Iron Factory EX-01 Dinoarmor and Rifle

The following words I do more as a public service announcement versus a review. A little over a year ago, Fall of Cybertron Voyager Class Grimlock was released to much fan fare as the majority of the FoC line had fallen flat with most collectors. Even with Grimlock being a great figure and perhaps the best one in the line, it was missing something. Even with those stubby arms, you can easily put your finger on it and that was the glaring hole in the middle of, oh what am I saying here, OK, the complete lack of a chest and belly in dino mode. In my research for this kit before my original purchase, I found the lack of information outside of what online retailers were saying very disturbing, so without further delay I present to you my public service announcement for all Transformers collectors out there.

Thankfully much like the add-on kit for FoC Ultra Magnus to set him apart from his mould mate Optimus Prime (click here for my review) Iron Factory came to the rescue with their EX-01 Dinoarmor and Rifle. In the small box you receive the parts to fill in the gaping hole in Grimlock's chest, a G1 inspired gun and a some smaller pieces that I will explain later on what their purpose is.

Out of the box you may wonder how a square box will fit in with the curved lines of Grimlock in his Dino Mode but surprisingly it works well.
Using the two posts on the underside of the add-on, and the two conveniently placed peg holes on the underside of Grimlock the whole assembly easily slides in and fits snugly. The colour match is spot on and can be easily mistaken to be part of the figure originally, that is if you didn't know any different. I do not own the Platinum version of Grimlock to test on, but from what I've seen in photos, the Iron Factory kit will also be a good match for the grey used. The main difference between the two being that vacuum gold finish on the chest and neck in the Platinum Version, so I don't see why it wouldn't work.

I know what you might be saying, do I own another add-on that resolves one issue but will I just be left over parts when I transform him? The short answer to that is, no. The chest spits into two and on the ball jointed arms that tuck away on the inside. those two parts move up and out of the way just enough to keep the add-on in place while you complete the transformation as instructed.

Once in bot mode you can position those pieces in behind the shoulders thanks to an additional joint in the centre in the centre of the panel into a similar fashion of the G1 counterpart. Still not 100% certain why it is there, but on the inside of the main panels there is a smaller panel that can be extended out. Maybe someone could answer that question in the comments?

I know to complete the G1 look, those stubby arms need to be hanging off the sides of the panels. I can tell you that Iron Factory was thinking of the G1 purest when designing this set.

The additional parts I spoke if earlier allow you to complete what is called Classic Mode. There are two additional posts that secure into the ports on the chest section. Once pegged in you remove the arms from their original position on the toy and attach them. To complete the look you will need to unpeg the chest panels from the once hidden arms and use the additional parts to peg those panels onto the ball joints that the dino arms were once attached to. Now this does complete the G1 look, I will mention why this is not my preferred mode. One reason why I personally won't be doing this often, is because one of the ball joints that hold the panels was lose from the box. I have gone ahead and placed some clear nail polish on that joint and now the panel and joint hold onto their pose.With all the joints being popped, replaced and repositioned, to limit the wear and tear and for the purposes of photos, this will be the last time.

In the end the G1 look of Grimlock is complete, but you lose so much of what makes this kit great. The first thing is you lose are the joints that assist in transformation, hide in dino mode and hold those panels up in robot mode, now just hang out the back of Grimlock like a couple of useless appendages. A kit that was designed to allow simple transformation between the two modes now becomes a partsformer. You need to pop off the dino arms, their new pegs, and the additional positioning arms and store them where they won't be lost. Once all removed you need to reatttach the chest panels back to the original posts and the dino arms back onto the main Grimlock body. Granted I generally display my figures in bot mode and they are rarely transformed afterwards, but I like to have the option of taking my Grimlock off the shelf and playing with him, transforming him without the need and chance of losing parts. It is for that reason the additional pieces will forever remain in the little bag they first came in.

