MakeToys MTRM-10 Galaxy Meteor

Welcome to my review of the 3rd party Transformers manufacturer MakeToys' latest "release" - MTRM-10 Galaxy Meteor, an unofficial Masterpiece-style version of Galaxy Force Starscream. I say "release" because of a whole mass of drama that now surrounds the figure. There were about 24 packaged versions of Galaxy Meteor for sale at TFNation 2017 for £100 and a further bunch sent out to reviewers, myself included. Last week, MakeToys announced that they were cancelling the figure due to low pre-orders. You can imagine the uproar, especially as final production versions had been produced and sold mere days earlier, leading people to believe that something underhand was taking place. MakeToys have now said they are overwhelmed by the desire and love shown for the figure by the online community - helped in part by the #GetMakeToysMade hashtag campaign started by Sixo and I (which was meant to be a bit of a laugh and then gained some proper traction) - and are looking into actually getting it released.

Instructions, Force chip, 2 alternate faces and handgun

Everyone had their suspicions about what was going on, including myself. Surely they didn't sanction a 30 to 34-piece production run only? Surely there must be more stock sitting in a warehouse ready to go that will now be sold through MakeToys' own storefront or some other avenue? The hope was that our campaign might expedite that release of already-produced figures - as well alleviate the drudgery of a blue Monday morning post-TFN - a show that was an enormously wonderful experience where a lot of fans got to share love for the brand and each other, and we did very much feel that positive influence and wish to perpetuate it in the campaign we started. Sixo and I also thought it was hilarious that someone challenged us to "enable MakeToys into releasing their own toy" seeing as we're always being accused of enablement! According to the gentleman selling the Meteors at TFN, though, it was a very limited, sort of extended test shot run that he requested for the show, and that same batch is where my review sample comes from. It seems pretty final to me, but I suppose there's a chance that an eventual wider release version will come with something other than the 2 alternate faces, Force Chip, hand gun and instructions that mine above does.

So now that MakeToys are looking at possibilities to release it as originally intended, I hope this review will act as a source of information and visuals for you to consider when making a purchase, instead of being an article on what was looking for a while there to be a very limited and rare unproduced figure. If we'd kept our mouths shut, we'd certainly have added a fair amount of value to our collection, but what's the use of that to all those who wanted the figure and didn't pre-order? I myself passed up the opportunity to buy him at TFN 2017 and regretted it horribly thereafter, especially as I spent so much time with the figure at the bar when Sixo opened his. The fact that after a year of nothing, MakeToys sent me a sample of the figure I'd regretted not buying, well that was a cause for great celebration and a bit of bemusement. Little did I know a storm was brewing.

So, to the toy itself! I never watched Cybertron or Galaxy Force, but the original Starscream figure was known to me. I liked the Supreme version a great deal and I owned virtually all of the Legion/Legends class versions of it, so the mould itself was always one I appreciated. When MakeToys showed coloured pictures of the Galaxy Meteor sample, my interest was piqued. Off the back of many recent MT figures that I have bought/reviewed and adored (Cupola, Ironwill, Downbeat, Contactshot, Wrestle, Hellfire, Gundog, Pandinus etc), I figured a toy that looked this good and came from MT was likely to be a success, something I'd enjoy. When I saw them at TFNation I did come so close to buying one, but decided that the mass of G1 and Titans Return I had just picked up from Orbital Comics meant I should be more frugal at the convention. I missed out on MMC Calidus Asterisk, MAAS Rune and Ocular Max Rally Terraegis through this silly plan, also.

Fast forward to receiving it through the mail as a review sample, with the experience of posing it and playing with it at TFN 2017 (something that a few of the guys photographed and posted online!) still fresh in my mind, I started to enjoy the brilliant posability of the figure. There's no doubt about his looks for me, he is utterly gorgeous. Perfect proportions, great colours, beautiful headsculpt, lovely feel for the ratchets and joints - although separating the shoulder sections and angling them outwards takes a little force - all of it meant I really struggled to put the figure down. Same as at TFN, basically. I did notice he was more on the light side compared to other MT releases such as the Headmasters and Downbeat.

