[CUSTOM] not-Hasbro

Here's the completed figure with upgrades, minus the knife.

TFsource also has this up for preorder and there's a discount for ordering both.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2010 03:49PM by RedAleseides.

I am SUCH a sucker for beam-weapon fingers!

Sanjeev Wrote:
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> I am SUCH a sucker for beam-weapon fingers!


God, there's got to be a joke in there somewhere...

More serious than thou

I love the Bruticus figure but it would have seemed to do Devistator first. Maybe because the Energon version used 5 figures instead of 6 that it would have needed to re-construct the whole thing. FP seems to have a lot of stuff in the works but seem to be backed up. The Rodimus addition and the Springer are still in the wind.

More pics: [tformers.com]

I guess the question at this point is, why is this company dealing with TF add-ons, when their design talents clearly lend themselves to brand new toy lines? Seems like kind of a waste, even with the built-in tie-in with TF's they currently have.

More serious than thou

My guess is pure brand recognition.

If they were to create all-new toys of their own characters, who'd really care? Some would call them "TF ripoffs" (heh...the irony!), but most would probably ignore them. Tying them in with TFs by making the bulk of their offerings add-ons and upgrades gives you a built-in audience who will automatically appreciate the improvements they're trying to make to existing popular (but imperfect) toys.

Fansproject is doing a figure(s) of original design in their upcoming Glacialbot combiner. Only 2 images of concept art have surfaced so far.

Well well, got a few pieces of Ganbaruga-y-ness going on there, huh?

servbot30 Wrote:
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> Fansproject is doing a figure(s) of original
> design in their upcoming Glacialbot combiner. Only
> 2 images of concept art have surfaced so far.
> [www.seibertron.com]
> 707690_FP%20Prev%2014.JPG
> [www.seibertron.com]
> 707690_FP%20Prev%2011.JPG

Wow, that looks great! Ah, man, more stuff I will want, but won't buy...

More serious than thou

Warbot in package: [www.tfsource.com]

[www.youtube.com]

Warbot Defender reviewed

I'll be receiving mine today. Updates later...

More serious than thou

Alright, just got mine! The packaging is very nice - a step up from the City Commander set's. The box has a nice window front for viewing the toy inside, and the graphics are sharp. The box itself is then housed inside a plastic sheath, similarly to GFF toys. Inside is a clam-shell type of clear plastic protection for the toy itself. Very nice packaging all in all. However, I'm not a big packaging guy. I'd rather have a simpler package and perhaps pay 5-10 bucks less.

On to the toy: opening the package you immediately can tell that they used diecast in the construction. There's that wonderful cold feeling there. Looking over the toy, given the eggshell finish paintjob that Fansproject used here, you really can't tell by looking at it which bits are metal and which aren't. It's not a ton - just the chest piece and outside lower legs. Still, it's enough to give it some heft AND a dose of old school feel. The plastic is a similar material to that found in their City Commander set. Very nice, high quality stuff. Feels a bit flexible, yet very strong. I've never seen it used in any other toy that I can think of, and I'm just not versed in plastics, so I have no idea what it is. There's not any feeling that this toy would break in transformation. It's just nice and solid.

I'll leave it up to the video reviews to go through the transformations. They are pretty complex, but not a killer. A 5-10 minute leisurely transformation. You could do it in under 5 if you were used to the toy.

Tons of tabs and clicky joints that avoid any feeling of floppiness that you might find in similarly complex toys. Hell, even the WRIST joints have clicky detents! Some parts of the transformation take some firm pressure to detach some tabs, and I suppose it might be possible for someone to damage it, but I've seen nothing that makes me afraid to go through the process.

The accessories are merely a sword that doubles as propellors for the helicoptor mode and two pistols. Both are made of the same plastic material as the rest of the toy - flexible yet strong. Almost like the sort of thing one might see in a graphite tennis racket. Amazing stuff. Anyway, both swords and guns are able to be stored on the toy, with the sword porting into the back and the guns snapping neatly into holsters on the legs. Everything has its place and purpose on this toy.

As for the design itself, I can't say enough about the design sense of Fansproject. They just know how to make a cool toy. Shape, colors, action, complexity. All fantastic! My ONLY gripes are that I would like to have seen the cockpit "glass" be in a shiny finish (and the toy is a bit back-heavy when standing in a neutral pose and tends to want to fall backwards). Perhaps some other selected bits and pieces could have been painted with a shine to them. It feels a tad bit "Animated" with the near matte finish.