The next addition to this kit and in all honesty when I picked it up I had completely forgotten about, and that would be the G1 inspired rifle. Yes I know it is on the box and you can see it through the window but it was not until I held the package in hand I recalled it even being there. The dual barrel baster is an upscaled version of the original G1 version. A part of me is tempted to paint it black to match even further to the original, but how will that look in dino mode? Yes Iron Factory even went as far to think of weapon storage in dino mode. The blaster splits in two and using the 5mm ports that hold the original sword and shield, you can attach the two halves of the gun. The snug fit would ware off any paint that I could or would apply but may resolve the anpther issue I do have. While the mounting pegs are a snug fit, the handle of the gun is not. It seems as if the pegs are 5.1mm, while the blaster handle is 4.9mm, just enough that while Grimlock can hold the gun, it does fit loosely in his hand.

Is this kit worth your time, energy and most importantly your money? It does sell on the majority of online retailers sites for under $25US (without shipping) So if you are not concerned with doubling the cost of the Voyager class figure for the sake of filling in a gap I say go for it. I know I was not disappointed with my purchase. The addition of the panels in robot mode do not seem to add an additional kibble. Being on ball joints and the pivot point in the middle of the panel, you can position those panels closer to the body.

The choice of two different display modes and an added weapon are always a bonus. Ease of installation is less than a couple of minutes without any needed kitbashing is also a bonus. Using the ports present on the original model is a great design choice, that in the end would be your choice to glue those posts into position or not. This is a well thought out add-on kit and is a most welcomed addition to my Fall of Cybertron Grimlock even with its flaws of a loose ball joint and small peg on the rifle, but those are little complaints for an add-on that I feel came directly from the Hasbro design table but due to budget constraints was handed off to Iron Factory.  

TheRealRonin
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*EDIT* Well silly me was not thinking when I displayed even all that briefly the kit in Classic Mode. I made mention that the original arms that held on the panel would just be hanging off the back of Grimlock, that statement is wrong. Those arms are held on the same assembly that plugs into Grimlock to which can easily be removed and set aside. The downfall with that is every time you which to transform the figure into Dino mode, you will need to reinsert the assembly, pop off the panels and reattach everything. A bit of a pain in my book but if you want a clean classic look and not worried about the transformation I say why not go ahead. 

Starscream gets his Crown.....and Missiles!

Oh great, yet another Starscream review......haven't you written enough? Well yes, but this one is with a twist. It has less to do with the actual toy or toys but something that is an addition to already two fun toys.

Recently I took the dive and ordered some parts from Shapeways. What I ordered was a weapons pack for Transformers Prime Starscream. as well I ordered a crown for Fall of Cybertron Starscream. Now with this being my first voyage into the world of 3D printing I began the process by researching into the process, the product and it is here I shall share some of my thoughts.

The two kits I purchased were both designed by fakebusker83, so here is a shout out for the work you did! With being my first purchase I went with the safe bet and ordered these parts in White, Strong and Flexible. In my research I found that these parts while strong will arrive with a rough or sandy texture, so some prep work will be required. Once ordered they arrived in about two weeks, with one week to be printed (an odd way to call it) as their order portal shows you the process. They arrived in a box larger than I thought and once opened I see two bubble wrapped rolls. Once unrolled two individual zip lock bags were inside with the parts I order and phew they all arrived in one piece.

As I am inspecting these parts for the first time, and I was surprised that the rough texture was not as "rough" as I thought it would be. Now don't get me wrong, the parts do require some clean up but as as much as I suspected. The first step will need to be to wash off the dust created during the process. A simple dunk inside warm water and dish soap and a gentle rub I was able to remove the dust. Switching to clean, warm water, I washed off the soap residue that might have been left behind and placed the parts out to dry. It is this drying process that I first came across the porous nature of the material. Within the first hour after being washed the parts felt dry to the touch, but not completely. The surface was dry but the parts felt bloated. It was very evident that the material adsorbed quite a bit of water, so I allowed them to air dry for an entire day.

