I am not making this name up... this is straight from china, and the box set is called "Century of Deformation 2" (but the instruction shows "century of deformation 4"... is it the #2 or #4? I dunno... it's bad Engrish... who knows...)
So yeah this is straight from China, coming from a company called "Wei Jiang" and trying to figure out if there exist a "century of deformation" #1 or #3... I only found out that Wei Jiang mostly only made AOE Knockoffs with die-cast parts... like they knocked off the whole Autobots line with better paint schemes and with die cast parts... I might actually buy a few of those in a near future.
Anyway Here's the video review, Video Covers Box packaging, instructions, transformation, size comparison, combining, articulation and me laughing at "Not-Groove" for about 15min, hope you'll enjoy... it's quite long tho:
http://youtu.be/YWccJsLu__g
Just Check the SIZE of it... bigger than TFC's Hercules... AMAZING figures really...
The set all have a LOT of Die-cast parts... like... A LOT... the combined mode weight quite a lot. The plastic quality is incredibly good, although I do have a few stressed marks... on parts that I have not touched and doesn't move or clip anywhere... guessing these marks came from production and assembly where some screw got tighten too much and stressed marks appeared.
The whole lot doesn't seem to have any names.... beside the Combined mode is Called "FIRE WARRIOR" all the individuals robots are called with letters, A, B, C, D, E...
All of them has incredible range of motions, maybe except the bike... "not-Groove"... I really invite you to check the video review for articulations.
Also, please excuse the photos, quality aint too good and the colors... they are all "fire-truck red" but they kinda look like pink-ish on photo... they really are "fire truck red".
Anyway, here's "B"... but let's Call Him "IRONSIDE" 'cuz he looks like IRONHIDE... but Ironside is written on its side. 80% of the vehicle mode is Die-cast... only the 2 back panels and roof is plastic... all the rest is die-cast...
Robot mode is also the only one with Soft Rubber: the hands & swords.
Next up is "Not-Sentinel Prime" I guess... only because his vehicle mode is the same as Sentinel Prime in the AOE movie. He kinda has the gorilla arms syndrome, but it's actually not bad at all. I Really love that the seats are used to fill the inside of the forearms to block the hollowness of the gorilla arms... pretty nice idea.
Next up we have "Not-Grapple"... pretty cool looking guy there... love the double chain gun... exactly like Hound in the AOE movie.
Then "Not-scavenger" he's possibly my favorite of the lot: kick-ass hands for Bitch-slapping foes, and huge shoulder mounted cannons when he cannot reach foes to bitch-slap them.
And finally the abomination of the lot: "Not-Groove"... he's a bot in a wheelchair... I'm not making this up... I guess the makers wanted to make a sort of "Dark Side of the moon" Arcee looking bike... but it really ended up in a bot in a wheelchair... Also... he can actually grab hold of his own handle bars and DRIVE HIMSELF... hilarious!
The Bike mode though is quite amazing looking...
And here we have the Combined mode from front, side and back... pretty nice looking, very pose-able, check the video, I make him stand on one leg doing the super high side-kick pose... amazing how he stands!!
+Cheap bought mine for about 80$ USD (+S&H)
+Very high plastic & die-cast quality
+very pose-able
+packaging is top notch
+instructions were pretty good actually... more than some other 3rd party makers I seen.
+combined mode is actually also very pose-able
+Solid ratchet joints.
+all their transformation is original and fun
-so bad Engrish on packaging
-stress marks already in packages
-"not-Groove" in a wheelchair is bad
I highly recommend this set, if you like combiners, knockoffs, original TFs... this set is amazing, surpassed all my expectations. I got this from TaoBao... but seriously... unless you deal with a Taobao agent, dont buy from there... it's not your typical "place item in cart, select shipping method and pay" kind of place... it's really weird... and I got RAPED with S&H + Customs... forget taobao... I seen the set on sale at Sirtoys.com but it sold out in a day or 2... so maybe you can write to Sirtoys see if he can get more.... otherwise you might want to look around ebay for this set.