May 12 2015

Lost Exo-Realm Volar with Velos (LER-03) by Fansproject, Part 1

[If you dropped by last week during my temporary shut down, you may have gotten a raw preview of today’s Feature. I had forgotten it was scheduled to go out and it was indeed not yet complete. It was probably up for a day or so before I stumbled upon it while tinkering with the site, spat Jameson all over my monitor, and quickly took it down. Anyway, here’s the finished, final version and hopefully the last of the wrinkles from last week that I have to iron out. -FF]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that every Third-Party Convertobot company out there has been taking a crack at their own versions of The Dinobots these days. While some of these companies have been brazenly shooting for “as close to copyright infringing G1 likenessas as they can get” styles, Fansproject has been presenting us with a little more of a unique look to these prehistoric-based Transformers. That tickled my fancy enough to get me to shell out the monies for the first two, Columpio (Not-Sludge) and Cubrar (Not-Slag) and I was quite pleased with what I got. To me these are something more akin to what we would get from Hasbro if they ever did a proper Generations-updated style of Dinobots, only far more detailed and complex. The Lost Exo-Realm figures flirt with the G1 designs just enough, while still bringing plenty of originality to the table. I can’t see any rhyme or reason to the order these guys are being released (I mean, who starts with Sludge?), but their third release is Volar (Not-Swoop) and this guy landed on my doorstep last week.

There were some differences in the presentation of packaging between Columpio and Cubrar, but things seem to have settled down now as Volar’s box is very similar to Cubrar’s. There’s some great artwork on the front and lots of pictures of the toy on the back. The front flap is secured by some of the strongest velcro I’ve ever encountered and lifts up to reveal a window showing the goodies inside. The contents include the two figures, a bag of weapons, and an instruction booklet. Also included with my purchase was a replacement pelvis and hips for Columpio, which some may remember shipped with some rather loose hips. Getting bonus parts to improve on earlier releases is something I first encountered with Mastermind Creations, but it’s cool that Fansproject is following suit. Will I swap them? Probably not. It’s not a huge issue with me, but it’s nice to know I have the option. Anywho… as has been the case with past LER releases, Volar comes packaged in his alt mode and that’s where we’re going to start.

I don’t know what’s what in the dinosaur world anymore, but back when I was a kid we called something like this a pterodactyl, although I seem to recall Spike calling it a pteranodon in one of the episodes of the Sunbow cartoon. Either way, it’s one of them flying dinosaur sum’bitches. Overall, I think this mode is pretty well done, but I’ll also admit that I’m grading it on a curve because this is a tough alt mode to do much with. In a lot of ways it reminds me of FP’s Sigma-L (Not-Mindwipe) because you’re pretty much always just going to have the robot feet tuck in to be the animal’s legs, and the arms tied into the wings. Volar does a few interesting things, like the way the arms fold behind him to form a sort of jetpack and the fact that he has a cute little dinosaur tail, but looking at this mode still tells almost the whole story of how this thing is going to transform.

That having been said, what’s here is pretty damn cool. I totally dig the head, which is extremely evocative of the G1 character design. The wing configuration has more of a hooked profile than I remember the original toy having, but it’s quite distinctive and pretty vicious looking. The wingspan is an impressive 13-inches or so when fully extended and there’s a lot of articulation there to work with. Each wing has universal movement at the point of connection to the body and is hinged in two places, so you can fold them up and put them at his side when Volar is standing at rest. The head features some limited movement at the neck, but mostly up and down and a little tilt side to side. The jaw is fully articulated and can open pretty wide.

If you’ve been collecting the retail releases of this line, you know what to expect from the deco. Volar is mostly molded in red and gray plastic and features that same great satiny gold paint that we saw on Cubrar and Columpio. There’s also some silver and blue accents as well. One thing Volar is missing is the shiny metallic silver found on his two predecessors. In this case the silver is more like a satin finish to match the gold. Swoop comes with a red torso, but if you want to mix it up for a little Sunbow cartoon accuracy, a blue torso is included so long as you’re willing to do the work to switch it out. I’m not one for disassembling my $100 toys, so pardon me if I don’t show you both versions.

Volar features a pair of (non-firing) missile launchers, which can be attached in a couple of different ways. They can be clipped onto his back, or more specifically, they are held by his robot hands, which jut off the sides of the jetpack. They can also be pegged into his wings for a more G1 accurate look, either front or back.

Of course, one of the cool little bonuses of the Lost Exo-Realm line is that each figure comes with a little Targetmaster-style buddy. I don’t know if it’s really appropriate to call the previous two Targetmasters because they turn into some kind of chopping or bludgeoning weapon, but in this case, Velos is some kind of crossbow. I love the idea of these little guys and they have featured some really impressive sculpting and design work, but having the huge weapon shaft sticking off of their backs has been a downer. I’m happy to say that Fansproject fixed that problem with Velos by having the the end of the shaft unpeg to become his weapon with the rest of the shaft pointing upward behind his back. Ironically, apart from this huge improvement, Velos is probably my least favorite of these three little figures. He’s perfectly fine, but I like the looks of the others better and their own little weapons were much cooler.

Aaaaand, that’s where I’m going to break today because my trusty word processor is telling me I’m well past my arbitrary and self-imposed word count limit. Tomorrow I’ll swing back and check out Volar’s robot mode and Velos’ weapon mode!

Mar 13 2015

Warbotron: Whirlwind (WB01-D) by Warbotron

Sometime around the middle of last year, Warbotron appeared on the scene and turned some heads with pictures of their set of Not-Transformers combiners that were certainly Not-Combaticons and most definitely did not form a giant robot called Bruticus. With rapid fire bursts, they peppered the Summer of 2014 with Not-Blast Off, Not-Brawl, and Not-Swindle. But by the end of the summer we were Not-Seeing-Any-More-Releases. I can’t say I was terribly worried. These guys had delivered three great figures so far and with so many things out there to spend monies on, delays are sometimes a welcome treat. Well, here we are seven months later and finally the fourth release in the series is on my shelf. He’s Whirlwind and some might say he bears a slight resemblance to a G1 Transformer called Vortex. Then again, others might say differently, but we’ll get to that in a little bit.

I truly love Warbotron’s package design. The box comes with a wrap-around cardboard sleeve with some slick monochrome artwork and lettering. Slip it off and you get a more traditional (and more colorful!) window box showing off the figure in his robot mode and some absolutely bitchin’ wrap-around character artwork. The package is the same size as the boxes used for the other releases and they sure do look great lined up on the shelf. We’ve seen the boxes for the previous three figures, so I won’t spend a lot of time on it here. Let’s kick things off with his alt mode. GET TO DA CHOPPA!

Obviously, Whirlwind is a very different model helicopter than G1 Vortex and I’m perfectly fine with that. I mean, Sly Strike was a Humvee instead of a jeep and he turned out just fine. The alt mode here is solid enough, but I feel it is certainly the weakest in the line so far. Helicopters are like motorcycles… they make for challenging Transformers. I think it’s pretty clear that Warbotron sacrificed a little on the alt mode in order to make the robot work and I support that decision. We basically get a chunky attack chopper with deploy-able weapon pods on the wings (they can fold down into firing position) and a huge ass cannon on the chin. The placement of the tail fins feels a little awkward, like maybe they aren’t far back enough on the tail boom, but otherwise Whirlwind is OK albeit not spectacular.

