece Inferno skirmish, as Ocular Max and X-Transbots prepare to lower their guard and start fighting back. Are we looking at a contender here? Let's find out.

(As is the case with production samples, there may well be tolerances to be tweaked etc, but I would suggest this is as close to final as we're going to get.)

Out of the box Hellfire's a chunky fella make no mistake. A chunky, hefty and gloriously red robot, he looks tough, handy in a fight and there's no mistaking this for anyone else. This we like. Obviously the red dominates but it's broken up well with gunmetal, silver, white and yellow. Aesthetically he's a hybrid of the original toy and the animation model.

The ladder is integral to his classic look so it being there is a non issue from the start. That said, this is another very clean robot mode from the Re:Master line.

Hand flips in, cannon attaches

For such a beefy 'bot, Hellfire has got the joints in his chassis to stand up and be counted. Articulation is surprisingly good and almost everything you might expect is where it needs to be, with a ball jointed as well as hinged foot and double jointed elbows being the areas that really help and are most welcome. He can't quite pull off a convincing kneeling pose but I'll take what you can achieve.

Almost..

The arms can rotate up from within the cab, but there is an additional ratcheted joint within the upper shoulder. A word of warning. This is tight as hell and I recommend bracing the arm when using it. It's used mainly for transformation, makes more sense there as you need to fold back the white pauldrons for access and it only adds a couple of extra clicks in the robot form.

Packing.. heat

The finish on the figure is almost uniformly excellent. The colours are eye catchingly beautiful, the paint is applied very well and once again, Maketoys' use of diecast in the Re:Master line is well considered and beneficial. It's found in the feet, the lower legs and the crotch and adds weight to the figure as well as balance to poses. Great stuff.

Less great stuff; those 'wings' at the back of the upper torso look smart but are an utter annoyance, popping off at the merest thought of touching them. They go straight back on but I can't Professor X them back the way I get them off.

An important thing to point out is that his hip skirts are one piece. When you lift the right side, the left side lifts as well. So if you hold the left side down while swinging up the right, you're gonna break it. Maketoys issued an instructional warning on Facebook, but not everyone will see it, so please be aware. I can't for the life of me understand why they didn't just make these pieces operate independently of the other as this taints the enjoyment an otherwise wonderful robot.

Because I'm an idiot, I have no Red Alert or Smokescreen to pair the big guy with, but I do have somebody to hand who complements his (don't do it.. not another..) fiery personality just as well.

.

 Hellfire's robot mode fits in both visually and in scale with the official Masterpiece line. A job well done.

These two start fires, they don't put them out

A bit of noise has been made about the head. It's toy and animation accurate which fits with the overall aim of this figure, but because the original animation model used two types of head design (his shell twin Grapple being the other), it's not necessarily the one that people remember. But if you want to remain beholden to a 30 year old cartoon renowned for its animation inaccuracies, I guess you might have an argument.

He got them for Christmas

As for how the head looks? I think it's fine, with a really nice sculpt although the helmet might be a touch too big. This one has a bit of a sour look to his face which I quite like, although the final release will come with various options for you to try. They seem to range from decent to er.. terrifyingly bad. I wanna see pics, for better or worse, when you get yours.


Hellfire's transformation might initially seem borderline complex but that's largely because the instructions miss out a step or two surrounding the legs. Again, another set of 3P instructions that aren't really up to snuff. Do take care with that hip skirt and apply the same thinking in robot mode to this piece during transformation. Outside of that, this is actually a great conversion and at its heart is the original toy's design. It's an intuitive affair too, with everything having a logical place to tab or slot into. Even his hand cannon and rifle have a home within the vehicle mode.

And what a vehicle mode it is.

The kid in you has to love this big red fire engine. It's got all the details you'd expect in the ('effing huge) ladder, water hoses and metal grating at the back. Within the cab are some seats, but you're not fitting anyone in there without making a mess. Decorative purposes only.

Yes, you can define the lines where robot and vehicle blur from the sides and it's probably the biggest flaw I can find in this form, coming as it does from so closely homaging the original Inferno toy.

Rubber tires make for a smooth rolling vehicle and along with the diecast add a premium feel to the overall finish of the piece.

