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Microman Magneforce - Phobos

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ZETA TOYS - Take Off (Totally not Blast Off)

Here we have a newish (designers who broke off from ToyWorld) Third Party Transformers toy company with technically their first release and hot damn is he close to a show stopper. Not because he’s amazing but because it’s rock solid and cheap.

Take Off retains the general look and feel of his inspiration character Blast Off and as someone who is fond of G1 but not slave to it the actual end result Zeta have come up with here really works for me. He’s a bulky bot and a bulky well proportioned spacecraft, no pictures of that one though as the photo limit here I felt the bot was way more important. It’s really the little touches here that work - with bits of painted detail, those wonderful transparent windows on his bot chest and the missiles hiding on his leg kibble. Great articulation with only some minor hampering like his arms can’t rotate properly at all angles and his elbows while double jointed get held back by his chunky arms rubbing up on his shoulders (see the picture where he’s trying to touch his face, he can’t). He doesn’t have much neck space to look up or down but he’s doing his best. His torso can twist at two points which is nice and an unnecessary detail - what I think a lot of people will find less nice is he has a lot of clear kibble on the side of his legs and under his arms which is decidedly different to the style presented in the G1 designs however having said that frankly G1 Blast Off is just ridiculous. So for me it works and it folds up nicely that you stop noticing it pretty quick.

Transformation is comfortably complicated where you’ll definitely want/need the manual the first couple of times but after that as long as you don’t forget where a couple of panels go he’s an easy figure to Transform. Mostly he’s either folding away or folding out panels but there’s some nice touches with the way the tail fin tucks away and how his hands flip out (incidentally his fingers have one point of articulation and the pink is separate to the other three). Take Off comes with 3 guns approximately matching the original toy release and the two duplicates can peg under his wings in shuttle mode for that combat ready look. They can’t be plugged into the sides of his wings in robot mode though, at least from what I’ve seen, if for some insane reason you liked that. Ultimately he’s a hefty bulky robot that feels and acts more premium than his price point implies, I can’t recommend it unconditionally as until the full set is released it’s hard to talk about his limb mode (he doesn’t come with his fist) and even if that weren’t the case I’m a bit worried he won’t sustain too many transformations as there’s a few tabs that are either short or feel too tight but if you like how he looks, he’s wonderful.

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Transformers Titan Returns - Full Tilt Deluxe

Exclusively released with both the Hasbro and Takara release of Trypticon we have the purple car...APC...door guard Full Tilt! Considering he’s barely more than a glorified chest plate to the original toy it’s nice to see HasTak really push a unique and stylish deluxe out of a purple lump. Sure he’s STILL a purple lump but he’s got decent amount of charisma now.

The alt mode (although in this case, given his history, more his primary mode) that of a cybertronian car of sorts is more or less a rich purple lump with only his gun and tires breaking up the colour scheme. Kudos to the art team here for incorporating a lot of panel lines that actually manage to cut through his decidedly mono-colour aesthetic with quality grill details and what looks like an exposed engine block at the back. I also rather like the central dome, gives it a very 80′s Transformer feel. There’s some extra panels that don’t *have* to move but were included and make the car look nicer which is impressive and makes the figure feel like a properly character - in fact I forgot to flip back out the cod piece for the photos I took. The cockpit cleanly opens to reveal a lot of unnecessary (since you only see if when you open the top) small scale detail work that really is above and beyond, with the headmaster sitting firmly inside the cockpit. On the subject of the Headmaster, he’s a nice looking mold with some good robot details and actually made in two separate shades of purple which makes him look a tad nicer I think Hasbro really let us down in not slapping some chrome on the mouthpiece or painting the eyes as you can’t really make out his face.

Transformation is simple and basically just involves folding out the robot and clipping a couple of tabs back into place. Interestingly the instructions forget to tell you to fold in the cod piece for the bot mode but he looks quite silly if you don’t so you’ll remember quick enough.

Robot is a purple lump like the alt mode but has the basic level of articulation you get from TR deluxe’s. Good articulation on the shoulders and arms but no wrists. No waist swivel which probably the least excusable as the figure has a static torso with no transformation elements. Knees bend from ball jointed thighs and that’s it. Obviously he has to be one colour because most of his robot parts make up the car parts the chest tries with silver highlights but there’s only so much they can do - definitely an acquired taste though when kept near his big boss Trypticon who is mostly grey and aqua his bold fashion statement does work. His gun is one of the best in the entire line with no gimmicks and a nice 80s future laser gun aesthetic to it. Some people I’ve seen complain about his engine block popping out of his back - it’s probably a tolerance issue as it’s supposed to click (mine does) and then it’s comfortably locked into place. His back actually looks amazing with those details still in place and no gaps anywhere except the wrist holes.

