Dec 3 - Beast Wars II Black Lio Convoy played by Neoart Toys NT-11 Origin Xerxes
I picked up the original Xerxes at the 80’s show in Mississauga back in January but BoNKerS wanted it more so I sold it to him. To be honest it was an impulse purchase at the time and had no place that he would fit well in. In early October I finally figured one out and started looking. I have heard how great, how fragile, how potentially frustrating and how amazingly poseable they are but then when I actually started to look for them how incredibly expensive they are now. With a little research I came across the Neo Art KO versions and how they had improved on the original in terms of tolerances. Unfortunately I didn’t realize until after I had bought them how many variations there are and couldn’t really verify if it was the original look or the origins look at the time I placed my order.
Now that it is in hand from what I have seen on the package it is indeed the “origins” version so let’s crack him open (or I guess I’ll crack him open) and see what we have. Well out of the box the left foot was SUPER loose but I pushed it down and I guess the ball joint popped in place. His left antenna was off and continues to fall off and same with a plate behind the left forearm. Yeah it’s a KO but shit ppl glue is your friend, so I will have to add some dabs here and there. Lots of accessories, extra pieces and really stunning to look at with plenty of die cast. Took me a few minutes to figure out how to balance him though but once I did he seemed OK and he poses like a champ. Have to say I was shocked at the red claws being metal and look phenomenal. Well about an hour has passed since I’ve pulled him out just checking out various things on him, testing tolerances figuring out all the accessories so yep there is a ton. The big blue sword is nice but no idea what is called. Parts have been falling of this thing all night unfortunately so I really have to get around to gluing them in. I’ve seen reviews of the original PE figs and the looseness on them but once I started popping things in place there was nothing loose left. The transformation is very simple except for the lion head. The SOB wouldn’t tab together no matter what I did and his overall articulation really suffers in beast mode. I really couldn’t think of much that I could do with him being that limited for pictures. Bot mode he really shines (as long as the pieces stay on) his paint scheme is nice, application is really well done as I can’t see any chips, scratches etc. but I’ll see what happens when I edit the pics. I’m happy I got him as he looks great, not happy that I’m going to have to spend time fixing it, but given it’s a KO, you get what you pay for I guess.