As for the size, the toy is in line with Classics Optimus Prime (perhaps 3/4 of an inch shorter) and just about as heavy. Interesting to note is that the hands on Warbot Defender will hold any of the typically sized Transformer weapons from the past number of years. Certainly Classics OP's weapons fit Defender's hands.

Altogether, this is a worthy piece for any true Transformer fan's collection. Not being a real TF product, I'm going to need to place a few Reprolabels Autobot symbols on him to give him the proper look. Having felt rather guilty for selling off my Classics Ultra Magnus/City Commander set, I now have another Fansproject toy in my hands, and I couldn't be happier with the purchase!

More serious than thou

I got mine the other day and I agree with everything you said. I find the quality simply astounding for something made by a small garage company. To be honest I find the parts fit, sculpt, paint, everything to be far beyond anything Hasbro or Takara has done with Transformers. Hell, if Bandai did a SOC Transformer it might not even be this nice. Fansproject has easily won my heart and wallet with this toy. Even the one thing I was concerned about, the thin blades, turned out to not be an issue. They're thin, but they're made of an extremely flexible plastic. Someone took a photo of a blade being bent almost double. I think he ended up with some faint stress marks at the tips, but the blade sprung right back and stayed straight. Not only did it not break, it didn't even get bent. Fansproject knows what they're doing, that's for sure.

eriku Wrote:
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> ...Even the one thing I was concerned
> about, the thin blades, turned out to not be an
> issue. They're thin, but they're made of an
> extremely flexible plastic. Someone took a photo
> of a blade being bent almost double. I think he
> ended up with some faint stress marks at the tips,
> but the blade sprung right back and stayed
> straight. Not only did it not break, it didn't
> even get bent. Fansproject knows what they're
> doing, that's for sure.


^^ So clutch, right there. ^^

I'll bet that, alone, is enough to convince may non-believers...

This is the photo that was posted. I can only assume he did this in the name of science.

BTW, the toy seems deliberately designed to take advantage of Reprolabels Autobot stickers. Slapped some of their chrome background stickers on, with a medium sized one on the chest and two tiny ones on the tail and it looks fantastic!

More serious than thou

I really like the look of this toy. It balances the mech and TF aesthetic nicely. The fact that it's pretty satisfying overall seals the deal.

I promised myself no toys this year, but i'll make an exception :)

Ahem! Fansproject update...






This is really incredible. So glad I have a preorder in already. Blastoff and Swindle were always my favorite Combaticons, and to have such kickass updates is amazing! My only wish is that Blastoff would have been more his proper G1 color. Swindle would be worth the buy even if I didn't have the rest of the combiner set.

More serious than thou



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2010 08:37PM by fujikuro.

I'm sold on both of those. They'll be standalone figures for me as I feel like their beauty would be wasted as limbs for that cruddy Bruticus set.

Okay, so they're definitely NOT doing the other Combaticons? These are the only ones they're doing and they're supposed to interface with that so-so modern Bruticus? (I probably should know this already...)

Yeh, my biggest reservation about the pair is that they'll make the other three-fifths of Bruticus look dreadful, even with the additional parts for the combined mode. Those are gorgeous figures of Swindle and Blast Off (have to agree they wre my favourites too, the spiv and the snob), and they'll look great next to a Henkei Onslaught, but it seems such a waste to put them with the Energon figures. Maybe if they sell well Fansproject might consider doing more accurate figures of the others...

You have to ask, though, why Hasbro can't do this. Those look fabulous; initially they were outside my budget, but I might have to seriously consider finding a way to get them. The Springer didn't really light my fire, a bit too generic looking, but those are beautiful.

[counter-x.net] - Godaikin, Ideon, Gobots, Ideon, SoC, Ideon, Gundam, Ideon, Ideon and Ideon.

I think the point is that Hasbro doesn't have to do this. They make toys for children to bug their parents to buy them. I *guess* if a kid saw these on a peg at TRU or Walmart next to the Hasbro set, they'd pick the Fansproject design over the Hasbro one...but that's never going to happen...certainly not at the same pricepoint.