The coloring consists of mostly gray plastic, which works well for both a military chopper and the G1 toy homage. There’s also a little blue and silver thrown in and some nice brushwork on the barrel of the cannon to make it look used. The yellow canopy was an interesting choice, in that it invokes G1 Whirl quite a bit. I don’t hate it, but I might have preferred a different color canopy. Maybe a more traditional Decepticon color like purple. There’s not much else to say here other than the rotors will spin and there are three hinged landing gear on the bottom for Whirlwind to rest on.

Whirlwind probably has the simplest transformation of the pack so far. There are no scary tolerances, weak hinges, or leaps of faith. In terms of quality and engineering Warbotron started on a pretty solid foundation with Air Burst and the figures have gotten slightly better with each subsequent release. In other words the engineering is smooth and simple and the plastic feels great. On the other hand, there’s nothing mind-blowingly clever about the engineering here either. Indeed, with the way the arms fold up to form the wings and the legs the rest of the body, we’ve seen this thing many times before. But hey, it works well enough. Some collectors may have issues with the parts removal, basically the entire nose of the helicopter detaches to become a gun. It’s been a design element in all of Warbotron’s figures so far, so I imagine that anyone truly bothered by it would have jumped ship on this line by now.

I totally dig Whirlwind’s robot mode, but collectors looking for a solid G1 Vortex homage will be disappointed. This guy wears his cockpit on his chest, which I think looks great, but it also makes him one of the larger departures from the traditional Combaticon design. Otherwise, Whirlwind is a little slimmer than his brothers, but he still has enough bulk to carry the team’s overall aesthetic. It’s cool how they made that work out because many of Hasbro’s helicopters have had pretty lanky robot modes. Whirlwind wears his rotors on his back, although they can all be detached as weapons, and his helicopter wing guns land on his shoulders, although there’s room for customization there as well.

The head sculpt is extremely simple as Whirlwind sports the visor and mouthplate combo that leaves him rather expressionless. The light-piping in the visor is great and it’s featured on the two vertical panels on his “helmet” as well.

The coloring on this guy really shines through in his robot mode. It’s largely the same gray and blue plastic as seen in his chopper form, but with some additional purple and silver trim and that beautiful transparent canopy making up his chest. He’s a surprisingly bright and colorful figure under the proper lighting. I like it a lot!

The nose cannon from the chopper requires just a couple of folds to become Whirlwind’s big weapon. It can mount on either of his forearms or he can just hold it like a gun. I tend to prefer mounting it. It’s certainly bulky, but all in all I think it works just fine. It would have been nice to be able to attach it to his back or something (like Heavy Noisy’s cannon), but I guess Whirlwind already has a lot going on back there with his rotors.

Speaking of the rotors, all four can be removed and used as blade weapons. They can be held in his hands as swords or you can peg them into his forearms as arm blades. I really dig this option a lot. The shoulder guns are also capable of being held as pistols or plugged into his forearms. There’s certainly a great deal of customization available here and that always makes for a fun figure.

Whirlwind is the figure I expected to like the least out of this team and I was quite surprised that it wasn’t the case. In fact, he may very well be my second favorite next to Sly Strike. I do tend to like the alt modes of Air Burst and Heavy Noisy better, but Whirlwind’s robot mode is great looking and lots of fun. As with the previous three figures in this set, Whirlwind set me back under $90 and that’s not a bad price for a 3P figure of this size (Voyager Class) and quality. In fact, I’m actually pretty surprised that the previous three releases are still readily available at most e-tailers at the original price. These are great figures on their own merits, and I think they’re going to be all the more spectacular when the final team member arrives and I can finally check out their combined mode.

Feb 19 2015

Function X-4: Sigma-L by Fansproject

Oh, man. I’m so behind on this one that I’m even going to allow a Third Party Change-a-bot on today’s Transformers Thursday. Normally in February when I say something like, “I’ve had this figure sitting around since last year!” it doesn’t really mean that much. In this case, however, poor Sigma-L really has been hanging out for a long time and waiting for his day in the spotlight. It’s pretty crazy because I was anticipating this figure so much right up until it shipped and then it just kind of got lost in the craziness of my life that is The 4th Quarter. I was dusting my shelves the other day and saw him and it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn’t featured him here yet. So, by no means assume that the fact that I’m only now getting to talk about him reflects in any way poorly on my love of the Function series in general or this figure in particular, because he is indeed spectacular! Oh yeah, while some may say there’s a slight passing resemblance… Sigma-L is most definitely not Mindwipe, so don’t even think that.

~~Mindwipe~~ Sigma-L comes in a package that eschews the normal window boxes meant to approximate something you’d see on the toy shelves, Fansproject has been using this rather unique presentation for their Function Series since X-01 Code was first rolled out. It’s a colored, and otherwise blank, shoebox affair with an illustrated clear plastic sleeve around it. I wouldn’t like to see this package design used for everything but I rather like it in the limited confines of this series. It feels rather classy and special. My only complaint here is that the clear sleeve on mine got scuffed up in transit, but that’s not such a big deal to me.

Inside the box, Sigma-L comes sandwiched between two clear plastic sleeves. You also get his weapons and a folded instruction sheet. Did I mention how much I love the smell of Fansproject’s figures when they come out of the box? I’m not sure if it’s the paint or the plastic or a combination of both, but that’s good stuff! I’m going to break with convention and actually start with his robot mode because I’m feeling just that crazy today.

Holy hell, this is one hot and sexy looking robot! Yeah, I said it and I’m not ashamed. There’s something about the aesthetics of Fansproject’s Function line that really just gets it. The figures manage to look modern and interesting and yet somehow still capture a bit of the boxy G1 designs. In this case, Sigma-L looks like he belongs to the whole Post-1986 movie aesthetic where the robots were getting a little more contoured and organic in their style. What I’m saying is that Sigma-L hits the sweet spot between those two style books that totally scratches my itch. This figure is also oozing personality from his sharp silver claws to his bat wings, which are fully accessible in robot mode, but can also be folded in for a more streamlined look. I honestly can’t decide which I prefer more, so I’d just like to think he deploys them when he’s ready to attack.

Will ya just look at that head sculpt. It’s so damn gorgeous! I want to take that head sculpt out for a lobster dinner, bring it home and make sweet passionate love to it all night long. The detail in the face makes it quite possibly some of FP’s best work and yeah that’s saying a lot. It’s not a big noggin and yet they managed to pack plenty into it. The crown-like aspect of the helmet is pure love, the paint is crisp, and I’ll be damned if Sigma-L’s clear visor doesn’t raise and lower to give you the look you want. I am not being impulsive when I say this is undoubtedly among my Top Ten Transformer heads since I can remember. It really is that damn good! The fact that it also happens to be a Headmaster, which transforms into a tiny little robot makes this pudding all the more sweeter.

Hell, even the Headmaster (don’t call him Vorath!) is a tiny little work of art that makes me wonder if Fansproject doesn’t have some kind of shrink ray to make these teeny bots. Not-Vorath sports a stylish silver bat symbol on his chest and he has points of articulation at his shoulders, hips, and knees.

