I got an early look at renderForms latest upgrade kit, and thought I'd share a few pictures and opinions. This is a nice head/weapon kit from renderForm, the designer behind many of the 3rd party items we seen over the years. He has been commissioned to do a lot of stuff we've all heard of, and has started doing his own garage-type upgrade kits as well; I reviewed his Universe SkyJack/Fall head/weapon kit previously.
The kit consists of two new head shells with your choice of two visors and three faces:
These can be mixed and matched to create a head to your liking, whether it be comic style, cartoon style or a mix of both:
The kit also comes with a very nice G1 style gun for blaster (as well as a few other accessories I've been asked to keep a cap on for now... shhhh!)
With the head and weapon applied, the kit gives the toy some much needed personality:
Before / After
The plastic matches very well, and the Universe-esque head matches nicely to the design of the toy. Here are a few more 'headshots':
Angular Universe-style head/face/visor
Unfortunately my camera washed out a lot of the detail on the yellow face
Of course there are still some unannounced gifts included in the kit, but we'll have to wait for the full review to see these!
In conclusion, it's a very nice set. The plastic is great quality, the colour matches well, and the detailing is sharp and precise. If I were to complain about anything, there was a bit of mold flash at the seams that I had to sand down on the neck ball-joint to get it to fit, as well as some around the weapons. The fit at the neck was nice and friction-y, and the small face and visor pieces fit into the head securely.
This kit does what any good upgrade kit should do: it makes a somewhat undesirable toy a lot better. It succeeds here by evolving the Universe Blaster figure from a bad Soundwave repaint into an actual Blaster figure that can stand on its own; the head(s) add a ton of personality, and the G1 style gun just screams
Blaster. Whatever you want your blaster to look like, you have your choice of heads as well. I can safely recommend this kit, as blasters are cheap and abundant, and it makes the toy way, way better.
