FANS TOYS FT-26 HITCH > REVIEW

Preamble

I’ll not keep you long on this one as to be fair, there isn’t really a lot to say. I’ll just start by saying that I wanted to pick up FT-26 ever since Fans Toys released their teaser video back in September of 2022. You know the one, the one with the jaunty music and Hitch look all outdoorsy near the stream and waterfall. After seeing that I felt all warm & fuzzy with my wallet ready to go.

Anyway, stuff came out in the meantime and Hitch got moved down the list of ‘would likes’… that was until last week!

Box & Accessories

Box quality is Fans Toys standard, it’s sturdy, glossy and printed well. As ever, the figure is presented inside a tomb of polystyrene, which I adore as it gives off an air of prestige. Along with the figure are the accessories which include; an arm with hand, a toy accurate head, a more cartoon accurate head and an alien mask. Also included is the almost obsolete instruction booklet and a collectors card.

Vehicle Mode

The vehicle mode is more boxy looking than a real world Toyota Hi-Lux, but it does fall in line with his animation alt-mode look, which is what is important here as this is the style being pursued currently. It’s a solid mode with no panel gaps or mis-alignments, nicely painted with reasonable detailing. Almost every inch of this figure is painted and the one I have to hand has zero blemishes or bad spots. Rubber tyres and translucent plastic enhance the overall aesthetic making this a really good looking alt mode. Hitch rolls well on his wheels and the doors open for effect, but this is more to do with transformational sequence than actual play or design feature. The ‘tow hitch’ feature on the back folds out nicely and works well as intended. The only thing I would make mention of in a slight negative way are the door mirrors. Both the G1 toy and animation model omitted these, the prior for more obvious reasons than the latter. So it strikes me as an odd choice that Fans Toys included them here, mainly as they do get in the way of shoulder articulation, more on that later.

Transformation

Transformation is really smooth and intuitive, nothing here to blindside you or make things difficult. Very similar in its approach to both his mold mate Outrider and the original G1 toy. The transformation works well regardless of if you have the ‘gun’ arm or the standard ‘hand’ arm. I also like the way the towing arm section folds out to leave a really tidy back profile.

Robot Mode

Whilst Hitch does share some similarities with Outrider, there are enough differences to make him feel like a character all of hi s own. A little more squat and the legs have no real waist section, giving him a more ‘portly’ look, not cutting the tall and lean silhouette as his brother Autobot does.

The impeccable paint job carries on though into robot mode, I mean how could it not. But with more of the Oranges and Chrome on display, it really make him stand out on the shelf. All the joints are stiff an hold really well and would be great given better articulation. Hitch isn’t as dynamic when it comes to said articulation like what Outrider is, there is no way he can achieve the poses he does. There is no ab-crunch, no double joints on the arms or legs and those door mirrors I mentioned earlier do get in the way of the shoulder movement. On the plus side, the head is attached via a ball joint which allows some expression. The swap out features (heads and arm) work well and allow you to choose a more G1 toy look, but the biggest omission here is the lack of a weapon. I know he has his ‘tube’ arm which could be a cannon but it would’ve been nice to have had a blaster, Outrider had one! Hitch also scales well with other MP Transformers. Closing Thoughts

For his minor faults, Hitch is a great looking figure in my opinion. He’s painted well, designed well and overall executed very well. Sure, limited articulation and no weapons but you can always borrow some from other Fans Toys releases. Aside from Hitch I also have Artifex by Mastermind Creations, so two MP versions of a G1 Hoist. I’ll not compare them here as I feel that would be a little unfair as they are chasing a different design ethos. Do I have a favourite? Yeah, I suppose I do and they are both it for differing reasons. But back to Hitch. He looks great on display and for me, having that G1 style head is the cream which I wish Fans Toys would include for other releases. I said to a friend the other day whilst I was showing him Hitch in vehicle mode. This green bugger is heavy, and could cause some damage were it to be hurled at someone…. And I have every confidence that were it so, it’d survive intact!

So for me, Fans Toys FT-26 Hitch is a strong recommend.

And that’s about it. The rest you can gather from the photo’s or by heading over to PrimeTime Toyz and buying one for yourself.

Right, I’m out of here. I’ve been Edd, he's been Hitch and you’ve been awesome for spending a little time reading my ramblings.

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