The next day the parts were feeling the way they were when removed from the zip lock bags but of course less dusty. Now began the process on assisting with the removing the roughness of the parts. This step should not be rushed and if all possible done by hand. Now I will admit I have not tried but using any form of a powered tool may cause damage that can be easily avoided. With a quick visit to a local hardware store I grabbed myself a sheet of 600 grit sandpaper. I have used this grit before in model building and I find the versatility of working both dry and wet comes in handy. The crown came by itself, but the missiles packs came attached together, so with gentle pressure with an x-acto knife I separated the pieces.

Starting slowly as I have never dealt with the material before, I began to sand the pieces. As I work on them I find the layer of roughness is only on the surface and so the pieces are getting smoother quicker than I had anticipated. The crown itself needed more attention as I was concern with retaining the details, but with keeping a watchful eye I was able to maintain them. There were some parts that required my trusty hobby knife again, to "dig out" any of the built up material in the edges and ridges. Once I felt I worked my way down to the base model, I used a new piece of 600 grit and dampened it slightly. Going over the parts one more time I finished them off with more of a polished sanding.

After one more dunk in water to remove any remaining dust from the sanding process and a full day to dry, next came painting. In my town there is a local hobby shop that specializes in miniature figures as I figured they were they were the best resource to ask further questions. The Shapeways store itself has quite a few table top game figures, so why not? They recommended to use a Water Based paint because of the overall porous material. With that suggestion I looked to match the colours I required. Going back to my days working in model shops, painting and building model kits I already knew some of the basic. The first being is to make sure your brushes, no matter how cheap of expensive they might be is to make sure that all loose hairs are removed. The next few steps are pretty self explanatory, gather all your materials needed, brushes, water, paints and make sure you are wearing clothes that you don't care if you ruin as accidents can happen. Now once the paints are mixed, shaken or stirred, when applying directly to the brush do not glop on the paint, the less paint the better. You can always go back for more. Utilizing another trick I learned, paper clips are a great tool for holding small parts, if unbent correctly you can apply just enough pressure to hold the part to avoid finger prints and an easier way to manoeuvre the pieces.

Now that you have the basics the rest really only comes with experience to which thankfully I have. The main trick to remember when hand painting any model part is to look at your piece and choose in which direction you will apply the paint. The real trick is to run the brush in one direction when at all possible, doing so eliminates brush stokes and applies each coat evenly. With a light amount of paint on my brush I started to apply the first coat. Due to the prep work I took with these pieces the paint application went smoothly and much to my surprise that it did not soak in as much as I thought it would. The missiles have 3 different colours that needed to be applied, while the crown has only two, but between each colour I allowed all parts to fully dry. The water based paint dried very quickly with the expected matte finish. For the red on the missile warheads and the jewels on the crown I use a oil based paint I had from my G1 Starscream Restoration that was perfect for those parts. If you are going to mix water and oil based paints a word of caution. Yes, it can be done, but make sure it is Oil on top of Water not the other way around as you may have a possible disastrous outcome. The missiles had a detail separating the warhead from the body, but I was not so lucky with the crown, so I had used the gold paint as a base coat or primer for the red jewels.

Once all the touch ups were completed, I set the pieces aside to dry. In my opinion this is the worse part of model painting as they are all completed but you should not touch. I have been testing fitting the parts all throughout the sanding process, but now that they have a coat of paint I wanted to see the fruits of my labours. After waiting impatiently for a day the time had come to places the pieces on their respective figures.

First I will start with FoC Starscream. When the crown is attached it will need to be removed before any transformations, but it really helps set him aside from his mould mates, Thundercracker and Skywarp. I wished I had some clear finish to spray on the crown to add some shine and gloss, but for such a small part it can wait till I borrow some. The crown is very well designed as it fits of the head beautifully. It clips in to the back of the head and yet can be easily removed for transformation.

Moving on to Transformers Prime Starscream, he now has screen accurate single missiles, versus the rubber cluster pack. Now if you are a fan of the cluster pack, the weapons kit does include them along with replacement head and knee spikes. I am in no rush to replace those parts, as the soft rubber works for me, but those clusters just had to go!