Galaxy Meteor has button-operated, spring-loaded flip-out blades (not Force chip operated, that's kinda just for show even though it slots into his back) that click into position very well, but sometimes the button release does not work and I have to manually pull the blade out. There's lovely double-jointed action in the elbows, great bend in the knees, a good range of motion in the neck, although I sometimes find it hard to pull the head up completely without pulling off his helmet. There's a great deal of motion in the ankle tilt, but only in three directions - it does rock inwards, forwards and backwards, just not outwards. The waist swivel is excellent and he has a great abdominal crunch. If you turn him around you'll see a couple of pistons on his back for that mechanism.Very nice detail.

"Where's this supposed to go, then?"

"F**ked if I know, mate"

"Trypticon knows how."

Galaxy's wings and outer arms are adjustable and ratcheted, meaning you can point the blades in a variety of ways. I do prefer to keep the outer arms flush against his shoulders and forearms, I just feel that gives him a better silhouette. The hollow cavities behind his legs are covered by a 3-piece spring-loaded panel assembly. They concertina down and clip during transformation, and can be extended again by pressing the button on Galaxy's shins.

Galaxy Meteor's hands are an interesting one. He has an independently articulated index finger which bends in two spots, a ball-jointed thumb and the other three fingers are pinned together but also have two points of articulation; one at the base where they are connected and one halfway up. Think MP-11 hands. One thing I struggled with was rotating the wrists, because the hand does rub up against the arm guard and I'm wary of being careless there. Best to grip the palm and rotate that way. I found the way the gun tabs in quite novel as well. It sort of slides in perpendicular to the direction of pointed fingers, and it grips the gun reasonably well, allowing the fingers to close around it to complete the natural grip look. Apparently his arm guards are not entirely accurate to the Cybertron/Galaxy Force Starscream look, though, as many have asked if the arm guards can be flipped. Sadly they cannot.

In the above pic, you can also see his adjustable abdominal cannons. Those are great-looking and have enough friction in the joint to point up or down at the desired angle, holding position well. Now, if you look just immediately to the left of the rotating abdominal gun closest to you, you'll see two blue plastic panels with some daylight showing between them. Those panels should be completely flush and aligned. The reason mine are not is because I chipped a tiny blue tab inside the cavity that keeps them together when I was trying to shove a display stand up there for jet mode shots. I very much doubt anyone else will be stupid enough to do that as carelessly as I did, but hey, now you know!

As with Downbeat and Contactshot, MakeToys have done a superb job of simplifying the whole face-swap gimmick on their figures. The helmet slides off upwards, you un-peg the face and plug in the one you want, replacing the helmet to complete the procedure. There's the standard Starscream style back-stabby smirk, and a slightly more contorted grin that's just about bordering on the weird to go along with his extraordinarily handsome and standard stoic face sculpt. As I said before though, I do often run into issues with trying to raise the head up (it has to be pushed down and hidden for jet mode) without the helmet coming off.

While the posability and poise of the figure are huge advantages, I have found that due to a lack of any significant weight anywhere on the toy, he's not quite as stable as I'd like when I go full-on dynamic for the posing. For example, I had to work extremely hard to distribute the weight in a way to make sure he could hold all the running or landing style poses (posted towards the start of this review) without toppling. The feet are large and he has significant heel spurs, but the lack of outward ankle tilt did introduce a bit more work into achieving a solid balance. However, once he was there and appropriately balanced, he looked amazing and held the pose. I won't lie, though, there were a few topples.

In terms of size, he is Masterpiece-scale so he compares favourably in robot mode with MP figures and 3PMP figures such as the FansToys Sovereign (Galvatron) seen above. He's also well-scaled with Generations leader class figures like the Jetfire a little way up.

