Fantastic Model FM-04 Doc is an unmistakable homage to the Autobot Chief Medical Officer Ratchet. Following the release of FM-03 Warhorse, this mold returns with a fresh coat of paint and noticeably refined quality control. In many ways, Doc feels like the release this tooling was always meant to be.
If you follow me over the various social media outlets (thanks by the way), you may have seen my video review of this new iteration of Galvatron from Fans Toys. And if you have seen said video review, you will recall that I was less than enthused by it. Well, some time has passed now since doing that and so I sat down to write my written review, have things changed?
Fantastic Model FM-03 Warhorse is a bold and striking interpretation of a character instantly recognizable to Transformers fans, a clear homage to the Autobot Security Officer Ironhide.
MX-45 Razor arrives in the Vault and as with most X-Transbots releases, the figure comes with a generous set of accessories, a stylishly designed box and an ambitious attempt to blend cartoon accuracy with transformation engineering. While Razor succeeds in many areas, it also showcases some of the more familiar quirks that X-Transbots collectors have come to expect.
X-Transbots continues to evolve as a third-party company, and their latest entry, MX-44 Gravedigger, shows how far they’ve come. Designed as an homage to the G1 Constructicon Scavenger, this figure captures the classic look while adding modern articulation and improved engineering. It’s not perfect, but it’s another strong release that solidifies X-Transbots’ growing reputation for quality and innovation.
To accompany our YouTube video, here are all the photo's of our 2024 pick-ups.
Preamble
Soundwave is one of those toys that will forever hold a special place in my nostalgia, having being one of the first ‘proper’ Transformers toys I got as a kid. And let’s not forget that he was also a great, if mysterious, character in both the cartoon and comics. That said, it would not be until the late 90’s, possibly early 00’s that I became aware of Soundblaster! The resurrected version of Soundwave, risen from the ashes of battle and defeat at the hands of Blaster!
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!
Preamble
Go big or go home! The 6000 SUX, because bigger is better! and so on… You get the point, sometimes things are just better when they are bigger. There is a history of up-scaling Transformers on the 4th party market, some of the Takara MP’s have had the treatment, the biggest of which I believe was/is the Lewin MP-10. To date it’s still the largest Optimus Prime by a 4th Party company.
Preamble
Released in 1986 the Battle Chargers had a similar auto-transformation gimmick that the Autobot Jumpstarters had from the previous year. A simple pull back and go mechanism which then activated a pop-up feature to give them their robot modes. At the time I had no interaction with the toys and as for the characters, I recall their appearances in the Marvel UK comics to be brief. I have since owned both the Battle Charger and Jumpstarter toys, but now reside in the care of another having long since being sold.
It’s amazing to me to think that Fans Toys first teased us with Inquisitor way back in 2015… that’s almost 10 years ago! It was a blurry silhouette but it had Masterpiece collectors intrigued. In that time we have had to put up with / enjoy X-Transbots Andras (depending on your point of view and collecting preferences). But since obtaining Quietus back in 2018, it has been a release I have been anticipating for some time. Of course Scourge has been represented upon my shelf by the aforementioned Andras, but like in all things, the new comes to supplant the old.
Preamble
Begun, the Devastator Wars have!
Okay, that’s a little dramatic I know but I’m not so sure I’m far off the mark here. Of all the offerings for a Masterpiece style Devastator that are to come, X-Transbots would not have been high on the list. Okay, maybe they would have made the top 5 but to get into the top 3… maybe even the top spot! This was something I’d not considered. But after having played around with MX-46 Big Load for a week, I’m thinking that all bets could be off!
We are almost done with January, February is looming on the horizon, much like the sun of the lengthening days. I’m a little later than usual with my year end look-back. I could make a plethora of excuses, each more dramatic than the other. The truth is two fold and quite unremarkable. Firstly I’d not been so well over Christmas and the New Year, still not 100% even now but getting there. And secondly, I’d really enjoyed not doing the whole social media / collecting thing over the festive period. I’d come to really appreciate not feeling the need to come up with new content, new camera angles and how to do my next Photoshop gimmick. But, there are still things I want to do so it’s back to it and where better to start than the retrospective of my collecting during 2023.
Preamble
When Fans Toys announced their take on Jazz, a pre-order for FT-48 Jive was placed swiftly and without hesitation. All I had to do was sit back and wait… But even then I knew that eventually I’d be doing the ‘Double-Dip’ as my left big toe was telling me that a toy version would be along in due course… it was and here it is.
Preamble
What can I say… Well, I knew that when I picked up the DS version of Blaster that I’d end up having to get some cassette-bots for him. I had no intentions of going for the ones on offer due to scaling issues, besides I knew Ocular Max would have my back. I just had to be patient and wait… and wait I did. First up was Tempo, he was good but it was Rewind & Eject I really wanted… I would not be disappointed.
I liked Commander Stack, there were some teething issues shall we say, but these have been rectified and all is good. So much so that when they announced they would be doing the ‘Shining Magnus’ version, it was a done deal. This was a chance to not only grab myself a great figure but also to right a wrong I did myself around 20 years ago. The wrong I speak of is when I sold off my G1 Exclusive Deco C-69 ‘Shining’ Ultra Magnus (20th Century Toy Museum from December 2000). A decision that if I think about too much, regret can often flood in…. but, these things happen! Lets move on to the review shall we.
Preamble
It’s been well over a month now since Variator arrived into my collection, and for one reason or another I just don’t seem to have had time to put ‘pen to paper’ as it were to arrange my thoughts of him into something worthy of sharing. Well, I had some free time at the weekend and arranged various random thoughts into what follows below.
Has it really been 4 years since this diminutive chap was released upon the Transformers collecting community? Oh how time flies! I had been of a mind to pick one up when he first came out but wasn’t over keen on the price point so I settled on two options: either wait for the price to come down if a second run was released, or pick up the inevitable knock off when that eventually surfaced. Now knowing myself and the luck (or lack there of) that surrounds me, it was obvious that the initial KO’s would sell out or there would be certain QC issues. Both of these scenarios would come to pass so I resigned myself to never having one or having to wait until Fans Toys eventually got around to doing their version, a possibility now made stronger after the release of Parkour. But, consider my ghast well and truly flabbered when Show.Z announced they were getting some stock of the MP-45 Bumble KO…… pre-order swiftly placed, it was now time to play the delivery waiting game.
Preamble
At the time of writing the review for Modfans AL01S Ruller (the silver version), AL01T was still on pre-order and awaiting arrival into the Vault. Well he’s here now and I’m going to write a few words and take some pictures for you to look over. Oh hell, who am I kidding, I’m copying & pasting and maybe changing a line or two. As let’s be honest, aside from the colour, it’s the same bloody figure! So you can read on with an air of familiarity or just look at the lovely pictures, choose your fate!