Sigma-L’s coloring takes what is an amazing sculpt and elevates it even further. You get those great traditional Decepticon colors of black and purple complimented by some beautiful silver paint, some redder purple plastic and a surprising bit of minty green trim, all capped off with translucent plastic on his legs. A lot of the coloring comes from the plastic itself, which is always a plus in my book, but what paint is here is precise and crisp making the colors look unbelievably good.

That which shall not be called Mindwipe comes with two weapons and they are indeed the Cybertronian equivalent of pump-action shotguns. I have only two things to say to that. Hell and Yeah! They’re simple enough guns, which fit comfortably into his hands and he looks mighty wicked when wielding them akimbo! And that brings us to…

Beast Mode! I love them mechanical beasties and Sigma-L pulls off his Cyber-Bat mode quite nicely. Unlike all the other Function figures I own, there’s nothing specific in Sigma’s transformation that wowed me as being super clever, but it is nonetheless a pretty fun and worry-free change. I suppose the coolest thing about the engineering is that it actually allows room for a cockpit that will fit Not-Vorath with the canopy splitting in the center to open up.

FP designed this bat mode to work either standing up or in flight with a simple adjustment to the head and both modes have their good points. Sigma-L’s little bat mouth is also hinged so that it can open. When standing on his little bat feetsies you can clearly make out the speakers that Sigma uses to beam hypnotic waves at his foes. So good! On the other hand, when in flight Sigma shows off his two shotguns quite nicely. Yes, we have here a robot bat with dual shotguns mounted to his wings. God, I love this toy!

At $70 Sigma-L is certainly pricey for what is essentially a large Deluxe, but that’s all part of being a Third Party Convertobot collector. Besides, when I have him in hand it’s easy to see where the money went, not to mention he’s notable larger than previous Function figures. I make it no secret that I think Fansproject is one of the best 3P makers of robo-changers out there right now and Sigma-L is another prime example of why. He’s an absolute exquisite looking figure and everything about him reflects quality, care, and love. His transformation may not be as insanely clever as Code, Quadruple-U or Smart Robin, but there’s no shame in hat because it still works beautifully. It’s been a little while since we’ve seen anything new from this line of Not-Headmasters, but I’m looking forward to whatever FP has in store for us next.

Feb 3 2015

Lost Exo-Realm Cubrar with Tekour (LER-02) by Fansproject, Part 2

I’m back to wrap up my look at Fansproject’s Cubrar, Not-Slag, and it’s time to get to the transforming. Going from dinosaur to robot involves some clever engineering, although there are also some subtle double-hinged plates that need to be positioned just right to make some things work. I know, that’s the case for most changeable robots, but it the margin for error feels particularly small here. For example, if you miss a minor double-fold on the plate holding the dino legs, then getting them packed into the robot legs is an impossibility. It took me a little patience the first time, but after that it was easy-peasy. Changing him back into the dinosaur mode has its own challenges, particularly getting everything to pack in and close up just right. That’s where that extra sheet of instructions came in real handy. In the end, Cubrar’s transformation feels a lot more complex and fidgety than Columpio’s, but the tolerances and clearance all feel good and not at all scary.

Like Columpio, Cubrar’s robot mode walks a fine line between G1 Dinobot and original design. It’s easy to see a lot of the stuff borrowed from Slag, the most obvious being the way the dino’s bottom jaw drops down to form the center of his chest and the top of the dino head forms a hood behind the robot head, complete with horns and all. On the flip side, Fansproject put enough of their own marks on this design to make it feel fresh. Probably my favorite departure from the G1 look is the way Cubrar wears the dinosaur’s neck crest as shoulder armor. It’s a beautiful touch and pretty damn clever the way it works. Also, rather than wear his bulky dino legs on the outside of his robot legs, they pack neatly inside, similar to what Columpio’s design did with his tail. This wonderful mix of old and new results in an absolutely fantastic robot mode. The proportions on this guy are just amazing and he follows he whole G1-but-not-G1 aesthetic that I love so much about most of Hasbro’s Classics and Generations lines.

Cubrar also improves on a couple of issues I had with Columpio, particularly in the way the back kibble is handled. Cubrar wears the dino’s tail on his back in a similar fashion to the way Columpio wore his dino’s neck and head. But while Columpio’s was left to flop in the breeze, Cubrar’s actually pegs in securely, making for a more solid robot mode. Of course, the downside of this is that it locks up his waist pivot. It’s a shame the hinge for the tail couldn’t have been mounted higher to avoid this. The biggest issue I had with Columpio was how loose his hip joints were, although I was able to fix them with a little nail polish. You get none of that with Cubrar. Every joint on this guy is tight and solid and he holds a pose beautifully.

Cubrar’s noggin is a bit beefier than Columpio’s, partly because his face is broader and partly because his “helmet” is larger. His face has plenty of character with large blue visor and an extra helping of lips and the silver paint is immaculate. And for those of you who are fans of Lockdown from Age of Extinction (Shame on you!!!), you can transform Cubrar’s face into a gun, or in this case, I guess it’s a flame-thrower. Yeah, it’s just a byproduct of the transformation, but a fun option nonetheless.

The deco in Cubrar’s robot mode closely matches what we saw in dino mode. You get the same great gray and red plastics with some metallic blue and silver detail work and more of that satiny smooth gold. The colors on this guy really pop and they match Columpio perfectly. I’m hoping this is the coloring that we’re going to get all the way through to the end of the line.

Accessories? Cubrar comes with two guns and a sword. The guns are a matched pair of short and stocky weapons, not quite pistols and not quite rifles. Individually they aren’t as cool as Columpio’s rifle with folding bayonet, but Cubrar sure looks great dual wielding them. The sword has a translucent red energon blade and is a very nice piece. Chances are I’ll wind up displaying him with the sword and one gun.

As with Columpio, Cubrar can store two of his weapons by pegging them into his back flaps. I think the sword looks great positioned diagonally across his back. The guns can also peg in side by side, or you can go one gun and one sword. I think this storage gimmick works a little better than Columpio’s. The stored weapons don’t look as awkward this time around.

And last but not least we have Tekour’s axe mode. I thought Drepan’s weapon mode was pretty good, but I think Tekour’s outshines it. Drepan was kind of a war pick, whereaas Tekour is just a bitchin double-bladed axe. It’s a damn solid weapon mode and the pommel of the handle is sculpted with a triceratops head, because Cubrar likes to accessorize, dammit!

Tekour can also double as a rifle and while it’s basically just the axe held differently, I think it works really well. The stock does get in the way, as it doesn’t fit into the crook of Cubrar’s elbow, but he can hold it out in a pretty sweet firing position.

With two Lost Exo-Realm figures on my shelf, I’m loving this line more and more and I’m getting really excited to see the team together, even though that’s going to be a long road to travel. The quality and engineering on Cubrar is up to FP’s usual impeccable standards and I’ve totally fallen in love with this aesthetic. The only hard choice will be deciding whether to display them in robot or dino modes because I really dig them both. Fansproject has been a little quiet on the Lost Exo-Realm front lately, but if things progress as they seem to be, their Not-Swoop may very well be next, but there are no pre-orders up yet, so at this point anything could happen. All I have to say is keep them coming, and I’ll keep buying them!