Galaxy Meteor's transformation is not what I would call difficult at all, but I also would not class it as one of the most enjoyable of the year, either. That's not to say it isn't fun - there are some very smart bits - but I certainly experience a dab of frustration in a couple of spots. The legs, feet, waist and head are all extremely straightforward and exactly what you'd expect of a jetformer that needs to achieve that very wedge-shaped alternate mode configuration. It starts to get interesting once you open up the forearms, fold the hands into the newly-created space and try to clip the arms up to the jet's exhaust/boosters.

The opened forearms first need to peg onto the central exhaust section of the jet, and then clip upwards onto the rectangular vent/exhaust sections too. You'll need to play about with the hinge connecting both forearm halves to get these well-aligned. The undercarriage then folds out and pegs onto both forearms, and getting this all aligned can be a bit tricky. Adjust one thing, something else becomes misaligned etc. Another sequence that still gets me is how you must fold out two blue sections from inside the chest which then clip onto the top of the waist to hold the front half of the jet aligned with the rear section. These tabs seem far too small for the job and often I find that the fold-out blue parts have folded back in a little and I need to re-align and re-tab them. All of this gets much easier with repeated transformation, but it does add an element of attention and repeated visitation to certain parts of the conversion.

Once transformed, you can see that his good looks aren't exclusive to robot mode. The very stylised wedge-like 'Tetrajet' appearance is out in full force, and again based on what I have seen of the Cybertron/GF toys and models, he's pretty spot on to what he's meant to homage. Good bulk, good proportions again and quite delightful colours. Galaxy Meteor is a visual treat from all angles, and the underside is pretty neat and tidy too. It's a lovely figure to hold in jet mode, but as expected due to my variety of photo scenarios used in alt mode, I had to peg the aforementioned small tabs in a number of times after manipulation.

You can see above that his blades can be engaged in jet mode as well to good effect, and you can split the nosecone (feet) a to peg the handgun in underneath the nosecone for a full-on attack mode configuration. The handgun also has a little wheel underneath so that Galaxy Meteor can still roll when grounded with the gun attached. There is no fold-out landing gear on him, so you're forced to rely on the wheel on the gun - and when it's not attached - there are wheels on the red sections underneath. The cockpit does not open, a shame seeing as how well this toy scales with TakaraTomy Dia-nauts!

So, MTRM-10 has a great deal of the qualities we have come to expect from the Re:Master series of figures issued by MakeToys. The excellent posability, accessible transformation, incredible good looks and ease of functionality are all there. He's extremely - but not completely - accurate to the source material and is highly compatible with Masterpiece scale figures (however relevant that may be to you with this particular figure). He could have been packaged with a shouty face and a crown, seeing as how the MP-11 Coronation Starscream gear just about balances on his head and shoulders, but these are not dealbreakers. 

What is a bit of a problem is how this toy is being brought to market, if at all. If it's true and pre-orders have been exceedingly weak, that should surely have been picked up some time before it went into final production stage. If pre-orders were weak, then it doesn't bode well for non-G1 3rd party Masterpiece scale figures, and that makes me sad. I had no interest in UT generally in my collecting life, but Galaxy Meteor here captured my interest and imagination. If it was all a marketing stunt to whip up interest in a figure and allow sales through their own avenues, that's not going to win MakeToys any friends and will ultimately damage them, plus from my own perspective I am very much out of the pre-order game, and I don't plan to start making pre-orders for figures I want again in the near future. I've decided not to collect that way. All of this has been on my mind since the day of the 'cancellation' and will probably forever haunt this toy. As much as the whole thing has reminded me of how the controversy around MP-23 Exhaust boosted desirability for that figure, and how low pre-order numbers meant a smaller production run for E-Hobby G1 Astrotrain proto colour version and subsequent high demand - but with less of the transparency - I still chose to act positively to try and make a tiny difference in helping to get a really nice figure into the hands of collectors who wanted it even before this drama unfolded. And make no mistake, MTRM-10 Galaxy Meteor is a really nice figure. One that I hope each and every collector who wants one can enjoy in future. Come on MakeToys, get it made.

All the best
Maz