Mecha Mad and Figure Fixation V3.0

[briareos_kerensky]

My parents got me a train model made entirely out of wood from these guys. Today I wanted to do some modelling, so I thought I'd complete this train model first. "It'll be a couple of hours" I said to myself, only to open the box a find, in addition to six plates of precut wood piece, toothpicks, rubber bands, sand paper, and a stick of wax. And I thought "oooooh fuuudge". Opened the instruction manual, and after a couple of hours I had an handful of subassemblies.


These subassemblies include an "engine" composed by 16 rubber bands; divided into four groups, you have to force the bands into slits that can barely hold two of them.
Two rubber bands have to be cut to about half their size and others to about 1cm in lenght...and tie them back together. I resorted in using a marker and multiple pairs of tweezers to accomplish this. And a lot of swearing.


After a while I was able to put together some of the subassemblies


And after that, I have the main body of the locomotive put together in all its mechanical glory.



Manual says I'm about halfway done, after more than 6 hours of work.

[Blobcat]

Looking awesome [MENTION=7539]briareos_kerensky[/MENTION]

I've been wanting the Treasure Box from them guys for a while now, maybe next year I'll take the plunge and get it to build!

[QualityChimp]

Love that Toro figure, [MENTION=7037]Soundwave[/MENTION].

[briareos_kerensky]

Model completed! It took another afternoon to complete the locomotive, coal tender, and tracks.



There are a lot of moving parts: doors, access ladder, furnace, tender sidewalls, driving compartment roof






But...does it move? Unfortunately no, I screwed something up. After attaching the rubber band engine you have to assemble a series of levers and safety levers that should allow the train to move forward, backward, and hodl the "charge", but probably something fell out of place as I was trying to attach the various subassemblies and secure the various rubber bands. In one occasion the instruction booklet also contraddicts itself, so I ended up in asymmetrical lateral arms (the arms on top of the wells...don't really know their name).

[importaku]

Looks like mr toilet transformer has been shipped by courier and down for delivery on the 8th all things go to plan i should have him tomorrow YAY.

Weirdly that transformer site i got him from doesn't have him listed anymore, must have been something they put up for preorder but only ordered in enough to cover preorders and nothing more. Pretty impressed with service though they have kept me well informed i may use them again if it's something i'm after and they can get it.

[Soundwave]

Looks like mr toilet transformer has been shipped by courier and down for delivery on the 8th all things go to plan i should have him tomorrow YAY.

Weirdly that transformer site i got him from doesn't have him listed anymore, must have been something they put up for preorder but only ordered in enough to cover preorders and nothing more. Pretty impressed with service though they have kept me well informed i may use them again if it's something i'm after and they can get it.

Cool
Did you order him from TFS-Express?

If so they have 2 sites
One you went to for Pre-orders then there is a link on the main site for in-stock items click that & it switches to their "Omegalock" sister site for in stock stuff

Once items come in stock they get removed & switched over
Confusing but he is still available

http://omegalock.co.uk/toy-wolf/-1144-toy-wolf-w-01-dirty-man.html

Neil

[importaku]

Cool
Did you order him from TFS-Express?

If so they have 2 sites
One you went to for Pre-orders then there is a link on the main site for in-stock items click that & it switches to their "Omegalock" sister site for in stock stuff

Once items come in stock they get removed & switched over
Confusing but he is still available

http://omegalock.co.uk/toy-wolf/-1144-toy-wolf-w-01-dirty-man.html

Neil

Yes indeedy i used your recommendation and ordered from them, ah so that explains that then. Well impressed with them so far, was sent several emails on shipping along with a tracking number. Hopefully it's decently protected in shipping it's not like a high end former with a 3 figure price tag but i'd still like the box to be crush free.

[Soundwave]

Yes indeedy i used your recommendation and ordered from them, ah so that explains that then. Well impressed with them so far, was sent several emails on shipping along with a tracking number. Hopefully it's decently protected in shipping it's not like a high end former with a 3 figure price tag but i'd still like the box to be crush free.

Yeah they are really good
Used them a lot & never had any issues
You will be fine they ship well wrapped inside a sturdy box
Never had any damages on my figures & my latest arrival was the X-Transbots Cliffjumper a few posts back & he is in a minty box

You'll be over the moon when he gets to you

Neil

[Asura]

Got this from eBay over the Xmas break:



It's about 6" tall and is surprisingly heavy!