Feb 2 2015

Lost Exo-Realm Cubrar with Tekour (LER-02) by Fansproject, Part 1

I feel bad. I’ve had Fansproject’s excellent Sigma-L on the pile waiting to be featured for months now and here I am jumping right over him to get to Cubrar. All I can say is, sorry Sigma, I’ll get to you next week. Pinky swear! It’s a great time to be a Not-Transformer collector when there’s this many great figures vying for my attention and in this case both made by the same company. Cubrar is the second in Fansproject’s Lost Exo-Realm line of giant robots that also happen to transform into giant robot dinosaurs and some might say that this one bears a passing resemblance to a Transformer known as Slag. I’ll probably be referring back to LER-01 Columpio quite frequently, so if you haven’t read that feature, you might want to start there and come back. Due to time and space constraints, I’m also going to serve this one up as a two-parter, so today I’m checking out the packaging, Cubrar’s alt-mode, and Tekour’s robot mode and tomorrow I’ll look at the rest…

I love the presentation here, but I’m going to qualify that love by pointing out that Fansproject did a little bit of tinkering with the packaging. The same basic style is still there. You get that same great style of artwork as seen with Columpio and lots of pictures of the toy in both modes and various poses. The front flap is secured with velcro and opens to reveal a die-cut window showing Cubrar in his dinosaur mode. So what’s different? The box is a lot smaller than Columpio’s and more squared off at the cross-section. Don’t be fooled by that into thinking that Cubrar is a smaller figure, if anything he’s bulkier than Columpio. No, Fansproject achieved the box reduction by reducing space in the tray and securing Cubrar’s sword and guns in a baggie behind the tray. It doesn’t make for as impressive a sight when you lift the flap and look inside, but it’s not something I’m terribly concerned about.

Fansproject also ditched the satin finish of the Columpio’s box for a more glossy look. The subtle changes in presentation, and the not so subtle change in size, does irk me a little bit. I do keep the boxes for my 3P Transformers and while these are designed to still resemble the same series, they don’t look very uniform on the bookshelf together. And while Cubrar’s box still looks great, it doesn’t have the same impact as Columpio’s did when I first held it. Still, taken on its own it sports a really classy presentation for a somewhat high end collectible figure. Inside the box you also get a simple folded instruction booklet and an extra page of errata with some tips on how to get him back in Dino Mode.

Obviously, Cubrar’s dinosaur mode is a triceratops and I absolutely love it. It shares the same overall aesthetics as Columpio making for a great matched pair. The design is loaded with panel lines and he’s a tad stockier than Columpio making Cubrar resemble a walking tank. Naturally, Cubrar’s lower jaw is articulated and when you open it you reveal his flame-thrower, whih is a great call back to Slag. Cubrar features sockets on the “shoulders” of his back legs so you can plug in his guns or even his sword if you prefer. The articulation here is right in line with the first LER release, offering plenty of poseability in the legs, a segmented and articulated tail, and a ball joint in the neck. If I had one gripe, I’d say the horn on Cubrar’s nose is a little overstated, but then I guess it makes it all the more dangerous to Decepticons when he charges them.

The coloring here is a perfect match for Columpio and that’s a very good thing because I really dig this deco. The matte gray plastic makes up the bulk of the figure’s armor with some metallic silver paint and vac-metal style bling around his crest. The regular retail edition also features that sumptuous satiny gold paint for the head, tail, and claws, as opposed to the vac-metal style used for the Con Exclusive release. Both have their merits and it’s hard for me to say I’d prefer one over the other without having the Exclusive in hand, but I certainly have no beef with the gold paint on this retail edition. It looks great! Lastly, you get some red highlights on the legs, some red showing through from his undercarriage and the red plastic used for his horns and the tip of his tail. I could have probably done without the red cap on his tail, as I think he would have matched Columpio better without it, but it ain’t bad.

Columpio came with his little weapon-master buddy, Drepan and Cubrar comes with Tekour, and I have the same mixed feelings about this little guy as I did Drepan. On the one hand, he’s a really great looking little figure and he even comes with a pair of axes to wield. The detail and quality on this guy surpasses his tiny size and with ball joints and double-hinges all around, he’s even rather fun to play with. On the downside, like Drepan, Tekour has a huge stick coming off his back. It’s awkward and unsightly and there’s no real way to hide it. When you consider how much clever design work went into this little figure, it feels rather out of place to have that one glaring oversight.

As with Columpio, Cubrar still features a transformable platform for his weapon-master buddy, Tekour, to ride on and this platform is one of the key things that Cubrar’s dino mode does better than his predecessor. When not in use, Columpio’s seat platform didn’t lock down and it left a conspicuous hole in his back. Cubrar’s platform closes up real nice and I wouldn’t be able to tell the even serve an alternate function if I didn’t already know it.

And that’s where I’m going to call it quits for today. Come on back tomorrow and we’ll look at Cubrar’s robot mode, along with his accessories, and Tekour’s weapon mode.

Oct 25 2014

Feral Rex (Reformatted Series) by Mastermind Creations: Combined Mode and Final Thoughts

So, it’s been a whole year and now my Feral Cons are finally complete. It’s time to get these guys combined and see just how impressive Feral Rex (aka Not-Predaking) actually turned out. Transforming these guys into their component parts holds no real surprises. The arms and legs are more or less the beast modes with the legs folded in, and some other tweaks and bobs, and the torso is Leo Dux with his legs and shoulders acting as connecting points. It’s very Voltron-y in it’s flavor and as a result the combiner transformations feel pretty natural if you’re already used to bringing each of the figures from their robot to beast modes and back. Like his G1 inspiration, Feral Rex features some parts-forming. The backpack weapons that came with Bovis and Fortis are used for the hands and feet and the shield used for Leo becomes the groin. And obviously, Talon’s wings are removed to be placed on the back. It’s no more time consuming then you might expect transforming five different figures to be and it certainly goes quicker for me than forming Fansproject’s Causality figures into Not-Menasor. And the results… well, the results are pretty tough to argue with…

Magnificent is the word that comes instantly to mind. From a design standpoint Feral Rex certainly satisfies the updated G1 Predaking aesthetic that I was looking for. Rex hits all those points that make the original toy design so damned iconic. You get the same dual cannon toes in each of his feet, Talon’s wings coming off the back making him look like a giant angel of death, and you can’t beat those bull and rhino head kneecaps. Leo Dux’s lion head is worn prominently on the chest and the groin armor has the same gold plated bling that all giant robots wish they had on their crotches. Of course the main difference in Rex’s aesthetic is that all of these iconic points are applied to fully realized proportions and that’s the most amazing thing about Feral Rex. It doesn’t feel like anything was compromised to deliver a truly awesome looking figure.

The head sculpt is fairly simple but still excellent. I love the detail put into his “helmet” and I do believe there’s an LED in that noggin to light up his visor, but I’m not going to mess with installing batteries at this point. It’s a nice bonus feature that I may make use of at some point. I should also note that the cannons that rise up from Rex’s back can be angled forward to give him some extra firepower. You do have to remove Talon’s wings to do it, but you can snap them right back on once the cannons are in firing mode.

Of course, one of the key failings with a lot of combiners is their overall fragility. A combined mode can look great, but if it falls apart when you touch it… well, that’s no fun. But Feral Rex is damned solid. The connection ports lock quite well so there’s virtually no chance of limbs accidentally disconnecting when you’re playing with him and happily they aren’t too scary-tight to pull apart either. What’s more there aren’t a lot of bits to fall off, which was one of my primary gripes with TFC’s Uranos combiner. The only exception is the wrap around crotch piece. I have a habit of grabbing the figure from the center of gravity and that usually means putting at least one of my fingers on Feral Rex’s robot diaper, which will indeed make it pop loose. Pick him up from under the arms, and you’ve got no worries.