Fitting in the same ports as the originals, they easily slip on and like the crown can be removed for transformation. The posts on the forearms later become part of the rear tail section but there are matching ports under the wings. Now this is where you need to be careful as the wing posts seem to be just slightly bigger than those on the forearms.
When placing them under the wings, apply the pressure directly above the post and missile. Anywhere may cause warping or even worse cause the part to break. I guess that is score one for the useless rubber pods because they flex to the posts easier. Unlike the crown I will not be applying any clear coats to the missiles. To keep with the screen accurate look of a matte finish fins, bracket and body of the missile, while the warhead tends to be glossy, to which was accomplished with the oil based paint.

For my first ever purchase on Shapeways, I will say I am quite impressed and all my preconceived notions were quickly quieted once I began to work with the material. If you are planning to get some parts for yourself, you will need to consider what material you wish to work with. WS&F is the cheaper and strongest material they offer, but it does dilute some of the details and does require quite a bit of prep work. Other materials like Polished come in a variety of colours and eliminate the majority of the prep work, but that comes at a slightly higher price. The Detailed material is by far for capturing details the best to choose, but the costs can add up and the material has a rubbery, or as some of the information I read can be slightly more brittle in nature.

I have shared just some of my experiences with my first ever walk into the future. There is another piece that I have been eyeing for a bit, and if I do order it, I will either select the Polished material, or even take the full on plunge and go with the Detailed material. I bet you can guess which piece if you have had a look at fakebusker83's page, and the one photo I have added on what piece I will be look into getting. If you have a guess, leave a comment below and see if you are correct. 

Also a shout out to the boys at Transmissions Podcast in helping with the final pieces in my research and learning of 3D Printed parts as well the folks and puppy at Imperial Hobbies for leading me in the right direction for paint. All your efforts are greatly appreciated and I thank-you.

 
TheRealRonin
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World's Smallest Review

I was working on this week's review but I had a change of plans. That change came in the mail today and so I just had to share my latest online find. If you have read previous reviews (and you should be) I have not held back in saying that my favourite character to collect is Starscream. If they give any figure that name, chances are I will be interested.

This purchase is no different, but with a little extra. Not only did I add to my Starscream collection, but I also received a World's Smallest Acid Storm. When researching these guys I found that they could go into two different categories. The first being that they are Knock Offs of the original releases of WSTransformers. The second and a far better description is that these figures being WST 2.0.

The reason I would prefer calling these guys WST 2.0 is for the Null Rays. With the first run of WST the Null Rays were a closer representation to their G1 counterparts. The 2.0 version have Null Rays closer to the one that came with the Classics/Generations Seeker mould. Outside of that one main difference, they appear to be almost identical to WST 1.0.

I feel no need to explain the transformation process, it is identical to the original GI releases, or even the KO versions I reviewed earlier. There is one additional piece of toy engineering that I did not expect in a figure of this size. Hidden inside the nose cone is a front landing gear that flips down and eliminates the chance of losing a very tiny part. Now the designers did eliminate all concerns with losing parts. The fists slide onto the arm nubs, just like the G1 and KO versions, but if lost will be far harder to locate.

Along with all the little plastic goodness, there were stickers that needed to be applied. I don't know exactly what it is about stickers that makes me happy. It could be a little piece of my childhood appearing once again, it could be the fact that I can look at the figure and say to myself, yes I put those on. Now I did do one slight change, I did not like the Decepticon symbols that were meant for Acid Storm, so I went with different ones that I had available.

The colours are spot on to the original Starscream in both Robot and Jet modes. Even though there was never a official G1 version of Acid Storm but if there were, I'm sure they would be spot on too. There are a couple of flaws that need to be addressed. The first being are the hollow parts in the robot legs and under the nose cone. With the hollow bits in the nose you can never have a acceptable Conehead. The stickers that did come with the figures are slightly off cut,  and they do lose some of the details that were present on the sticker sheet when applied.

