iGear Teletraan-1 - the opening ceremony

Saw the iGear Teletraan-1 playset on display in Singapore and I knew I just had to have it. It is so close to the cartoon Teletraan-1, it's almost unreal.

So I did buy it, during my Singapore trip. Carted all 3.5kg of it back to Sydney. It's been sitting in its carton case for around 2 weeks. Today, I decided it was time to crack the case and whip out the base.

I was surprised that there was another box, designed and printed all round, that was within the carton cardboard box.

It's a very nice box, very G1-ish, but its a monster of a box.

iGear has to call it "Computer Command Center" and not Teletraan-1 to avoid any legal issues I suppose. But we all know that it's Teletraan-1. E actually thought it was the Ark. She's half right though, cos Teletraan-1 is within the Ark.

Here's an issue, a person actually has to be 18 years old to qualify to play with this playset. I would be so lucky if I'm younger than 18 (here's me singing to the tune of Alphaville's "Forever Young", oops, showing my age again).

That's the contents. Loads and loads of pieces that has to be assembled together. I was actually very surprised that there were no instructions included with it. We actually had to search for the instructions from the 'net.

E's got Teletraan!!!

Very nice and large sticker sheet. Almost the size of a Fortress Maximus sticker sheet really.

Ok, so we both started putting the thing together. We quickly understood the QC issues that other reviewers mentioned. The pieces fit together, they just don't stay together. They keep falling apart. It was a little annoying actually. We would never have gotten the end walls fixed if not for some sticky tape and fold-back clips at the back (no kidding).

The long walls are also very flimsy and threaten to fall down at any moment. More fold-back clips are needed, but really, we've ran out of them. We made do with sticky tape, but made a mental note to purchase a box worth of fold-back clips tomorrow.

After about 45 minutes and 2 people's worth of work, Teletraan-1 is ready! 

The QC may be be bad, but gosh is it a thing of beauty. I'd give it a 9 out of 10, but then when I saw the little Soundwave and its detail, I just had to give it 10 out of 10 for G1-faithfulness.

So here it is, a scene right out of More Than Meets the Eye Part 2...

Still More Than Meets the Eye Part 2 - Ravage about to steal Teletraan's data of Earth energy sources (note the little Soundwave!)

A scene out of Heavy Metal War (ok, minus Soundwave cos he shouldn't be there).

A scene from... well... I dunno... this is Springer (oops, Warbot I mean) and Arcee rekindling their shorted lived affair in TFTM 1986...

Too bad for Arcee, Springer is having a change of heart, quite literally... (is she whipping out her blades to chop Springer or defend against Ravage?)