Feral Rex features a good amount of articulation for a gestalt mode. You can get a wide stance out of him and he has nice strong ratcheting hinges in the knees that hold his massive weight with little difficulty. The feet are ball jointed to keep them flat most of the time and the way the connection ports are designed he has a good amount of lode bearing strength in those ankles. His arms do run into some problems where the sculpts interrupt the articulation, but nothing too bad. His shoulders rotate quite well and he has a bit of lateral movement there too. His elbows are hinged and there are swivels, and his fingers are individually ball jointed. He can rotate at the waist and his head is naturally ball jointed too. Standing Feral Rex is quite easy, although he is ever so slightly back heavy. Nonetheless, a little tweaking gets him standing just fine in a variety of poses and while I will be displaying my Feral Cons in their individual bot modes, I wouldn’t be apprehensive about standing him in combined mode as I don’t think he’d be prone to shelf diving. With that having been said, where a $500 toy is concerned, I’d still probably invest in a support stand of some sort.

While Rex is perfectly capable of just stomping on his enemies, picking them up and throwing them, or blasting them to bits with his shoulder cannons, he would be lacking without his extra weapons and that’s why he can combine all of the Feral Cons weapons into a giant sword and gun. Let’s start with the gun…

It’s fairly simple to put together and it uses all the guns from the individual figures with Tigris’ being the core of the weapon. Putting it together is easy, but taking it apart can be tough because Fortis’ two guns fit together really tight. When you’re done you get a nice beefy looking cannon that mounts onto Feral Rex’s left arm and it looks pretty damn imposing. I really like the idea of Rex having a gun that still frees up both his hands, because…

He’s also got that big damn sword! I threw in Legends Class Swerve to convey a sense of scale on this thing. By pooling together all the knives plus Leo Dux’s mace and swords you can build Feral Rex’s ridiculously massive sword. This is a vicious looking design expressing sheer art expressed in the form of giant robot cutlery. And despite it being formed from lots of knives, it holds together with no problems. With the help of some tabs and Rex’s hinged fingers he can hold it securely in either hand and holy crap does he look amazing when he’s wielding it. Between the length of the sword and Feral Rex’s bulk, shooting pictures of him with his weapon really strained the capacity of my staging and lighting area, which wasn’t built with a figure this big in mind.

As massive as Rex’s sword is, his joints are up to the challenge. He can wield it in just about any pose I put him in without the arm dropping. I know I ragged on poor Tigris for being scrawny and the runt of the litter, but damn if he isn’t one tough little sonvabitch. His arm mode takes the full weight of that sword without even breaking an energon sweat. I take back everything I said about you, Tigris! You da man!!!

Final Thoughts:

It’s funny to look back to a point when I was struggling to get up the nerve and invest in a Third Party Transformer. Never did I imagine I’d reach a point where I was happily plunking down $100 for a Voyager sized figure, let alone $500 for a combiner team. But that’s a testament to what a fine job some of these 3P companies are producing these days and with the entire Feral Con team now on my shelf, I’m confident in placing Mastermind Creations at the top of the 3P pyramid. Sure, they may be sharing that spot with Fansproject right now, but that certainly puts them in good company. The Ferals represent everything I could have asked for in a set of Masterpiece Predacons. The individual figures are fantastic and the combined mode is stunning and inspired. It literally feels like nothing was sacrificed or compromised in delivering a great team of figures and a magnificent combined mode.

The Feral Cons have represented a quality and well thought out product from the very beginning. Besides looking great and sporting high quality plastic, MMC designed these guys with some wonderful touches. The way the weapons interact with the figures has been fantastic and I love finding new places to stick them on and store them. These toys may be expensive collector pieces, but they are also so much fun to play with. Their transformations aren’t overly complex and never do I feel like converting them is a chore, even when I was combining them for this feature and then changing them into beast modes, and then back into robot modes. There’s nothing about manipulating them that feels scary or intimidating. They’re just plain fun.

But if I were to pick out a favorite thing about this series it would be how unified the design has been throughout. It must be hard enough designing a single transformer, it must be even tougher making a set of combiners work, but when you can do it and actually make all the figures look like a cohesive team as these fellas do… that’s just so damn impressive to me. This set of figures represents careful planning from the start and some really deft and clever engineering.

The last thing that I wanted to mention was how awesome MMC is as a company and the fact that they listen to their fans. From the very beginning of this series, they kept a constant eye on the way the collectors received their product. The Ferals have had some minor QC opportunities and by monitoring message boards and collecting specific consumer feedback, they addressed all these issues with each subsequent release. Some people were finding that the gears on Bovis’ elbow joints were getting flattened and so they supplied replacement parts with Fortis… and so on. Even the Completion Kit that came with Tigris was an amazing bonus as it addressed something that I doubt any fans were complaining about (filling in the hollow arm cavities), and supplied some optional parts to improve your toys and tossed in bonus weapons too. It was the last figure in the line. They already had you for $500+ dollars, but they still threw in that lovely little bonus.

I haven’t decided yet whether I’m going to do a “Favorites and Most Disappointing” list for 2014. I hate doing those. But if I do, it’s hard to imagine me not combining a top slot for Feral Rex. Looking back, I can only say that this was money well spent and I’m happy to let these figures stand in my collection as my Masterpiece Predacons. If Takara wants to take a stab at it, I’ll be happy to take a look, but it’s hard to believe that they could improve on what Mastermind Creations has achieved here. And just as a parting note, I will be revisiting the Ferals one last time in a couple of months when MMC releases the unofficial sixth member of the team… Felisaber!

Oct 24 2014

Feral Rex (Reformatted Series): R-06 Tigris (Shock Trooper) by Mastermind Creations

It was exactly a year and a couple of weeks ago that I featured, Bovis, the very first of MMC’s Feral Cons here on FFZ. It’s been a long road, but here we five figures later with the final member of this combiner team, Tigris (Yeah, he’s not really the final figure if you want to count Felisaber, a figure that is an optional addition to the team). Not only does Tigris round out the team, but he finally allows me to merge them together into Feral Rex. I’m going to knock out my look at Tigris today and tomorrow I’ll be back to look at Feral Rex and give my final thoughts on this series. This figure has been sitting here waiting to be featured for a couple of weeks now, so let’s get to it…

There’s the packaging. As per the rest of this series, Tigris comes in a large box with a front flap that opens to reveal the window that shows off the figure in his robot mode. I’ve gone on record saying that I’m not all that fond of the deco on these, but that’s just my own personal taste. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s totally collector friendly, and the side panels of the boxes denote the figure inside, which is great for storing the boxes all lined up on a bookshelf. Let’s go ahead and start with Tigris’ robot mode!

So, Tigris definitely looks like the runt of the litter, but he’s actually no slighter of body than Talon, as the two share some of the same body parts. It’s just that Talon’s majestic wings give him a lot more bulk and a far more interesting profile leaving Tigris’ stature feeling a tad wanting and doubly so when compared to his comrades, Bovis, Fortis, and Leo Dux. That’s no really a criticism, but more an observation. Obviously Tigris and Talon had to be scaled back a bit to make their arm modes properly proportional. I didn’t get the same wow factor when taking him out of the box, but he definitely has his own charms, most notably his very clean appearance and very humanoid silhouette. That having been said, I would have liked it if the spikes on the back of his shoulders orientated toward the front as it would have given him more of a foreboding look to help combat the somewhat scrawny vibe that he gives off.