All in all, I am happy with my find and purchase. The amount of detail in these little guys is impressive. The panel details, the Null Rays and you can almost make out the majority of the face details. Of course at this scale other details had to be omitted but there are far more overall than I expected. The only real poseibility is in the arms and with the upgrade to ball joints versus a pivot point so the range is far greater than just in and out.

I thought when I first started this tiny review, I would have more little jokes but I feel I just came up short in that task. Oh well there is always next time.

TheRealRonin
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Tabs, Tabs and more Tabs will make you Scream like a Banshee

I have not held back in the past in saying that my favourite Transformer of all time is Starscream. I am not all that certain why that is. Was it the wonderful voice acting of Christopher Collins in the original series? Was it the fact that he transformed into an F-15? Was it the fact that at every chance he would try and usurp Megatron's command? Or even in the face for death he never did disappear? Well at least as much as a ghost can.

So when you have a favourite and you're a collector, you always have your ear to the ground and if something new appears on the market, well you at least have to have a look at it, right? That is the way it was for me with Impossible Toys TS-01 Banshee. With the closure of Impossible Toys theses are going to become rare, but thankfully I was able to pick up one of their Tetra Jet from TFsource before that sad day.

In the past Impossible Toys has been plagued with quality control issues, cheap plastics or just overall poor reviews from previous product lines, so of course I was hesitant on even giving Banshee a second or third look. It was not until Internet Personality Vangelus's review of the almost complete squadron did I become sold on the figure. I will say my first impression of this third party toy is impressive and it is sad to report that Impossible Toys banked their future on presales of the Tetra Jets and the company will no longer be producing any more after the release of their Minibot line.

Now with most third party figures, you will pay a premium for, meaning you will pay more than a regular Hasbro release or even an imported Takara price. I did pick up Banshee on clearance, and it now appears to be sold out on TFsource, but I have done some searching and I have been able to find the squad from other sources.

If you remember way back to  September 1984 with the original TV series, in More than Meets the Eye Part One, when what appears to be Skywarp and Thundercracker transform on Cybertron they do not form their familiar F-15 mode they change into something more alien, something more befitting a Cybertronian jet in the shape of a tetrahedron. Granted back in 1984 and sooner the engineering to make a complex shape out of a brick was impossible, but who had the foresight to think that a couple minutes of screen time would make fanboys of the Seekers like myself cry out for what later became known as the Tetrajets.

This figure is on the fly review, so I shall start with the box. Short of no picture window you can clearly see the G1 influence.Stylized art work of what the toy looks like in both robot and alt mode, the fonts and colours they choose. The one side panel explains how the Tetra Squad came to be. The back has the bio for Banshee, sadly there are no tech specs to read or decode and the final side panel has a drawing of Banshee, the same one located on the front. Once you open up the package the figure comes in Robot mode inside a plastic clamshell as well the instruction sheet.

Even though I wanted to write the majority of this review on the fly, can you really blame me from wanting to check it out first before moving forward? I hope not and it is because of that reason we start in jet mode. Banshee has some slick and curved lines, and plenty of little details that were not present in the short time they were represented on screen. Clearly in this mode you have the classic Starscream colours of grey, blue and red. In keeping with classic seeker design the nullrays have their spot under the wingtips, but in keeping with the original series there are two tiny blasters on either side of the nose. The bright yellow canopy does open to reveal a shallow cockpit, not large enough for any figure I have seen. It is a shame that with this additional detail they did not make the canopy in a semi-opque plastic,and with the noticeable overspary on the inside (at least on my figure) the canopy shall remain closed while in tetrajet mode. The rear of the figure is showing more of that artistic licence, as a main thruster is present along with some added moulded in details that could have been enhanced with some paint detail.