It was always going to be about robot mode scale over vehicle, so in fire engine form he might feel a little undersized compared to the Autobot cars. I'm no scale nut so it's not an issue regardless, but I can't see many people having that much of a problem here either.

As she said, that is 'effing huge

Maketoys have thrown down the gauntlet with Hellfire. You've got some options with your Inferno's but this one has come out first and this one has come out fighting.

He does justice to the original toy while stirring elements of the character's cartoon appearances into the mix. Fun to play with, great to pose and visually striking, he also has a very enjoyable transformation and a wonderful looking vehicle mode. That's ticking boxes left, right and centre for me. My main issue is with the hip skirt design and the very tight shoulder ratchets. Both require care when handling and the hip skirt is baffling. Aside from that, what this figure does well is done very well indeed, making Hellfire a winning addition to the Re:Master line and highly recommended.

.

Hot Toys Optimus Prime Starscream Edition review

At 12 inches tall and with a £289.99 recommended retail price Hot Toys' Optimus Prime is a monster in every sense of the word but what is it actually like?

The box is massive. I won't lie, I had to edit the background of the picture above as the box was too big for the light tent. The box is a beautiful piece of work with that amazing graphic of Optimus Prime, which like all Hot Toys figures looks like it's a render until you realise on close inspection that it's actually a photo of the toy!

Holy hell!

Out of the box the figure looks incredible, just simply magnificent. I really recommend clicking the pics for bigger views because some of the detailing is fantastic. This Optimus isn't all nice and shiny, he is a battle worn and hardened warrior complete with wear, tear and rust effects. He's huge and intimidating but the lack of die cast makes the figure very light which is...odd after being used to handling the Masterpiece versions of Prime.

4 million years of warfare and a spot of (painted on) rust

If you click the picture above for the full scale version you'll see how impressive the weathering is and even more impressive is that it's all hand painted! 

Optional wheel kibble

The figure doesn't transform but Hot Toys have a magnificent eye for detail so they've included a wheel-kibble backpiece in case you want Optimus to look a bit more transformery. 

Without kibble

Without the pack pack the figure does look a lot sleeker and gives easy access to the on/off switch for the light up feature. 

Cramp

Those mentalists at Hot Toys haven't stopped there though as the fingers are articulated! There is a second set of hands included in a gun grip pose to make the weapon easier to hold. 

Jazz hands. No, not that Jazz....

For extra articulation, the grill on his stomach can be pushed in, allowing him to bend a little at the waist which does give a lot of extra possibilities when it comes to posing.

It isn't much but it does allow Op to stand more aggressively and in better combat poses. The crotch piece is a innovative in that it's only connected at the hips and essentially sits free floating, hiding the ball joints in the hips and the chunky joints those sit on to give even more range of motion.

As usual, Hot Toys include a base with the figure which comes with a stand to support Optimus a bit better in poses. The odd thing is that the base is a bit too small for him to stand in so it's only useful really for putting one foot in, which isn't a huge amount of use. Prime himself stands pretty well unaided so it's hard to not feel that the base could have been easily left out. 

Lights our darkest hour and handy for power cuts.

Optimus' chest opens up to show off the non-removable Matrix. The detail here is a little plain compared to the rest of Prime and could have been a bit nicer. But now we're about to veer into strange territory....

This release is called the "Starscream edition" because it comes with null rays and wings because...uhh...it just does. 

The null rays can attach to the forearms or can be shoulder mounted. I'm really not sure why Hot Toys went this route but they do grow on you after a while.

Shoulder mounting the null rays gives them a much better look in my opinion but especially when the wings are attached. Yes, there are wings.

Coming soon from IDW - Optimus dismembers Starscream and wears parts of his corpse!

Yeah it's definitely getting bizarre but the wings are pretty cool. They can be attached with or without that back pack to give them a wider or narrower span plus they are hinged so can swing outwards a little. 

As much as I'd love to say that the Starscream parts are ridiculous and unnecessary they are actually pretty cool and give Prime a dynamic that we haven't seen before. Sure it doesn't really fit with anything but this figure is intended to be a standalone figure or part of a Hot Toys collection so is designed to be unique.  

