December 2 - X-Transbots MX-26A Bond and James American Version
American Version
Posted 11/3/23.
9,773 likes
Japanese Version
Posted 11/17/233
9,357 likes
Well this was a bit of a shock as I only posted him early November and took out XTB-MX-23 Fioravanti from appearing on this list within 2 weeks! Another thing is that the Japanese version arrived soon after and since they are essentially the same thing, I’ll add my thoughts below that so hope you like to read.
American Version thoughts
Aside from a few tabbing issues in the alt mode I have to say this thing looks fantastic. For anyone who knows me is aware of my wife's and my car's and looking at it this is like the love child of the two. Her paint scheme with my rims. The blue paint looks metallic to me and is just stunning to look at. The doors don't tab in very well but if you mess with them a bit, I could get them to look like they are closed. Passenger door just kept popping open so had to mess with that one more. Towards the rear of the hood there a two panels that I couldn't get flat for the life of me. Although it looks good even the Altmode has issues as it just seems to fall apart when handling, particularly the front of the car. The hands can vaguely pass for seats so "E" for effort there I suppose. It does have a decent amount of detail with the pop-up lights, side markers and rear light detail. I have to say that back in the day I really liked the look of the Fiero and dreamed of owning one but hey what teenager doesn't dream of owning a shit ton of sports cars. Another thing with the Altmode is there is a panel in the center of the hood that can flip over so I applied faction symbols to each side. Ultimately this will be Punch and will go for the Sunbow animation model head for my shelf. Now having said that I do plan on getting the Japanese version and will be displayed as Counterpunch.
Now for the fun part and that is full on sarcasm, which is the transformation. I watched 2 different reviews before I had actually received it. 1, because I was curious and 2, I was bored out of my skull at work and grateful that I did watch both. Each reviewer covered certain aspects and what was left out was covered by the other. Now having said that I took the Altmode shots and then went for transformation and holy crap was that scary. I don’t mean scary as in difficult but scary as in I honestly thought something was going to break. The first part with the doors was a nightmare and the feet, what a PITA. At one point I did break the part that wraps around to form CP's foot but fortunately it just popped loose and I was able to pop it back on. When I was done, I immediately thought of my issues with FT Kup. Way back then (it was around Christmas) I wrote my thoughts and remembered that I needed a screwdriver so I actually went upstairs and made one and then to my toolbox to get one. This was that type of deal so remember kiddies with this guy a spudger is your friend and as I am not aware of a drink named spudger, this was an alcohol-free transformation.
I went to Bond/Punch first (not sure why) and ran into the common issue with the shoulders. His left was fine but the right was loose so TMReviews did put up a fix video so I tightened the shoulders and that did the trick. I won't bother going over articulation as that can be seen in any video review but I gotta say I don’t like how the elbows work for the so called "double-joint", they are just ugly. The attached head he comes with gave me some issues trying to get CP's face turned around but eventually got it. I tried getting the face out so I could switch it with the screaming face but I honestly could not remove it and swear if I tried anymore it was going to snap so I gave up. If you have any clue how to safely remove it let me know. Since I was going for the Rebirth animation look, I placed his logos on his shoulders rather than the middle of the chest. I could have gone with straight red but opted for using the white bordered Autobot insignia's instead as they seem to pop more on the blue. The secondary head which has the Rebirth animation face was what I was planning on displaying him with but once I did put it on it just looked so awful, I just couldn't stand it. The gun was a real PITA to actually get tabbed in but eventually went.
Since at some point the Japanese version will be released, I will display them with two weapons instead of one rather than just putting them back in the box depending on what they look like.
Now for James/Counterpunch (and I didn't know who was who until I read the bio on the back of the box) I again went for double Decepticon insignia's and really prefer his look out of the two of them. The whole face swapping gimmick just doesn't work for me. The Universe and POTP versions work so much better. To be honest if XTB was going to provide extra heads then I would have preferred that they simply provide 2 heads, 1 for each character simply because it just doesn’t work well based on the design IMO.
In the end it does what it's meant to do and I guess that's all that counts. Could they have done better? I'm sure they could have. Will someone else do it better if the future? Maybe. Am I going to get it and replace these? Not a chance. In the words of Sergeant Murtaugh, I’m too old for this sh!t.
Japanese Version thoughts.
In all honesty there isn't a great deal more I can say about this that I didn't say in the American version post except for the differences. There are things I like and dislike about both having them side by side. I much prefer the body details that went into the 26B that 26A doesn't have. I love the pointier "ears" on 26B but can't stand any of the face sculpts. Oddly I had no issue removing the face from Counterpunch to switch out with the other one (the "screaming" face) unlike 26A which I still haven't found a safe way to remove. What I would love to have done is give CP the masked face from 26A with the head of 26B but they are so drastically different in shape it can't be done. One thing I will say is that the issues present on the American version weren't present on this release but that could just be my copy. I had no issues with the shoulders, elbows etc.
When it comes down to display choices, I am a lot more torn than I was originally. I had planned on 26A for my Autobot Shelf and 26B for my Decepticon shelf. In the end it will still end up being that way but I refuse to use the head he came with. I really, really dislike the face so I am going to use the second head that came with 26A and give both 2 weapons rather than just putting them back in the box.
I am going to do a side by side with them and their packaging just to compare and most likely discuss what appears to be new reveals by XTB.
Shot 11/8/23.