Like Leo Dux, Tigris wears his beast head on his chest. He also sports the same socketed thigh guards that function as holsters so you can peg his weapons or knives in there. This seemingly throwaway feature has been one of my favorite little design touches of this set and I’m glad they made it onto every figure. From the back, Tigris has a bit of an unfinished look with his connection port on full display, although he does have some sockets there and I like to store his big gun diagonally across his back to fill this area in. The head sculpt here is clean and simple, just two eyes and a huge face plate, but it definitely has the least character of any of the robots on this team.

Tigris’ deco consists mostly of red, orange, and black plastic. I’m sure I’ve said before how much I love the quality of plastic that MMC used on these guys and how well it holds the colors. That having been said, Tigris’ deco is the least interesting to me. The other figures seemed to have that one extra color to help break up the pattern. For Bovis it was grey, for Fortis it was yellow, etc. He’s still a striking and colorful looking bot, but I think the deco could have used something more. There are at least some very nice silver paint apps on his chest plates, his knees, and some of the rivets.

Tigris comes with two hand guns, two knives, and a big cannon. At first, I thought the guns were repacks of the ones that came with Bovis, but nope, they are original sculpts and they look great. Not only can he dual wield them or store them on his hips, but he can also store them pegged onto his back, or they can be pegged onto his big cannon to add even more firepower.

The cannon is a beast of a weapon and has an extending barrel. It looks fine on its own, but those two hand guns look like they were meant to be part of it. It’s kind of ironic that the small fry of the Ferals gets the biggest gun, but hey, it gives him plenty of character.

The knives are similar to what we’ve been getting all along. They are new designs but all the knives in this set have shared the same elements to help them mesh better when combining into Feral Rex’s giant sword. On the downside, Tigris doesn’t have any sockets on his forearms to plug them into, so he’s left either wielding them in his hands, or storing them pegged on his thighs or on his back.

If all that isn’t enough, Tigris also comes with an extra baggie of parts that fill in the hollow forearms of the entire team and allows you to peg in some additional weapons and stuff. Additionally, the bag contains a replacement face with a red painted mouth plate. I’m sticking with the stock yellow one just because it adds some much needed diversity to the Tigris’ color palette. Ok, so enough about the robot mode and all the goodies, let’s get him transformed and check out his beast mode…

While a lot slighter in build than Bovis and Fortis, Tigris’ beast mode follows the same basic patterns of transformation with the robot arms becoming the front legs and the robot legs packing up to form the back half of the animal. The deco remains mostly the same as in robot mode with a lot of orange and red plastic and a little black plastic and silver paint apps showing. Tigris’ jaws are articulated and you get the same great poseability out of the legs as we’ve seen all throughout this line. It’s not a bad tiger mode, but I don’t think the proportions work as well. Maybe it’s because his head is sort of tiny, but mostly I just think the bull and rhino translate better to chunky robots than a lithe tiger.

One way I like to remedy that is just to weaponize the crap out of him. Tigris can wear his big cannon on his back and man, does he look great wearing it. It not only breaks up the color by adding a lot more black, but I think it helps by bullking him out a little more. I also like to attach the knives to his front “shoulders” because I think that would make most enemies want to get the hell out of his way.

It sounds strange to me to say it, but Tigris is my least favorite of all the Feral Cons. It’s strange because he’s still another fantastic figure in MMC’s Feral Con series and I love him a lot, but his comrades have all set the bar really high and Tigris doesn’t quite reach the heights that the others have. Neither the tiger or robot modes are as impressive and the color scheme feels a little bland by comparison. But even with all that having been said, he’s an excellent figure in his own right and continues the high standards of quality and engineering that this series has delivered on from the very beginning. Tomorrow, I’ll be back with a look at the Feral Cons combined mode and offer up some final thoughts on this team as a whole.

Oct 6 2014

Feral Rex (Reformatted Series): R-02 Talon (Aerial Assaulter) by Mastermind Creations

I know, I ended last week with a third-party convert-o-bot, and I’m beginning this week with another. I do like to mix things up a bit, but I’ve got the final Feral Con, Tigris, arriving any moment now and I really wanted to get Talon his time in the spotlight beforehand. Despite his number, Talon is the fourth release in MMC’s Feral Cons series, and I’ll be referencing the others a fair amount in today’s feature, so if you aren’t caught up yet, by all means take the time to check out the others. If you haven’t guessed yet, Talon is intended to be an homage to the Predacon Divebomb and he does indeed combine with the other Feral Cons to form Feral Rex, a big fella that bears a striking resemblance to a certain Predaking. I’ll also point out here that Talon took absolutely forever to arrive from the place I pre-ordered from, making it all the stranger when Tigris dropped in just a handful of days later. Ok, I’ve got a lot to cover and I want to do it all in one shot, so let’s get started.

There’s the packaging and it has remained consistent and uniform throughout this series. Of all the third-party series of changebots I own, I like the packaging for the Feral Cons the least. There’s nothing really wrong with it, it’s just a matter of personal taste when it comes to the deco. The boxes are quite large and they need to be to hold these beefy Voyager-plus sized figures and all their extras. The box is collector friendly and features a front flap that opens to reveal a window to display the figure. The side panel of the box tells you who the figure is, so if you’re like me and store these packages lined up on a bookshelf, it’s easy to see which box has which figure in it.

Inside the box, Talon comes on a clear plastic tray. You get the standard combo instruction and comic book, a profile card, and some replacement parts for previous figures that have had some QC issues. I’m not even sure what these replace, as I haven’t had any issues with any of my Ferals. Additionally, you get a separate baggie containing Talon’s arm cannons. There’s no place for them in the tray, but I just pop them back into the baggie and put them under the tray when I store the figure in his box. In looking back through my other Feral Con features I realize that I was all over the place when deciding whether to start with robot or beast mode. I guess this time I’ll just go ahead and start with Talon’s robot mode.

Just one look at this guy and it makes me so happy that I decided to invest in this set, but then that’s been the case with every one of these fellas. In robot mode, Talon is everything I could possibly want out of a Masterpiece style Divebomb. I actually expected him to be smaller than the others, but apart from lacking some of the bulk of Fortis and Bovis, and looking a bit leaner, he still measures up to his teammates. While Talon represents a fresh new mold, there is still a delightful degree of consistency among these figures. You see a lot of the same design tropes and features throughout whether it be between shared molds like Bovis and Fortis or the originals like Leo Dux and Talon here. They all have the same style of jointing and articulation and they all use the same high quality yellow, orange, red, and black plastic. They also all feature a number of sockets to store their weapons on. Of all the third-party combiners I’ve invested in, MMC’s Feral Cons feel the most like a unified team.

As is the case with the other Ferals, Talon’s mold is just loaded with detail. I’m particularly fond of his upper chest design with the two deep set vents, directly pulled from the G1 toy design, and the indented shield provided for placement of a Decepticon logo, which I have yet to do. The shoulder design looks really good, as does the way his bird feet fold up onto the front of his lower legs. His robot feet are attached to hinged arms via ball joints and this gives him a wide range of movement for wide stances and action poses. These worried me at first, as to how they could support the weight of the figure, but the retract completely giving Talon all the support he needs. Surprisingly enough, even with a lot on his back, he’s still a very well balanced figure.