The last accessory is the blaster that's included which looks nothing like Optimus' iconic rifle. It looks like Hot Toys were inspired a little by Fall of Cybertron for this design and while the gun is cool, it's still disappointing that it's not the gun.

I know what you're thinking - "Did I fire 1,986,456 blasts or 1,986,455" 

So what's the verdict? Well it's a great figure but it's definitely intended to look great in a glass cabinet so the articulation is pretty hidden away but that does compromise the articulation a little. However, part of that articulation issue is just Optimus' appearance because he's a big chunky robot rather than being contoured like Iron Man, another figure that Hot Toys have repeatedly tackled. 

As cool as the wings and null rays are, most collectors won't be that interested in them and while it's easy to think that the base, wings and null rays are responsible for the heavy price tag it's actually probably not the case. The engineering and production of a figure this detailed for a small market (which Transformers is when compared to Star Wars and Marvel) is costly and so the extra parts were probably included because they added a lot to the set without adding much cost.

Not being diecast, Optimus doesn't feel like a premium item when you feel how light it is but this figure is a premium because of the detail in it, especially the hand painted weathering. Much like the Ultimetal Optimus Prime, this is intended to be something you admire in awe rather than than place on a shelf with Transformers toys.  

The price is the only truly bad thing about this figure because £289.99 is too much, way too much. £250 would be a more reasonable price for it (it's on offer at Masterforce for £269.99) but then Hot Toys figures often sit around because of their price tags then suddenly vanish only to seemingly double in price overnight. Not the best of reasons to buy a figure but it's a reassurance when buying something this pricey that it's likely to hold or increase in value.

Hot Toys' Optimus Prime is so close to being perfect and with the "proper" rifle it could well have been. As it stands, this is a beautiful collectable with minor niggles like the leg vents not being hinged and it's definitely only for the hardcore Transformers fans who want more statuesque figures than articulated transforming toys or Hot Toys collectors.

Take advantage of Masterforce's £269.99 price or wait to see if it drops in price, but if it does then pull the trigger!

DX9 Tyrant Review

DX9 had a good 2015, branching out from their associaton with Unique Toys, releasing some nifty little Legends figures (Hulkie still to land, ZOMG!) and making quite the name for themselves with Carry, their take on a Masterpiece scaled Rodimus Prime. It was a good toy, nay it was a great toy, and a very well received one to boot. Riding that wave of momentum comes their logical next release - Tyrant. Yes, Prime's nutzoid nemesis gets the pseudo MP treatment as DX9 draw first blood in the Third Party Galvatron Wars.

Now, I like Galvatron. Look at his G1 cartoon origins; As Megatron reborn, this initially cold and clinical beast develops God sized daddy issues, fails at taking on his chaos bringing stepdad and becomes a raving twinkle horned lunatic in the follow up episodes after a prolonged nap in molten lava at the hands of Rodimus Prime. Sometime afterwards the big fella doesn't take too well to the idea of forced therapy to help him through his trauma, so blows up the planet his treatment takes place on. Personally.

That's the kind of music that sings to me, so a high end toy of Galvatron has expectations to live up to. Is Tyrant worthy of your your hard earned cash? Well..

I don't usually prattle on about packaging but this is a midnight carnival of garish colour and noise, full of lawsuit baiting imagery and phrasing along with what may or may not be teases to future releases. They don't even spell his name right. It hurts my eyes, I enjoy its bravado and we're done.

Evil gets a makeover

Tyrant comes packaged in robot mode, and straight away you have a fix to do. Urgh. You have to swap out the hip panels. Which were popped on the wrong sides at assembly. It's easy, but something to be aware of. That out of the way, Tyrant is a sight to behold. There's no escaping the bang up job DX9 have done here. From the three pronged crown to Sir's choice of golden or sparkly particle cannon, this is Galvatron through and through and it's kind of brilliant. Initial impressions out of the box are heavy, solid and purdy.

Fixes?! KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!

'..I want the Matrix'

That initial feeling of high quality continues as you have a good mess about, with chunky ratchets and tight friction joints abound. There's a good range of motion available to you which means some dynamic poses are easily within your grasp and the cleverly die cast feet do a good job in keeping him well grounded if not looking a bit bizarre. Which makes it all the more infuriating to have such a daft outward hip ratchet. From neutral...