Fansproject is great stuff...but it's stuff for us, not Hasbro's market.

Absolutely. And for the record, I really liked the tank and Onslaught molds from that set. The helicoptor did suck pretty bad, though. I think Fansproject did a phenomenal job of creating add-ons that turn a so-so set into one that looks pretty damn cool. Especially where the Blastoff set adds bits that turn Onslaught's truck mode into a long flatbed. Such amazing design work.

More serious than thou

Not actually Fansproject, but still... [www.bigbadtoystore.com]

More serious than thou

Neat. Are those completely new figures or are they accessories for upgrading some existing Rumble/Frenzy incarnation I'm not aware of?

Completely new figures. Very small for the price, though. About the same size as the original Rumble/Frenzy. Here's a Youtube review of the original "Shadow Warrior" [www.youtube.com]. Colors were meant to match with the Shadow Commander set that Fansproject put out (also meant to attach to the trailer and armor). Now they're doing them in original Frenzy/Rumble colors.

More serious than thou

Heh...I watched that video, then saw a red City Commander custom he made...then followed the link further:

[cgi.ebay.com]

Really?

I'm in the WRONG line of work.

>And for the record, I really liked the tank and Onslaught molds from that set. The >helicoptor did suck pretty bad, though.

It's not so much that they're bad or anything, it's more that they look next to nothing like the originals, whereas the Fansproject ones blend the best bits of the original designs and the animation models. Not really denigrating either, but I think owning the mix would probably frustrate me a little bit... Who knows, though, maybe if these sell well some time down the line they'll gradually work through the other three.

And I take the point about the completely different objectives of Hasbro and Fansproject, I'm just wishing unrealistically rather than seriously questionning :)

Sanjeev Wrote:
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>
> I'm in the WRONG line of work.

I know. I wish I had the time because I just know I could put out stuff that's as good as some of these. Amazing what people pay for.

More serious than thou

I've seen your work. You could blow away most of these guys.

These guys are insane: [www.fansproject.com]

The Hot Rod add-ons have now been updated. Incredible! I might as well give them access to my credit card right now as I'll probably just buy anything they put out now...

More serious than thou

On another note, the Fansproject G3 trailer (currently on sale in a couple different online stores), is a rather unheralded toy that is a fantastic add-on for the Henkei/Classics Convoy/OP. The reviews you'll see on Youtube don't give you a good sense of the size nor of the quality of this item. It's pretty much exactly the update to the original OP trailer that the Classics/Henkei line deserved. Everything feels solid, with lots of play attributes to it. It's a damn shame HAsbro/Takara couldn't manage to have done this one themselves, as it's much more of a "toy" in its scope than the other Fansproject items are. Despite loving their other releases, I think that perhaps the G3 trailer is my favorite so far. I'm going to try to take a few pics later when I get a chance.

More serious than thou

I assume Roddy's trailer is going to transform.... otherwise it's looking great.

Introducing Prometheus Rising Studio.
[prometheusrising.net]
I make 3D printed mecha action figures.

Looks like it is something of a parts-former the same way the City Commander one is. But it seems to have a number of modes: trailer, body armor, and a third "base" mode? At least that is what the pics look like.

More serious than thou

I was really starting to get worried about this one. Good to see some updates! Actually, I think this mimics the original Rodimus Prime figure [www.seibertron.com]
The trailer splits into body armor AND artillery base.

I wonder if the artillery base connects to G3 at all?

Regarding Crossfire, FP has some galleries up on facebook. (wait, does anyone here not have facebook? how insensitive of me.)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2010 01:16AM by RedAleseides.

See, I could probably do without the G3 trailer...but I'm still considering just for the sake of "completing" the Henkei Convoy experience...

Rodimus Prime upgrade for Classics Hot Rod, though? Shit, that's just hot.

Hard to say if it will connect with the G3. Given how integrated their stuff is, though, it wouldn't surprise me. That is, it's quite possible that it will fit on the extra trailer link that the G3 has for the City Commander trailer. It's also possible that this add-on set has some form of flip-down link at the back that might let it pull the G3 trailer.

Dunno, but it looks like it'll be another $80 or so that FP will be getting from me.

More serious than thou

Yeah, but why would you really want it to connect to the G3? It's for Hot Rod, but Prime...