Today's Transformer collector is spoilt for choice, and a very busy person it seems!
This is about a Third Party Product ("3PP"). I don't intend to go chapter and verse into what these are because they should be quite familiar even to the average collector.
MT-03 in brown mailer protective box
I recently (meaning when it was first released) acquired the MakeToys MT-03: Hypernovae, aka Nova Prime. Like FansProject and MMC, MakeToys is Third Party company whose releases are now synonymous with quality, great design and just pure awesomeness. The one downside is that their products are expensive.
MT-03 set me back close to USD$175. I consider that pretty steep for an unofficial product.
This is the very first release of MT-03 and therefore, it comes with exclusive clear orange parts and silver stickers.
Here, I have taken it out of the brown mailer box -
- bottom: actual MT-03: Hyper Novae box. I like the design. White background, grid pattern, lots of Japanese words!
- middle: Hyper Novae in "tanker" mode in his insert. The silver sticker sheet in front is supposedly exclusive to the first release.
- top: paperworks packet and first release exclusive orange parts. These requires cutting out model kit style and some assembly.
I won't go into too much details in terms of photos, well, because the internet are rife with them anyway.
Here is Hyper Novae in his 'tanker' mode. At least I think its a tanker, since they have labelled this toy as being part of their 'Battle Tanker' series. In any case, it looks convincing enough as a cybertronian vehicle with a cab and tailer of some nature. The white cab just rings Ultra Magnus to me... a repaint anyone?
This is Hyper Novae in robot mode... aka Nova Prime. Combination is required - the cab transforms into a robot (ie: its the TF United Laser Optimus Prime mold) and the trailer becomes parts that can be clipped onto the main body to became not-Nova Prime.
To be honest, the robot mode is stunning, with the usual MakeToys details and stellar paint apps.
I must say, there really is a strong resemblance to the IDW Nova Prime designs by Don Figueroa.
Here is a shot of Hyper Novae with another MakeToys release, the ever expensive Green Giant (aka not-Devastator).
Group shot of Henkei Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus (with FP armour and missile upgrade), Hyper Novae and Green Giant. 2.5 of the 4 toys pictured are 3PP products.
The leaders anyone? Ancient leader Nova Prime, G1 leader Optimus Prime and TFTM leader Ultra Magnus.
Height comparison with Henkei Prime. They do look good together.
Well, it should be more like the shot on the left no? When Nova Prime was leader, Optimus was actually just Orion Pax. I'm going to say here that I am unlikely to do a post on Generations Orion Pax, so if there is interest to see more of that figure, check out Optimal Omega's blog here.
"Arise, Optimus Prime!"
Man does he look nice, but to be honest, I really thought that he'd be bigger. Still, he looks great. And thanks for the plug!
ReplyDeletehey man, I actually included a linky to your blog. That didn't seem to work. I'll have to fix it tonight.
ReplyDeleteIt's a very detailed figure and (I hesitate to say) worth the money. But it is a tad tiny. Just a little shorter than Henkei Prime.
He does look nice, but I don't think I can pull the trigger on just him as a stand alone figure. Someone needs to make Jhiaxus & Tailpipe so I could complete an Ark-1 crew. The new Galvatron coming out will help with that tremendously.
ReplyDeleteGotta get 'em as they are released is what I think. since many stand-alone figures could make up that crew.
DeleteFor now, there is the Henkei Cyclonus to pair him with, so that is at least something.
I'm not over fond of the UT third party Galvatron, that I gotta wait and see for now. =)
I am usually not a big fan of MT's stuff, but I really like this one for some reason. The robot mode is just gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI am still buying MMC's one though
hmmm... I already pre-ordered this when the MMC one was announced. In all likelihood, i still probably would have stuck to this if I had to choose between the 2.
DeleteMMC's stuff is good, don't get me wrong - Hexatron was a good figure. However, compared to FP and MT, I think MMC still has some way to go in terms of the overall construction of the toy and also the materials used.
I won't argue about which companies products is better from the stylistic point of view since it's a matter of taste, but I am always surprised at people making judgements on materials based on simply feel. This is totally subjective. Until someone actually apply a stress test, you can't quite say which one has sturdier material. And here's where my unfortunate incident came in. Recently I moved countries, and as a result I had to ship my toys. Let's just say the shipper was really careless and hence my toys had to undergo the dreaded stress test that I alluded to earlier, and here's the result:
Delete1. Hasbro's (Takara) stuff in general came through unscathed. In fact I can't remember any that's broken, although my Japanese First Edition Transformers Prime OP lost his head.
2. Total loss on my FP Bruticus set
3. The rubbery plastic on my MT Fallen didn't fare so well either.
4. Cracks on my MT Purple Battle Tanker.
5. All accesories broken on my Perfect Effect Arcee and there was some damage on the diecast mechanism.
6. All my MMC stuff came through fine as well. I actually expected the Seekers to be damaged, but no, they are ok.
Now, I packaged all my 3rd party stuff as careful as possible, surrounding them with Hasbro's stuff and padding for maximum protection. I also spread products from different companies around to minimize chance of losing all products from a given company.
I am sorry I have to find out about different companies plastic quality the hard way, but it is what it is.
Yeah, totally agree that there is no point arguing about the style of the products. It's entirely subjective. Actually, its one of the reasons I started my blog, so I can record my own thoughts. haha.
DeleteSorry to hear about all the broken bits during your move - what did they do to you box? Roll it down hill? All things being equal and from the picture you painted, it sounds like the FP stuff in constructed of poorer plastic. Or plastic that more more prone to breakage anyway.
However, I tend to disagree with your argument though. I believe that unless a collector is some materials scientist or expert, there is no better way to judge materials than by simple *feel*. It's subjective, sure, but I don't really care how many molecules a plastic has, how dense it is, how rubbery it is and etc, from a scientific point of view - I have no idea what these things are nor do I really care that much.
All I care about is that it *feels* nice and /or *feel* right when I am handling it.
Thus while it is certainly arguable that my feel is different from yours, and ours is different from the next guy, what I'm saying is that to me, the FP and MT stuff does feel better than MMC's and compared to these 3 companies TFC and PE and KFC stuff just feels downright "cheap".