There’s the expected interaction with Trypticon. He can clip into a removable storage *think* which is nice since without him the City-Saur doesn’t look empty but if you just want the green chest you can have that too. He can use the ramps in city mode and there’s even vehicle storage in Tryp so you can completely hide him if you prefer.

Ultimately Full Tilt is a good deluxe but a fantastic pack in bot. Trypticon is better featured robot than Fortress Maximus (can never forgive the lack of functional elevator) and while Cerebros is definitely a cooler stand alone bot in robot mode, Full Tilt’s the clear overall winner especially if his big lug of Cretaceous goodness is around.

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Roadgrabber

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Bandai really went all out with Mugen Ashura re-release. Increasingly disappointing the Pharaoh re-release didn’t even include a deco variant.

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~ AcroLadies — AcroDita and AcroPlana ~

Stop for a quick photo before going on a rampage of wanton destruction…

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Microman — Military Force

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Microman LED Powers - Hyper Speeder and Tornado Bison Set A set I lovingly refer to as “Tutti and Frutti” this two pack of two Micromen and two Transformer molds sure is an acquired taste.

First of the Microman figures is a redeco of Laser Arthur now upgraded to “Master Microman Laser Arthur” indicated by gold chrome instead of silver presumably. Retaining the same head as Laser Arthur he’s done up in transparent red with a surprisingly large amount of thick yellow paint applied giving him an odd yellow, black and red colour scheme. More interesting is Laser Shakunetsu who was only available in the LED Powers range in this set and as a Perfect Shining Tector. He’s got a really cool robot helmet that looks both rounded and angular which really gives him the appearance of a futuristic bike rider. His colour scheme is largely inverted of Arthur alongside ditching the black. This set was MISB before I opened it and his leg joints are fairly loose and carefree which I thought might be mold degradation but it’s likely I just have an unlucky-ish QC. The also come with a full set of the LED Power Laser accessories in an underwhelming brownish orange. Amusing the instructions imply that they all belong to Arthur, poor Shakunetsu.

Fans of G2 Transformers (there are dozens of us) will recognize Road Rocket and Road Pig through all the yellow and orange they’ve been made up in. Their electronics have been removed however including the wire tube. The molds themselves are identical to the previous Microman release under the names Mach Speeder and Road Bison with only the plastic being different colours. While not quite on the level of modern Transformers, late G2 pioneered ball joints in the line so they’re still fun to fiddle with. Tornado Bison is a new deco I don’t recognize made out of almost entirely transparent plastic he sure is ridiculous and my favorite of the two with his ridiculous orange candy coloured look. Hyper Speeder appears to be a transparent plastic variation of Road Rocket’s Robotmasters toy but with some very fetching shiny metallic red painted wheels however neither figure retains many paint apps Hyper Speeder has a unique decal I believe which reads “HIPER SPEEDER” (sic). There’s one minor new issue that due to the weapon colours being changed from colourless transparent to green the red LED of the Microman lights basically can’t activate the light piping gimmick but it was pretty useless anyway. Impressively the batteries in this pair hadn’t leaked yet which was a pleasant surprise. Like with Mach Speeder, Hyper Speeder’s sawblade has been retooled and can be removed and given to a Microman (Arthur is his Rider meaning he gets more weapons). The whole set comes packaged in a fairly standard Toys R Us Microman exclusive box, honestly it’s a terrible design mostly off-gold, brown and white not hinting at the crazy colour scheme buried within. While certainly not a must buy this is honestly a set I’m very fond of. The completely absurd colours which manage to look ridiculous without being the typical gaudy gold chrome or neons is a real feat. Also the set is surprisingly affordable being it cost something like $50 USD to get it out of the clutches of Japan and in my hands. By comparison you’d be hard pressed to get even two LED powers out for that.

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Beast Box - BB-01 Dio (Blue Edition)

Awh look at the cute wittle Dino, how adorable. A transforming robot dinosaur that goes from “Mech-Box” which I guess means, a thing that is vaguely box shaped to one of the most charming Dinosaur robots I have ever seen. This particular version is the transparent blue edition - I got this one because it was the only one available for sale when I bought it (but I do love it) though he also comes in several opaque styles; Yellow/White, Japanese Police White/Red/Black and a slightly retooled face Blue/Yellow one. So obviously the box mode is pretty silly and more of a gimmick but he unfolds nicely and there are several tabs to try to hold it together which places him at about Rock Lord levels for alt-mode. The real star of the show is the dino mode which has a great articulation, mostly in the head to give you heaps of control, teenie tiny adorable T-Rex arms, a tail on a hinge, two huge clompy legs with toes/feet that are on a swivel and very cleverly there’s a small extension in his legs giving him more overall size than you’d expect from the tiny box he folds into. His weight distribution is quite good and he can hold a lot of poses if you’re willing to get a little fiddly. Looking closely you can see a lot of thoughtful mechanical molded detailing in places like his neck and feet which really sells the mech dinosaur look. The blue deco gives him a very tron-ish look and is a very different overall finish/paint job to the opaque versions and if you check the first image you can see a small amount of glitter in the plastic giving just a slight extra hint of depth. I love this little guy to the extent that I regret not having other releases of this mold, there’s more beast box coming which are going to be a little larger is my understanding but they don’t look quite as goofy so they may not be quite as fun. If you see Dio around (rest in piece you god of metal) pick it up because you won’t regret it in the slightest.

