FansToys FT-06 Sever - Full Pictorial

Here is the full gallery pictorial for FansToys FT-06 Sever, the 3rd party Masterpiece style Dinobot Snarl - now with correctly transformed dinosaur hind legs! Yesterday's photos are also included for completeness. All dino group shots have the mis-transformed legs, I'm sure you guys will forgive me... 

FansToys FT-06 Sever - Teaser Pictorial

FansToys carry on giving us the Dinobots - or Iron DiBots - and the third in the series is FT-06 Sever. This is of course their version of Masterpiece Snarl, racing to win hearts and pre-orders from GigaPower's Guttur. No review yet, that you will find on TFSource Blog this week, but for now here's a teaser pictorial.

GigaPower HQ03 Guttur - Production Sample Review

It's been in the works for a very long time and a significant number of collectors didn't even believe it was ever going to see release, but the time has nearly come for new 3rd party company GigaPower's HQ03 "Guttur" to take centre stage. GigaPower's shot at a line of Masterpiece Transformers Dinobot-inspired figures begins with their interpretation of Desert Warrior Snarl. GP will offer this figure in metallic colours and also with chrome finish for a later release version. My own preference, even from the first line-art drawings of Guttur, has been to collect the FansToys Iron Dibots but I'm at the stage now where I believe putting one hundred collectors in a room will result in 50 of them choosing Guttur and GP's vision.

GigaPower Guttur - Extended Pictorial

A few more pictures of this beast, now with all the fantastic array of accessories utilised. Apologies for the lack of details and opinion, but there has to be something to come back for in the review, right?

New Arrivals - Late November 2014

A sales list I might have added, but the odd new figure does creep in the other direction now and then. In the picture above you can see the Mastermind Creations Reformatted R-08Z Zinnia, extra Masterpiece Wheeljack with hypno-lunchbox and coin and a Takara Tomy Japanese Animated Blurr. I finally added a new 1/55 Macross figure as well after months off from that project. Here's a quick run-through.

FT-05 Soar - Dinosaur Mode Pictorial

Following last night's FansToys FT-05 Iron Dibots Soar robot mode pictorial, here is the dinosaur mode follow-up. The transformation was pretty straightforward and easy to follow for the most part, especially the arms, head, feet and chest. Flaps open to hide extremities, die cast panels fold in and out and compress and the robot head folds into the dino head and is secured with two red pegs that clip into the side of the robot head. The feet and knees are where things get tricky and require excess force. There are chromed sections along the base of the shins (what would have functioned as the gold wheels on the Diaclone Swoop) that must be looked after and un-tabbed when folding the connected sections around the robot knees/dino feet. Getting the knees to slide back and allow full leg fold onto the back of the dino was very difficult too. I suspect much of this will be refined for final release. The four clips around the knees/dino feet must also be engaged/disengaged when transforming. Basically, on this occasion it won;t hurt to read the instructions! Anyway, hopefully these pics will tide you over until the first video reviews or my article next Tuesday.

FT-05 Soar - Robot Mode Pictorial

Here is the FansToys FT-05 Soar from their Iron Dibots series, a Masterpiece-style Dinobot Swoop homage that is due to be released soon I hope. Here is the pictorial of robot mode pictures leading up to next Tuesday's full review and pictorial on TFSource blog. I have no embargo on posting images for this figure so I am free to share my photography in lieu of an actual full article for the time being. This beauty - and it is a beauty - arrived today after a bizarre detour across Europe and a hold up in DHL Hong Kong due to an accident. Dino mode pictures should be available tomorrow for posting, but for now I hope you can enjoy this utterly spectacularly magnificently excellent rendition of G1 Swoop by FT. 

FansToys Scoria Pictorial

FansToys rocked the world with FT-03 Quakewave, which at the time was widely accepted to be the best 3rd Party product available to collectors. Then they announced their range of Dinobot homages, the "Iron Dibots" series starting with FT-04 Scoria who would be Slag. Cartoon accuracy was chosen instead of toy accuracy and thus we had swathes of chrome and a red robot face to choose from over a silver face. Toy coloured Scoria will be out in due course. I reviewed Scoria in depth for TFSource Blog a couple of months back, but it still stands as my favourite acquisition of the whole year and sits closest to me on my home desk every day of the week since it arrived. Here's the pictorial using larger pictures than seen on the Source Article.

New Arrivals - Early July 2014 (Part 3)

That's right, another couple of boxes arrived. One was from TFSource containing my MP-18S Tokyo Toy Show exclusive Masterpiece Silverstreak, Hyper Hobby exclusive Animated Black Rodimus, a bunch of teeny tiny figures (thank you Jeremy!) and the Animated special edition "Cool" manga book that comes with a clear Activators Optimus Prime. And right at the back is the completely unsubtle show-stealer that came in its own special package, FansToys FT-04 Scoria. 

Canadian G1 "Red Slag"

If you're interested in time-honoured, well-known, much-loved vintage Generation 1 Transformers variants that seem to have been around longer than the hobby itself, you won't get much better than the Hasbro Canada late 1984 release of Dinobot Flamethrower Slag, or "Scories" as he was called on the Canadian packaging. Often considered cartoon-accurate (although he isn't completely), 'Red Slag' seems to become more popular as the years go by as folks take the opportunity to polish up certain corners of their near-complete G1 collections. Inevitably, its price has gone up too.