Of course Talon’s most impressive quality is his set of wings. These are absolutely magnificent. Each lushly painted gold blade is articulated and so they can be fanned out for a grand and majestic display or closed up to allow him to stand shoulder to shoulder with his comrades. They are also hinged, so you can angle them back a bit (my favorite look!) Or you can fold them straight back to give him a cleaner and tighter profile from the front. I also really dig the way the back part of his wings looks kind of like a jetpack.

MMC has had some winning head sculpts with this line and Talon is no different. He has a very human looking face, painted red and with an orange “helmet.” The eyes are meticulously painted with a metallic red to make them stand out. You also get a very generous ball joint in the neck to allow some great and expressive movement.

Before we transform him, let’s check out Talon’s arsenal. For starters, he comes with a pair of double-barreled cannons, which mount on his arms and actually stay put during his transformation to provide his bird mode with some basic firepower. These can also be held in his hands as pistols and can be stored by plugging them into the side panels on his legs, which act like holsters.

Next up, you get a pair of short swords, with some pretty wicked looking crooked blades. I’m usually not a huge fan of edged weapons with my giant robots, but in some cases it feels right. These guys are supposed to be savage animal-robots and so I’m in favor of them having some blades. These swords also look particularly nice when slung on his hips. As with the other Ferals, it can be a little tough to get him to hold them just right, but once they’re in he gets a pretty firm grasp on them. Of course, thanks to all the versatility of his weapons, you can also mount the swords on Talon’s arms. I really dig the way this looks, especially when he’s armed with his pistols.

Lastly, Talon sports a sniper rifle with a stock that can fold up to form a scope. I love the idea of Talon carrying this kind of weapon because he can just hover over the battlefield and snipe away at targets from above. Surprisingly, he can even hold the rifle by both grips. When not in use, the rifle can be slung onto Talon’s back. Ok, enough about his gear, let’s check out Talon’s bird mode…

I honestly didn’t know what to expect from Talon’s transformation seeing as how simple the conversion should theoretically be. In the end, it’s still rather simple, and nearly all of it involves packing up his legs. At first, I thought this one might be the weakest of all the Feral Cons alt modes, but I think that falls in line with the original toy. It is, afterall, no easy feat to turn a humanoid robot into a bird. Nonetheless, this mode still works just fine for me and there are a couple things about it that even impress.

One is that even with Talon’s robot head folding into the bird head, there’s still articulation in the beak. Secondly, just like in robot mode all of Talon’s weapons store comfortably on his bird mode. The arm cannons can stay right where they are, the swords can mount on his wings, and his rifle can peg right into his back, giving him that extra little bit of firepower. He can even stand just fine on his own, which frankly surprised me.

Talon is another exceptional release in this line and as I write this I see that my Tigris is out for delivery to my door so I’m pretty damn excited to finally be completing this team. For me these gestalts are always about the individual robots first and the combined mode second, and while I’m expecting Feral Rex to be amazing, the important thing is that each and every one of these figures has blown me away strictly on their own merits. Even at just under $100 I still feel like my money was well spent. I can’t recommend these guys enough and MMC continues on their way to overtake Fansproject as my favorite maker of third-party conversion-bots.

Oct 4 2014

Lost Exo-Realm: Columpio with Drepan (LER-01) by Fansproject, Part 2

As promised, I’m back to wrap up my look at Fansproject’s first foray into the world of dinosaur change-a-bots. Columpio does indeed bear a purely coincidental resemblance to a certain Transformer named Sludge. Yesterday I took a look at his alt mode and his little buddy Derpan. Now it’s time to transform this beast and see what his robot mode is all about.

Damn, he looks so sweeeeet! But before I get into how beautiful he looks, let’s talk about the conversion process. Transforming Columpio feels vaguely similar to the original G1 toy with the complexity beefed up to account for better proportions and articulation. Really, the biggest change is the way his tail packs away into his legs. Some other cool things are at work like the way his shoulders pull outward and upward and his torso pulls up a bit allowing the chest panel to drop forward and the head to fold out. He even has articulated knee flaps to help with his range of leg movement. The dino legs on his robot legs peg into place nicely and while the dino head just hangs loose down his back it stays put quite well. The plastic and tolerances on the toy feel fine, although it was a bit scary “cracking” open his dinosaur shell to start the process along, but it helps to split the tail first. Yeah, the instructions were helpful when I had to consult them, but after just one change forward and back I think I’ve got this guy down pat. It’s not terribly fiddly and it goes pretty quick.

As for aesthetics, I find Columpio to be a delightful mix of G1 homage and originality. He’s a damn powerful looking figure and I think he scales quite well with the Classics Voyager Prime and the Deluxe Autobots, particularly if you like your Dinobots to be giants. They were pretty big boys in the Sunbow cartoon. And yeah, I suppose he can hang with War For Cybertron Grimlock, at least until Fansproject’s own version of Grimmy comes along. I think the biggest departure in Columpio’s design is found in his chest configuration. It’s still got the black panel running down the middle and jutting out, which flipped out on the original toy to seat the pilot. The upper chest has been rebuilt to give him a more stylized look by adding blue vents and neck guards running on either side of his head. It almost looks like the front end of some kind of vehicle. Maybe? I have to say I really like those two blue discs midway down his chest. I like to imagine that they can serve as chest headlights. Why? I don’t know. I just think that would be cool.

Columpio’s arms and legs feel right in line with what I wanted in an updated Sludge. The big difference with his legs is that the split tail stores inside the leg and not on the outside. That was a wise move because not only does it fill in his leg cavities, but it allows for the room necessary to store those big dino legs on his robot legs. Columpio still features the “wings” that the G1 toy had, but they are much more compact and they don’t stick out past his arms, unless you want them to and you can achieve that effect by not folding in the side panels.

The head sculpt is pure money. It’s a sharp sculpt with a silver painted face and a somewhat original “helmet” design. Fansproject went with blue eyes, which favor the Sunbow character over the original toy, and added some nice blue paint hits to the “helmet.” Fansproject has always turned out some of my favorite third-party head sculpts and Columpio here does nothing to buck that trend.

Articulation? Columpio has it in spades. The arms feature rotating hinges with a generous range of motion, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. His wrists do not swivel, but they are hinged as part of the transformation and his fingers are all set on one hinge to allow him to grasp his weapons. The legs have ball joints in the hips, powerful ratchets in the knees, with secondary knee hinges below as part of the transformation. The front of his feet are ball jointed to mimic lateral rockers and allowing him to look more natural in wider stances. He can swivel at the waist and he has a ball joint in his neck. The hip joints could be a little tighter, but they are certainly capable of holding him just fine and they’re actually much better than the loosey-goosey hips on my Hasbro Masterpiece Grimlock.

As for weapons, Columpio comes with a rifle and a sword. The rifle is a satisfyingly large piece that can be held in either hand and features a folding bayonet that I absolutely love. The handle can also fold in for when it’s being stored on Columpio’s back or on his dino mode.