Enough crotch for you?

..to damn! I mean, why? Thankfully there's enough play between the ratchet detents to circumvent some of this but it's a frustrating design choice. As are the fingers, which look great and are full of articulation - ball jointed knuckles, hinged fingers - but they're so small and loose and worrying. They don't stay in a position well and most of the time I find myself balling his fists to avoid using them at all.

Still, these gripes are gripes you can work around, and I write this just realising he has an upper bicep swivel (it's tight!) which means I can now access the double jointed elbow and add valuable XP to my Tyrant's articulation level. Result.

Accessory wise, Tyrant comes with his particle cannons in both animation and toy flavours, a (huge) Matrix and a chain for him to wear it around his neck. My Matrix appears to have been er.. 'appropriated' by my nephew so you'll have to make do with him wearing MP-10's.. it fits better anyway. His cannon actually contains a blindingly bright purple LED torch. The neighbours hate it! Magnificent stuff.

As you take your eyes on a tour of the figure, you'll see so many things that are so spot on to the original cartoon character yet the designer was not totally beholden to the animation model, so his alt mode treads end up on his back to no detriment at all. It's a choice made to keep the robot mode clean and works, though you G1 purists might find this a bit jarring. Some have commented on the proportions, that his arms are bit weedy and short but in hand? Nah. Not at all. This is a fantastic representation of Galvatron and both FansToys and X-Transbots have some serious work ahead of them.

And special mention must go to the head sculpt which is in all honesty, one of the best out there today. It's not just nailed down, DX9 came round to your house with a framed photo of it and put it up in your front room and in my eyes is truly the defining aspect of the figure.

Except for maybe the transformation, and it was from here on in that my love affair with Tyrant started to lose its sparkle. Right, I enjoy a challenge. I do. But Tyrant's transformation just doesn't click with me. First time round I used the instructions. I could've hopped onto Youtube but I thought 'Screw that, Carry was a dream, let's go for it'. GO ON YOUTUBE.

Because it took me 90 minutes and some stressed pieces even though I was was warned about them before using the included booklet.

After finally figuring out how to fit his arms inside his chest I needed a cigarette break. Which seemed apt as come leg transformation time it appears that the writer of said booklet was also on theirs.

Maybe it's just me? I dunno. But for your own enjoyment of an involved and inventive transformation (there's some really nice stuff going on to fill out gaps and maintain solid shapes), don't rely on the instructions first time round because the fun quickly becomes undone. I will also say that in addition to the warnings about these pieces, there are also some wickedly tight tolerances when transforming the leg panels too so be careful full stop.

                              
Space Cannon? We'll go with that. It's great regardless, an imposingly chunky bit of starscreaming bloody murder with all the parts on Tyrant's robot mode that seemed a bit understated finding their own voice after conversion.

Working rubber treads, chrome, translucent and metallic red highlights and to finish it off the toy almost totally changes its base colour which is an awesome little visual trick. Everything pegs together tightly and you also feel like your hands have been put through an Insanity workout in getting here.

No messing about though, I love Tyrant's vehicle mode.

Sadly, going back to robot mode (which as always, is so much easier) I felt that some of the shine had come away from my immediate thoughts regarding the figure. I had damaged it, caused a chip on that chiselled face of his while getting it out of vehicle mode and once I had him back in his robot form left Tyrant well alone for a day. Hmm.

Picking him up to write this review though, well I won't be putting him down for a good while after. Though the days of us finishing each others sentences and staying up drinking into the dawn have long gone now that he's revealed a bit too much of himself that I don't like.

Tl:dr then. Both forms are superb. Getting to one feels like someone has their middle finger in my face all the way through. It's an almost win of a figure but carries some serious caveats to universally recommending it as there is potential for breakage and frustration. The press on this toy has been almost unanimously positive and I'm not going out of my way to piss in the punchbowl, I'm just telling you of my own experience with it. DX9 made one of my figures of 2015. And this one is very, very good. I like Tyrant, I just don't love Tyrant.

'..but I got your name in a tattoo and everything'

You can order Tyrant from Masterforce here and you can read more from Boatful Manfish here.