Part 2:
Ok so here's one thing I didnt like about the KM-01: along the instruction, you have a sort of Visor you need to put on yourself on his head... the visor is incredibly tiny, and here's the dealbreaker: it doesnt hold... if it finally hold, be sure that the tiniest vibration will make the bugger pop out of it's place... you need to glue the damn thing on for it to hold:
Speaking of glue... I was pretty shocked here... check the photo below, on the left the exhaust pipe on the sholder, you see the white lining around it... that's dried up crazy glue... and it's not me... so whoever assembled this, used crazy glue to make the pipe hold and didnt do a pretty good job.
Moving on to the build quality of KM-01: he seems very fragile... the plastic used to make it is.. hum... any of you have ever made Gundam model kits? it feel like the same type of plastic a Gundam model kits... now having made a lot of Gundam models... I know that it is a fragile plastic that stress mark easily and snaps easily... I'm terribly afraid to trasform KM-01 too often and stress it, break it. You cant see in the photos, but the arms (transformed into locomotive) holds by a TINY hook and already shows stress marks on the very first transformation because it was incredibly hard to pull out the first time... KM-01 is NOT made to play with.
As for the articulations, the knees doesnt bend too much... which limits the poses you can do with KM-01... and also one thing I dont like is the elbows, shown in the photo below, they Seem to have double joints, but the join on the forearm seems to bend only like 10 degrees... if Looks like it could go 90 degrees... but dammit it's freaking hard and I am terrified to break it... so I only move the upper joint of the arms... but it kinda limit the poses and kind of look weird, specially if you extend the arm straight.
And finally my last minus point of articulation is the shoulders. Seen in the photo below, they cant rotate (make the arm point up). Kind of disappointing. but still minor.
Otherwise than the quirks mentioned above, KM-01 is just incredible... the attention to details is Stellar... there's rivets everywhere, the paint job is professional, the homage itself to G1 Prime is worth buying this fella.
Is he Worth it? WHAT YOU DONT HAVE HIM ALREADY? Seriously... he's not cheap, but I think he's worth it. The small problems with this one is nothing when you have him standing in front of you... it's a work of art in plastic. The only thing that is turning me off about this figure, it the plastic quality... if only a better quality was chosen... I wouldn't be so scared to stress or break it from transforming it. So if you want to have this figure as display piece, GET IT! If you want to play with it... hum... I wouldnt recommend... or I would recommend you to by several figures of him, 'cuz when it'll be broken, you'll have spare ones to keep playing with haha
PROS:
+G1 Prime homage
+incredible attention to details
+no pieces left behind, the extra parts fits nicely under the waggon
+looks soooo great... an amazing looking piece to my collection
CONS:
-Plastic quality seems low and terrifies me to break it if I play with it
-the glue around the exhaust pipes... it's probably a poor QA job but still... it looks bad.
-poor arms articulations
-visor needs to be assembled and it doesnt even hold correctly into place
Mastermind Creations has made a very solid first entry in making garage kit... I really am looking forward for their upcoming work... another "heart of Iron" looking robot? something different? Cant wait!