The energon sword has a broad angular blade cast in transparent red plastic with lots of panels sculpted into it. The hilt is pretty beefy and has a cable running from top to bottom making it look a bit like a knucklebow on a traditional sword. Like the rifle, he can hold the sword in either hand and he looks great doing it.

Both weapons can peg into the inside of Columpio’s wings for storage. It looks a bit clunky from the back, but not so bad from the front. I actually think it works best when you’re just storing a single weapon, so if he wants to get medieval with his sword, he can stow his rifle back there until it’s needed. I always love the ability to store weapons on the figure like this. I wasn’t expecting it so it was a very welcome surprise!

The last thing to talk about is Derpan’s weapon mode. He transforms into an axe with a few possible configurations for the blade. A couple of cool things worth noting are the way his own weapons store on him when he’s a weapon and the fact that the pommel of the axe handle is a tiny sculpted dinosaur head. Well, isn’t that just precious!

The standard double axe configuration looks pretty badass, but there’s also a cool battle pick that involves folding up one blade and leaving the other out. Either way, I think Derpan’s weapon mode is a win. It’s well executed and Columpio looks great wielding him. Still, it must really suck to transform into an implement that other robots use to hit things.

In a way, I expected Columpio to give off a strong War For Cybertron vibe, but in hand, I have no problem regarding him as my regular G1 Sludge. It’s true, he may stray a little too far from the conventional Sludge design for some, but I think he works beautifully for a general modern update to the character. It’s the kind of design I could see appearing in Generations, if Generations were a whole lot better and more expensive. Speaking of expensive, Columpio set me back $115, which feels about right for a Voyager sized third-party figure, and a bit better when you toss in Derpan as an extra. The quality and engineering is definitely here, but then I would have expected nothing less from Fansproject. I think Columpio is a fantastic first step for the Lost Exo-Realm line and I am super excited to get my hands on the next figure as well as see the rest of the reveals.

Oct 3 2014

Lost Exo-Realm: Columpio with Drepan (LER-01) by Fansproject, Part 1

Not-Dinobots… everybody is doing them!!! Yes, folks, these days if you’re in the market for pricey third-party versions of the Dinobots you have a lot of choices. And unless you have all the monies and display space in the world, you’re going to have to do some serious research and make some serious choices. Some are Masterpiece sized, some are Voyager sized, some are even combiners! In the end, I went with Fansproject’s Lost Exo-Realm series, mainly because… hey, it’s Fansproject! I’ve got a couple of shelves full of their toys and these guys have never disappointed me. The other reason I went with the LER Dinos is because they are doing their own Not-Grimlock and it’s really important to me to get a matched set of all of them in the same size and style. Their first release is Columpio, aka Not-Sludge. I’m featuring this guy in two parts, because there’s a lot to talk about and it’s too much for me to accomplish in just one day. Today, we’ll look at the packaging, the dino mode, and his little buddy Drepan, and tomorrow we’ll look at his robot mode and get more into his weapons. Let’s go!

Ahh, this is some amazing packaging! Columpio comes in a rather large, landscape orientated box with a front flap that opens upward and is secured with velcro. The entire box has a nice matte finish and is loaded with artwork. The front panel features a bitchin piece of character art with Columpio in robot mode wielding Drepan in his weapon mode. The back of the box shows photos of the toy in both modes.

Open the flap and you get a die-cut window that looks like you’re viewing the figure inside through a cave entrance. The inside of the flap has more shots of what you’re getting inside the box. Columpio comes packaged between two clear plastic trays in his dino mode with Drepan in his robot mode and all the weapons laid out around them. While I frequently toss the boxes to many of my “over-the-counter” toys, I always save the packages for my third-party convert-o-bots, and while it tends to take up a lot of room, it’s presentation like this that makes it worthwhile.

On the other hand, Fansproject seems to have poured all their efforts into the box and not much into the ephemera. There’s no profile card or comic book. You only get a three page color instruction “booklet” and the middle page isn’t even stapled inside. I’m not really complaining, but some folks who look forward to those little extras may be disappointed. Let’s start off with his dino mode.

And here is Columpio in all his Dino Mode glory. When I was a kid, this dino mode was known as a Brontosaurus, but I guess that’s not considered scientifically accurate anymore and Apatosaurus seems to be the accepted name these days. Why? Because science! Either way, Columpio is a four-legged cybernetic behemoth with a long snake-like neck. I don’t usually start with the deco, but in this case it’s worth pointing out that the initial con exclusive release had vac metal gold, whereas this regular retail release gets by with just gold paint. I say “gets by” but in person the regular gold paint on display here is pretty damn sumptuous looking. It’s got a sexy satin finish and it is beautifully applied. I think in the end the question of which deco is superior will come down to a matter of personal taste, although the exclusive con version will always have that special level to gravitas to it. Personally, I like what we got here and he still manages to sport some bling via the metallic silver paint on the plates behind his neck, just like on the original G1 toy. The rest of Columpio is comprised of a nice gray plastic with some black, red, and a little blue showing here and there. The coloring definitely delivers on the G1 vibe that I was looking for. I couldn’t be happier with the way this deco turned out.

As for the sculpt, there are some great panel lines and vents and whatnot to accentuate his cybernetic form. The gold vent pieces on his back are more prominent than the original G1 toy, but they serve a purpose that we’ll get to in a bit. The legs on this guy are wonderfully proportioned and feature excellent articulation, which includes some lateral movement in the “shoulders” and hinges in the “knees.”

The head sculpt features some nice personality to it, at least for a robot dinosaur. The eyes are red and there are matching discs embedded in his jaw hinges. The mouth does open revealing not a whole lot inside other than his sharp teeth. Of course, one of my favorite things about this guy is the design of the neck. It’s segmented with joints between each, allowing for a beautiful degree of poseability.

Moving on to Drepan, Columpio’s little buddy and homage to the old Diaclone pilots that came with the original releases of these molds. Fansproject went the extra step and they’re making these little robots transform into weapons for their Dino-formers. He’s a bit bigger than I expected and a very nice sculpt. He’s also very nicely articulated with ball joints in the shoulders and hips and double hinges in the knees and elbows. His head can even rotate. On the downside, Drepan has a huge handle coming off his back. I did not expect that and it’s rather disappointing. Of course, let me qualify that by saying that these partner robots were not a big selling point for me and the LER line, so when I say that huge protuberance disappoints me, it’s not really putting me off my purchase and I still kind of dig Drepan for what he is.

And hey, this little guy even comes with his own little axe and shield. The axe fits into the hole in either of his hands and the shield can peg right onto his arm. All in all, Drepan is well thought and a lot of fun and as we’ll see tomorrow he can transform into a pretty cool weapon.

Drepan can also ride on Columpio’s back and that’s where those vents come into play. They can rotate around to make a pilot seat for the little guy. It works OK, but if I ever display Columpio in dinosaur mode, Drepan will probably be chilling out back in the box.

While I’ll be dealing with his weapons more tomorrow, I did want to just point out that Columpio’s gun and sword will attach to his dinosaur mode very much in the way Hasbro’s Generations Grimlock’s accessories attached to him. I’m not a big fan of this as a display option, but it’s a nice option to have nonetheless.

And that’s where I’m going to call it quits for today. So far Columpio is hitting all the right points. His Dino Mode looks great and is lots of fun to play with. Tomorrow we’ll get Columpio transformed and check out his robot mode and other goodies!

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: not-transformers

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