People will probably recognise it; it's front Front Mission 3. I'm not sure of its origin but it seems to be from Kotobukiya's Art-FX line, judging by what I can find when I google "Front Mission Figure".



Now in its place at the back on my desk:

[QualityChimp]

So I'm up to three Masterpiece Transformers now: Sideswipe; Silverstreak and Crackup.
I was thinking it'd be nice to have an Optimus Prime to go with them.

HOLY SMOKES! There are so many to choose from.
So, offically, there's the MP-01, which is defunct, the MP-10, which is expensive (but KO options are available to make it cheaper) and they've just announced MP-44, which looks nice but is a whopping £289!

A couple of other companies have announced Masterpiece-sized Primes - Transform Element TE-01 and Magic Square TOYS MS-01. They're closer to the £85 mark.

However, in looking at those, I've seen there a surge in the smaller "Legends" sized characters with Magic Square, DX9 and Mech Planet all bringing out their interpretation of a tiny Prime. I'm tempted to cut my losses and go down the Legends route as you still get accurate models, take up less shelf space and you can get a lot more of them for the money.

Legends Scale
DX9 Toys War in Pocket X34 Dutch
Magic Square - MS-B18
Mech Planet HS-02
GENERATION TOY - GT-05
Robot Masters RM-01
Takara Tomy THS-02

->Open Spoiler<-

DX9 Toys War in Pocket X34 Dutch


Magic Square - MS-B18


Mech Planet HS-02


GENERATION TOY - GT-05


Robot Masters RM-01


Takara Tomy THS-02

Voyager Scale
KuBianBao MP10V

->Open Spoiler<-

Masterpiece Scale
Takara Tomy MP-10
Collection Kingdom MP-10 KO
Transform Element TE-01
Magic Square TOYS MS-01
Takara Tomy MP-44 Ver. 3

->Open Spoiler<-

Takara Tomy MP-10


Collection Kingdom MP-10 KO


Transform Element TE-01


Magic Square TOYS MS-01


Takara Tomy MP-44 Ver. 3

Slightly bigger
Wei Jiang MPP-10
YueXing MMP-10
Takara Tomy MP1

->Open Spoiler<-

Wei Jiang MPP-10


YueXing MMP-10


Takara Tomy MP1

A bit different from G1
Generation Toy GT-3 OP EX (IDW)
E1147 Power of the Primes
Lewin-01 Atlas

->Open Spoiler<-

Generation Toy GT-3 OP EX (IDW)


E1147 Power of the Primes


Lewin-01 Atlas


Ultimetal Optimus Prime

[Dogg Thang]

they've just announced MP-44, which looks nice but is a whopping £289!

It looks pretty great but, yeah, that price. The Masterpiece editions are lovely but, as much as I love the two I have, they don't quite feel as premium as the prices suggest. I have spotted a few bargains online now and again but missed every one of them!

[QualityChimp]

It looks pretty great but, yeah, that price. The Masterpiece editions are lovely but, as much as I love the two I have, they don't quite feel as premium as the prices suggest. I have spotted a few bargains online now and again but missed every one of them!

I actually think that the Magic Square and Transform Element alternatives are actually a little nicer.
Well, let's just say MP-44 isn't £200 better!

[Dogg Thang]

Wait, the new one is missing his cab stripe in vehicle mode! Is this because he was missing it in the cartoon? I really don't like this direction. The new Prowl doesn't have the details for the same reason and it wasn't a design choice back then - it was for nothing more than cheap production.

[QualityChimp]

Wait, the new one is missing his cab stripe in vehicle mode! Is this because he was missing it in the cartoon? I really don't like this direction. The new Prowl doesn't have the details for the same reason and it wasn't a design choice back then - it was for nothing more than cheap production.

Yeah, the MP-10 has it, but they MP-44 doesn't.
Yes, it's to make it cartoon accurate, which they've done a pretty god job of, to be fair!

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, it's not quite as minimal as the cartoon though and I think their previous approach was better: they were kind of a mix of the original toy, artwork and cartoon. I miss some of the details. Even with the Sideswipe I have, they changed some of the silver stuff to grey or white because it was that way in the cartoon but mostly because there isn't really a proper silver colour in the cartoon. It's like changing the Optimus legs to white here, which they have avoided. But that stripe on the cab was a key detail in the toy and much of the artwork (and exists in robot mode) so I wish they had left that intact.