Yesterday I looked at Fansproject’s Diesel in his alt mode and basic robot mode, now it’s time to break into the back half of that trailer. Like the Native American hunters of old, Diesel makes use of all parts of the buffalo semi-truck. Our first stop is to cannibalize the back trailer to power up Diesel. Here’s where the fun begins because you have to bust down the trailer into all sorts of parts. All the time I was doing it I kept wondering, “How the hell am I ever going to get this back together again?” The first time I tried, I had one piece that I just couldn’t figure out how to get back into the mix. The second time I tried… well, the same thing happened. The third time was the charm and I figured out what I was doing wrong. Now I can practically rebuild that trailer in my sleep.

Diesel’s Powered Up mode basically consists of him wearing parts of his trailer as additional armor and weapons. It gets broken down and rebuilt into four parts. Two of these become weapon pods that go on his shoulders. Each one has a set of quad-barreled blasters with four missiles above them and a smaller quad-rocket pack on each side. It’s safe to say that Diesel can lay down a ridiculous amount of fire without even trying. I like these things a lot, as they look intentional, rather than a convenient way to stick extra parts on him. I don’t think they’re every day walking around weapons, but rather Sunday Best for when he has a special battle to show up to and wants to present himself well.

The other two parts of the trailer just clip onto Diesel’s shoulders via the combiner ports. Unlike the shoulder weapons, these do look like just a convenient way to stick extra parts on him. They don’t really serve any purpose other than to bulk him out and so you can say, “Hey, look he really does use all his parts!” Honestly, they don’t look as bad as I thought they would, but I’m sure I will never display him with those on ever again. Assuming you give him his gun, that just leaves the parts to make M3’s sword. The sword is too big for Diesel to sensibly wield even in this Powered Up mode. He can, however, wear it on his back. The instructions are a little vague on this point, so I haven’t figured it out yet. I’m content with just placing it aside for now.

Powered up modes are all well and good, but let’s face it, the real attraction here is “The-Robot-That-Shall-Not-Be-Called-Menasor!” While the Motor Squad’s combined mode has often been referred to as Intimidator, I don’t see any mention of that name on the package or in the instructions. Instead, he’s just known as the Motor Squad Military Multiplexer, or M3. I’ve only formed M3 one time so far, and it was a total bitch. It should get easier after a couple more tries, but it was quite the chore and I’m going to let a little time go by before I try it again. Basically, Diesel transforms into the torso, head, and upper legs. The trailer parts form the framework for the legs with Car Crash and T-Bone basically just stuck on in their car modes. Downshift and Last Chance are than transformed into the arms, with trailer parts used to form the shoulders, hands, and to fill out the gap in Last Chance. It’s a daunting task to get through it, but it’s hard to complain when the end result looks like this…

M3 is absolutely gorgeous and he’s a lot bigger than I expected him to be. A lot of the added height comes from the fact that his lower legs are built from his trailer and the cars are just stuck on to bulk him out. That’s not a complaint. Quite the contrary, the way he’s designed makes for a remarkably stable combiner. The feet are broad and ball jointed to give him the ability to achieve a flat and wide stance. The legs do, however, represent the biggest design departure from the original G1 character as the cars are on the front and not the back. I have to admit I like having them on the front better.

The arms are a tad less stable than the legs. If you manipulate the figure a lot, you may find the arms mis-transforming a bit, but that’s not always the case, and it doesn’t keep him from being a fun figure to play with. The hands feature fully articulated fingers and they hold on really well. I had a lot of fun putting M3 through the paces and didn’t have to worry about bits falling off. The chest piece, formed from the back wheel assembly of the trailer, did pop off once, but only once. The combiner ports use a keyhole method, which locks the limbs in place and releases them again when you turn the slot to line up with the notch. This clever system solves the problem of having to apply a scary amount of force (I’m looking at you, Uranos!) to get them on or off. If you’re applying any degree of force, you aren’t lined up right.

Like everything else, M3’s giant sword is cobbled together by pieces of the trailer. The blade comes from two side panels and the point is concealed within. The hilt is stored under the trailer just behind the wheel assembly. Like everything else in this set, it’s a brilliant piece of parts-forming design. There’s a long tab on the hilt, which pegs tightly into M3’s fist, which allows him to hold it perfectly.

Like TFC’s Uranos, I mainly bought the Motor Squad to display as a team in their original robot modes. Now that I’ve spent some time with M3, I’m seriously rethinking that. The combined mode on this guy is just a homerun and I really think it deserves to be shown off. As a kid watching the Sunbow cartoon, I thought the Stunticons were the coolest thing ever, but their figures were so disappointing looking that I never even asked my parents for them. Owning FP’s amazing homage is in a lot of ways like a 20-some year old dream come true. And that brings us to the question of value. All told the Motor Squad set me back about $375 (some retailers are now selling him as a complete set for just a tad more) if you add up the shipping, and I have absolutely no regrets. When considering the amazing amount of work and planning and design that went into these figures on an individual basis as well as their gestalt mode, it’s easy for me to see where all the money went. In terms of the engineering, combining M3 is a bit more involved then I would have liked, but the finished product is probably the best Transformers-style combiner that I’ve ever seen. Of course, that honor may fall before the end of the year as MMC’s Feral Rex is shaping up to be mighty impressive as well.