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Frame Arms - LX-00 Ray Falx

フレームアームズ 1/100 LX-00 レイファルクス プラモデル

Newest release (at time of writing) here is Kotobukiya’s Ray Falx. Stylistically it reminds me a bit of the Unicorn Gundam but with more exposed transparent parts done in a tasteful purple. Within the FA line he could be a considered an upgraded Baselard due similar streamlined angular design and torso elements although it doesn’t share any molded elements. Ray Falx as a unit itself is a fairly standard FA kit, perhaps slightly generic in appearance but well proportioned and heftier in size when compared to kits like Vulture. The big draw here is the distinctive wings, I think Ray Falx is the first to incorporate such a feature within the line and they’re exceptionally well engineered with multiple articulation points as well as the ability to upgrade them to larger and fuller wings by inserting most of the included weapons kit and it’s a genuine sight to behold punching well above his size class this robot looks every part a formidable combatant. The box bigger than the standard FA size and this is to include the larger weapon set included (and a higher price point to match, nothing is free in the world of kit robots). However it’s hard to complain when it’s pretty impressive calling to mind M.S.G. 12 Blade Lance in style with dozens of variations of swords, blades and other shapes to play with that while perfectly matched to Ray Falx’s colour scheme would work with other kits. It’s immediately obvious why Koto decided to make the weapon kit available without Ray Falx (also I get the sense it’d be tempting to buy a weapon kit just to deck Falx out with a full weapon set and fully deployed wings at the same time). His ridiculously oversized sword is far too heavy for his standard friction joints but thoughtfully a proper stand with a colour matched resting point has been included which while totally unnecessary for posing Falx who stands very easily makes dynamic sword posing simple. All this is without getting into the many ways you can combine components into its 3mm ports on the knees, shoulders, legs and more. The big negative here which I can’t tip toe around is the formulation of the purple transparent plastic is somewhat nightmarish. Hard to cut, propelling shards all over the place (please wear eye protection) and while de-spruing it myself somehow a wing of the head visor broke off and catapulted so far away I’ve yet to recover it. One of the wing tips was also damaged but that was a slip up of mine. So I’d definitely avoid recommending this kit as your first one to build ever and make sure you’ve got some sharp sprue cutters. Another minor issue is due to the large amount of overlapping parts, you’re going to end up de-spruing a lot of plastic but the end result holds together surprisingly well and looks amazing. Ray Flax is such an easy recommend, with the caveat that you’re equipped to deal with the large amounts of transparent plastic, fantastic right from the snap build with just a small amount of gold paint work required to get the finished look (not completed in the photographed sample).

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Beta Midget - Salamander Type II Thrust II As a Series 2 candy toy in the Beta Midget line from Bandai, Salamander Type II has all the features you’d expect from the line. A suit of armor that he can be equipped with as well as his own unique head, arm and hand sculpts. Special note to me is the head because damn that is one handsome detailed face for a cheapo toy. The armor can also be built around a separate frame to make a...erm...orange lump with purple bits, nice! I think the translucent purple is supposed to be a deeper richer shade of purple but age has weathered this one to a slightly more orange hue and also his sword is bent. Still the Beta Midgets (I’m sorry, that’s really their name don’t blame me!) are all pretty awesome and I hope to get them all someday - although series one is made out of defective plastic that is already desiccated beyond repair so that’s a wash and series 3 is rare and the follow up Epsilon Midget line were garage kits...well sod it then. Also their armor is cross compatible with Military Force Microman which I’ll show off sometime.

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Assorted collection of zBots, mostly from the series 2 combining ones but there’s some others mixed in. A lot of peoples favorite toy line they forgot existed. Burned very brightly for a couple of years and then slowly vanished from shelves alongside the solvency of producing company Galoob. Collectors can have fun scouring Europe for the extremely rare late series 4 releases that were basically available nowhere except Italy. I have quite a few zBots so expect to see more in the future, though I don’t have anywhere near a complete set - variants and vehicles all up put the line at something like over 200 - 250 pieces I think. More if you include the teenie tiny ones but honestly they’re a little lame.

As a little bonus, this photoshoot had way more pictures and at time of posting a big image dump was available to Patreon’s so do consider supporting me!