While sitting on it three retractable landing gears, with actual rolling wheels, it is hard to imagine where the panels all fit, but like any jetformer, this figure suffers from the same flaw they all do. One flip of the jet and you clearly see Banshee's arms and legs, but this is a flaw that no amount of engineering can solve when covering a robot into a jet. The day it is completely solved, it have better be a version of Starscream....just saying.

Now this is where I would normally go into the transformation process, but after careful review of those steps in the print it was very boring, very long and to be honest not very useful. Instead I have scanned the instructions for your viewing pleasure. There are few points I wish to add:
- This is an adult collectible and not a child's toy.
- There are multiple tabs that will need to be separated before transforming.
- The multiple joints that are strong, but I would not put any undue force on them.
- Take your time transforming for the first time as this can be confused with a shell former but surprisingly is not engineered that way.

If you stopped and looked at the instructions there might be only 17 steps but may of those steps are done twice but you will have Banshee in his robot mode. Looking straight on at this figure, could it be anyone but Starscream?

Starscream is here, down to the greys, reds and blues jumping straight out of the original cartoon series. The body design was borrowed directly from the Classics Seeker mould in which is not a bad thing at all. Well time to get to the main difference that is staring you right in the face, or should I say his face? That's right the head sculpt.

The head on this figure is as large as the ego is from which the character is inspired from. The eyes are painted red, the face is silver and with a black helmet. The details are there, but the mouth is shallow and is easily lost within the silver paint. As for the rest of the figure, there are some noticeable paint details missing when comparing this to a Generation's Seeker, something that could easily been solved with some reprolabels, but due to the lack of popularity of this series I doubt that set will ever surface.



The majority of the robot mode folds up and behind the figure creating an interesting backpack, nothing that seems out of the ordinary, but is really the only sign that this is a shellformer. The full back panel is in one piece, but on closer inspection there appears to be an abandoned extra transformation to add further shape.

During transformation I noticed a screw that looks to be holding a plastic washer inside a slip joint. The screw goes into the small circles that are present to the left and right of the main thruster, and yet there is no movement to slip those parts over each other. The curve that is present in the side panels, and with the tip bending over those pieces it does look like they belong. Now I did wish the tips bent over all the way versus the 90 degrees they do. The long nose drapes over the whole assembly in the classic seeker position. The stem that is connected to the back of the head is long enough as to not get in the way of the backpack created from the wings.

As I continue to provide my first impressions with Banshee I am impressed by the joints and how tight they feel. The head can look left and right, the shoulders can move up and down as well as in and out. There is an upper arm swivel along with a double jointed elbow and the hands are pretty well static unless you count the transformation step of moving them into the forearms. The is no waist articulation. The legs move in and out, but forward motion is limited by the front area panel and details on the thigh. There is also a upper thigh swivel followed by another double joint in the knee. The foot moves up mainly from transformation and the rear heal created from the wing tips does offer some additional movement and stability. With the large backpack the centre of balance is thrown off but it is possible to get Banshee into a walking pose. It is in the arms in which this poseibility shines, the free moving shoulders, double jointed elbows and the nullrays placed on the upper shoulder versus the forearms are not being oversized which is a bonus over the Generation's Seeker.

This entire review has been written based on first impressions. Banshee arrived from TFsource around noon on Wednesday April 18th 2014 and although this review was posted a few days later for editing and photos. There are some flaws with figure that I need to note.The peg holes for the nullrays do slightly split at the shoulders and easily pop out when placed into those holes. Those same nullrays seem to be a last minute thought. There are no paint applications and the backs are hollow. The oversized head with some missing details is screaming (no pun intended) for a replacement. As well there are some great paint details, I feel this figure would be enhanced further with a third party sticker set that would 100% need to include some Decepticon symbols for the wings. Outside the large head those are minor flaws and can be adjusted or fixed . I am happy to add Banshee to my other Starscream figures and Seekers as a welcomed addition. If you are looking for something new to add to your collection, a conversation starter, are you are a G1 purest, a fan of Seekers or Starscream himself this figure is a must have.

TheRealRonin
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