Quite excited since I picked this up last night. Was probably one of the first persons at the shop to pick it up because I was talking to a shop-owner friend in his shop when I saw the stock arrive.
Having already pre-ordered this, and incidentally having the receipt in my wallet, I popped over to the next shop to pick it up.
Here it is. Out of the box already! The MakeToys Mobine Series - Paladin / Chaos, a toy meant to be The Fallen, from Dreamwave's War Within: The Dark Ages comic series.
Having removed it from its box, I thought I'd share some thoughts on this here. The thoughts are going to be random, hence why I titled this a 'kindof review' - it's not really a review.
Here he is in robot mode. I gotta say, for a character that is evil, my, the toy is pretty majestic. You'd think that having a colour scheme that is 90% black might be a little 'boring', but no, Chaos is far from boring. There are lots of little orange details on appropriate parts of him, very likely intending to simulate the sort of fire that the Fallen has always portrayed with.
Oh, and he comes with a kindof huge sword too, which is a plus. A quick google image search shows me that the sword design is pretty faithful to the sword he had in the comics. Very nice, MakeToys. It also goes without saying that the poseability is top notch, as usual for MakeToys products.
Here's a close up - pretty menacing huh?
Close up of head sculpt - absolutely exquisite. Here you can see it is more than just black, there are blacks, oranges, dark shade of lilac, red and gun-metal dark grey. The colour palette is very nicely selected and subtle. From far, it looks like a all black toy, but it is only on holding it and closer inspection that I realised it has such a rich colour palette.
Here is a size comparison with MakeToys' Green Giant (ie: not-Devastator). As you can see The Fallen is a fairly large and tall toy.
To be honest, I really didn't much care about The Fallen as a character before this and just pre-ordered the toy on a whim. But the toy is so awesome that I think I am growing to like the character.
Oh, one other thing, for all those who owns the Titanium Fallen by Galoob, I think it's time to throw that piece of crap away and get the MakeToys Paladine / Chaos figure, as the definitive Fallen in your collection!
~ HD
PS: It does transform, but I like the robot mode so much I have not got off my bee-hine to take photos of its tank mode.
***
Update 8 June 2013 - shoulder articulation photos for Roger.
This is a shot from the top with the arms down.
A shot from the top with the arms lifted up, facing front - not need to move the backpacks, lots of space in between as can been seen.
A shot from the side showing the arms in a 'T', but there was no need to move the backpacks in any way.
Same posture as above, expect this shot taken from the front.
For completeness, shot of the back.
Can even do an action pose with the arm
Some more pictures since I was at it.
awesome. i can't wait to get mine!
ReplyDeletecool, let us know your thoughts!
DeletePros:
ReplyDelete- He displays very well.
- Super simple transformation.
Cons:
- His small head is visible from the back.
- His backpack limits his shoulder articulation somewhat i.e. you can't have his arms go straight to the side (letter T) without some creative rearrangement of the shoulders.
- The small robot is a laugher, especially the shoulders.
- I don't think the turrets on the alt mode can rotate given it's PCC ports?
Verdict: get him. His big robot mode is so outstanding that I think it does overwhelm his negative points. Not a candidate for the figure of the year though.
agree with the super simple transformation part - love that.
DeleteYour cons:
- with the head being visible, just turn it 180 degrees and you wont see it - small issue i think.
- Not sure what you mean re shoulders. mine is very posable - just have to transform the backpacks properly (i can take a photo).
- small robot seems good enough to me though.
- yup, turrets can go up / down, but cannot rotate.
- Well, one thing that really grates me is when somebody cuts some corner when the solution is obvious and easy i.e. they can simply close that with some flap (done a million times in other Transformer figures). IMHO nothing sticks out more like a sore thumb than when a figure is almost perfect and yet the designer chose to forgo some small details.
Delete- Can you take a photo from the top? I am pretty sure my back is similar to yours. The length of the shoulder pads on mine at least overlaps with the backpack (seen from the top).
- I am guessing you don't collect other PCCs? I collect very few myself, but I think PCC Heavytread is better than this. This is another of my principles: rather than doing multiple things in a pedestrian way, one should try to focus to do fewer things better. The big robot mode is a winner already, I think they should have gone the way of making the vehicle modes superb rather than creating this sad little guy. Is anyone even going to display him on his own?
Also forgot to mention this: the alt mode has no wheels. Would it kill them to at least add a little bit more of playability to this?
Anyways, as I said at the top, I'd still recommend this, I was just listing out the cons as I see them.
- I tend to disagree with your flap comment. Reason is that if you turn the head 180 degrees, you will just not see the little face from the back. And from the front you will not see the small head because it is covered by the huge chest piece. Putting in a flap at the back would be over-designing it (like some of the FP stuff; ie: more complicated than it needs to be.
Delete- I've taken a series of photos and posted them above. Have a look and let me know what you think.
- I don't collect PCCs, so, really won't know whether 'Heavythread' is better. =) Saying this is pedestrian is perhaps too harsh a comment - we need to see things relative to other things. I think you'd agree that compared with other Third Party products, this is far from pedestrian. The little guy is not bad, although I can't say I care for him - it'd be better than just giving us a main body with no limbs, but which also does not transform. Hey who knows, maybe as one of the 'original 13', the Fallen is actually the first ever combiner and is something was more advance than Duocon, Combiner or Pretender technology?
With all that said, I still recommend this easily over 10 or more other third party toys... heh
about the wheels on the tank threads point, my preference is no wheels - i'd rather the threads look like threads and not have some silly little wheel in them.
DeleteAlso, I'm quite some distance away from rolling my TFs along on the table.
Anyway, this is more a preference thing.
Maybe Unicron rewarded his betrayal to Primus by encasing him in ever burning perdition armor. He became much more powerful but at the expense of his spark/soul forever falling from grace.
ReplyDeleteAssuming that there is no afterlife for dead sparks, that sounds like a pretty good trade for more power!
Delete