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Megami Device - WISM Soldier Snipe/Grapple Plastic Model

メガミデバイス WISM・ソルジャー スナイプ/グラップル プラモデル

Frame Arm Girl’s is popular should we make more of them? Nah forget that, lets just make an entirely separate line of almost the same scale but not quite lady kits instead! Or something like that I imagine was Kotobukiya’s train of thought here. Which brings us to Megami Device a slick, *clean future* style of anime ladies fighting an indeterminate war against unseen foes. This is the second released set. Which like the previous one before it, Scout/Assault has the chief gimmick of being packed with piles of customization options and enough pieces to make exactly 1 and almost but not quite 2 ladies. You get helmets, guns, hands, hairstyles, insignia, wonder pre-painted faces including one with pre-applied blush a rarity! Here much like the previous kit there are two main issues for me. Firstly they’re really damn fiddly to build with lots of small pieces, prepare to spend a considerable time at the sprue and since there is some small pieces they can feel a little delicate at specific joints so be careful! The second major bother is frankly they’re too damn expensive, retailing at a little over 4000 yen if you’re lucky for a lot of bits you won’t use unless you’re big into customization (they also really need an ink wash to make their gear pop)

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Vulture (028) -  XFA-CnV バルチャー (プラモデル)

Managed to get a kit built and I chose Vulture. Partially because his renewal version just came out, not that I plan to get it, but if anyone else might this could be useful.

Vulture is one of the *coolest* looking FA robots I would say, with hints of his bird mode giving him a fairly unique in the FA line appearance of a cyborg humanoid bird.

With a very sleek scale, perhaps too much in places as the underlying frame is deliberately exposed all over the place he does have a fairly great articulation range and holds a lot of poses nicely but as with most kit robots for the truly dynamic poses you'll need a stand.

Personally I love the purple/pink colour scheme with transparent blue highlights although I have a feeling the later released Vulture Kai is probably more a crowd pleaser. Gimmicks include a fold out sword (which Kai inherits) and quite obviously the titular Vulture mode which is almost a perfect transformation (there's a little partsforming to get the Talons out) alongside his back talons been inserted during transformation although you can keep them on in robot mode. As an added bonus his fold out wingtips can be used in Robot Mode as foot blades.

My only real issue is that the bird face is a bit underwhelming without being painted, it could really have used an extra plastic colour piece or eye inserts.

Vulture's great, not necessary if you have one of the other versions of this mold but one of the more distinctly Frame Arms of the projects releases.

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Gene Block ジェネブロック  - EX-Trooper 2 

“Motor Sauser” Gene Block are some of the coolest construction figures ever. Built Entirely around ball joints (a system referred to as Block Joint by the company that produced them, Atelier Sai) they offer a massive range of motion and Motor Sauser (presumably intended to be Saucer) is a fine example.

I adore the bright colours of the EX-Troopers which I believe were blind boxed in an array of different runner colours and 10 different build sets. Different figures share runner types and individual pieces, particularly the underlying grey skeleton here has parts you’ll find in other later Gene Blocks.

As they come on runners they have to be de-spruced which due to some odd choices in plastic thickness can be a pain and the type of plastic used tends to leave some very unsightly marks no matter how careful you are. The box recommends not to give these to anyone under the age of 15, which isn’t due to small parts so much as those spikes you can see are genuinely sharp and some of the sockets can require a lot of force to insert.

Eagle eyes may spot that the orange and blue seem to be the exact same part types, this is correct so not only could you invert its colour scheme but you could also go wild and make it more mismatched - like changing its blades to single colours (however you only have 2 of each part type).

They’re not easy to find outside of Japan but if you do see some Ex-Troopers I highly recommend them as they’re positively wonderful.

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Assemble Borg - Acid Worm & Microforce - AcroPlana

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Mugen Lightning (ムゲンライトニング) 

The last of Bandai’s Mugenbine line, in itself a continuation of the venerated Machine Robo series of toys ends with a bit of a whimper. A set of 5 slightly mismatched toys in the final subline, Evolbine.

As with all Evolbine the 5 robots are eggs, well no in this case one of them is just a random man - well done, that have 2 alternate forms, unique to Lightning they actually form Weapons and Animals instead of Animals and...Angrier Animals. Another unique feature is he becomes an Asian Dragon as well as a robot. Below I’ve linked the various individual figures and combine modes.

Thunder Genbu

Thunder Suzaku

Thunder Byakko

Thunder Seiryu

ThunderRoid

Thunder Dragon 

Mugen Kaiser

Overall the set is not the best Mugenbine, probably not even the best Evolbine but still quite a solid set for Mugenbine collectors due to the various inclusions unique to Mugen Lightning and as it’s a strong candy toy set due to the high level of interconnection.

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