Dec 2 - MMC Ocular Max PS-04S Stealth Azalea TFcon Chicago 2018 Exclusive
Wasn’t really on the radar at all. I saw the pink prototype at TF Con this past year and was not impressed but I did get to watch a true master of photography take some shots of her which was a genuine treat at TF Con Toronto this year. As for this one I really liked that oddball crazy face and while not enough to justify buying it, I do recall skimming over some IDW history where Arcee was tortured and changed by Jhiaxus and somehow she was Galvatron’s sister or something in that Universe but don’t quote me since I know very little of IDW. Whatever it actually is if someone knows please feel free to fill me in. I figured since Megatron had his Nightbird originally then this could serve as Nightbird 2.0 meant for Galvatron. Too bad she didn’t come with swords because I think that would be really good for this psycho look so I’ll have to check around to see if I can find anything suitable. In hand I probably should have gone with my first instinct because I’m still not impressed. I’m not going rain a ton of shit of this figure but I’m not going to sing its praises either. If you are wondering MMC of FT then only you can decide, me personally I would go with FT over this anyway despite the transformation. I paid the same amount for both and think I get my money’s worth with Rouge.
Granted this is an exclusive and that was the only reason I went with it. For the good, I like the transformation as I think it is vastly superior to FT (very simple by comparison), the mold looks good and it has a vast amount of accessories and that is where the train ends for me. Articulation wise she has some great points but then also suffers because of it. The ankle tilt “breaks” above the ankle into the very past of the shin, then there is that actual break in the middle of the shin and very weak knees. With the legs being die cast as soon as I tried to bend her legs for certain poses, gravity just took over and she slide down the wall like a drunk college freshman. They arms are a PITA because there is no locking point for the chest. You rotate the shoulder forward and the whole chest is coming with it. The shoulder paldrons don’t lock in and constantly move. At least of FT (although not shown in the instructions) you can lock them in with the hood. Don’t get me wrong her upper body is not floppy it just doesn’t lock in anywhere. The alt mode is small but to be fair so is DX9 Terror and he unfolds to a total MP scale bot and she comes close so I’ll give her points for that.
Having interchangeable hands is ok for Marvel legends but I don’t think this was a good choice here. They pop of far too easily. In some shots with her guns they would fall out before the timer counted down. If she had no weapon the stayed in just fine. The faces I get but they could have done something better with the 4 main face expressions I think. Scratch that they might be ok but the yellow eyes bug me. Just a personal choice, they could have gone with red. The scary faces are a nice touch and enjoy them. I’ll stick with Halloween face for my display with a big friggin axe. Since I’m not really digging her as an Arcee, I’m gonna say the Megatron consciousness crawled its way back to the front of Galvatron’s brain, found Nightbird and used Unicron's reformatting chamber to make Nightbird 2.0. Oh and she really needed a pair of swords.
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.