Toy Review - GEN-15 VOY Motormaster (combiner)

[griffin]

(Please post comments, photos or even a fully comprehensive review - these are just some brief details to start you off)
Impressions of the group or a combiner as a whole can be posted here or in the pre-existing group review topic here (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=19989).

Motormaster
Series - Generations
Sub-line - Combiner Wars
Size/class - Voyager
New/remould/redeco - Redeco Optimus w/ new head
Wave - 2
Released here - not yet (out in Asia & America Feb/Mar 2015)
Approximate Retail Price - AU$?? (probably about $50) US$25
Approximate Size - 20cm (robot), 15cm (truck)
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Truck Cab
Main Features/Gimmicks - Combiner core (Menasor)
Main Colours - grey, black, purple
Main Accessories - sword

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/transformers/2015/gen15a17.jpg
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[prjkt]

Quick notes for now. More and photos to come.

Starters, his head is a big Improvement over CW OP. Ball jointed so it can look up and down as well as side to side, and seems more in proportion to the rest of his body in comparison to Optimus.

Quite a lot of pieces have been remoulded, obvious both his heads, but also the chest, parts of the cab front, cab rear doors, there's an airfoil now, new codpiece and combiner chest piece. Not quite a Springer/Sandstorm level of remould, but enough that the robot modes are different enough, even if they have the same silhouette.

His hip ratchets are a little smoother than OP's, which were quite stiff, so posing in both robot and combined mode is a fair bit easier. I like the combining sword/gun idea, means that his robot weapon is not too small for Menasor, and Menaor's is not too big for Motormaster.

Summary: While I like CW OP, Motormaster is definitely the better version of the mould.

[ProphesizedFunk]

Here's my review for Motormaster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cDRO23A3bs

The more I play around with him the more I'm liking him. I think the big bulkiness of the figure suites him perfectly. Can't wait to get the rest of the Stunticons to finish up Menasor!

[koolkollectibleskhai]

Here's my review of the final Stunticon in the current wave of TF Combiner Wars figures with Motormaster. Pretty much a retool of the Optimus Prime from Wave 1, but overall not too bad.

Where it all falls over I think, is when combined with the rest of the team into Menasor. Pretty terrible body proportions that kind of ruin the look, especially when compared to Superion.

Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Motormaster - YouTube (http://youtu.be/M8puX3YEJUs?list=PLk4bVUAlCip3jj9YdxjCXJuC8MnqLdh4 U)

Hope you can check out the review, subscribe, like, and comment with your thoughts on the the gestalt :)

[griffin]

Quite a lot of pieces have been remoulded, obvious both his heads, but also the chest, parts of the cab front, cab rear doors, there's an airfoil now, new codpiece and combiner chest piece. Not quite a Springer/Sandstorm level of remould, but enough that the robot modes are different enough, even if they have the same silhouette.

This was something I didn't realise until Demonac held both next to each other at the Toyfair and pointed out all the panels that were different... a lot more than I was expecting, but maybe a waste of expense if the difference isn't easily noticed like Cyclonus, First Aid or Streetwise.
They could have done a redeco of Optimus and invested that remoulding into another toy that could use it, like Wildrider from Dead End or Breakdown.

[Omega Metro]

As much as I frown upon 3rd party, I'd love to see a trailer made for this guy. Does it have a hole to attach a trailer to?

[Bidoofdude]

As much as I frown upon 3rd party, I'd love to see a trailer made for this guy. Does it have a hole to attach a trailer to?

There's one in the middle and one on either side.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Opened him up and has a play with him tonight.

First of all the robot mode is just spectacular :D. Big, beefy and tough! The head has been done perfectly (I wonder if like Megs we will ever get to see him take his outer helmet off in the comics) and I don't mind at all that the feet are now just regular feet rather than a split truck cab. To my mind it was one of the few drawbacks of the original toy - made it look like his feet were the size of Optimus Prime's whole body :p.

The truck mode. Well.... its pretty good I guess. But for me, part of the appeal of Motormaster (one of my first 13 ever TF's and my first Scramble City Commander) was that he turned into a truck with a trailer. Plus in the cartoons it made him an even bigger nemesis for any road-going Autobots. As just a cab I find he lacks that certain something the original toy had, the G1 version even had the ramp you could unfold! I know this is how the Botcon version (which I hope to get one day but can probably never afford :o) was done but it still disappoints my wistful nostalgia. He's a bit too reminiscent of AOE Galvatron as a gray cab rather than a full truck with black cab and gray trailer.

I haven't combined him with the other Stunticons yet - am hoping to put them all together tomorrow night after we get the kids to bed, but I've done the same transformation with Optimus so don't anticipate any problems.

So overall:
1: Awesome Robot Mode!
2: Truck mode REALLY needs a trailer
3: Good Transformation
4: Great to have this character done as the Menasor torso again after 29 years :)


So yeah, I'd recommend you grab him, but I don't think we've seen the definitive Motormaster toy just yet. Probably a helluva long time before we get another one though :rolleyes:

[Zommael]

It'd be interesting to see a third party (or HasTak, but I doubt they'd see it as a good return on the investment) come up with a trailer for this mould that could attach as limbs for the combiner mode. Could work very well with the Optimus and Grand Scourge versions of the toy, especially if they found a way to work the Energon drones into it.

[BigTransformerTrev]

It'd be interesting to see a third party (or HasTak, but I doubt they'd see it as a good return on the investment) come up with a trailer for this mould that could attach as limbs for the combiner mode. Could work very well with the Optimus and Grand Scourge versions of the toy, especially if they found a way to work the Energon drones into it.

I always thought they could do a Motorrmaster using the cocept pioneered by the original G1 Ultra Magnus. That is they could have a black cab that turned into a robot then a gray trailer that became armour that fit over the smaller robot. Then people could have the best of both worlds - a black robot (like he appeared in the cartoons) that was in scale with the rest of the Stunticons, or a giant gray robot that looked more like the original toy :)

[Zommael]

I always thought they could do a Motorrmaster using the cocept pioneered by the original G1 Ultra Magnus. That is they could have a black cab that turned into a robot then a gray trailer that became armour that fit over the smaller robot. Then people could have the best of both worlds - a black robot (like he appeared in the cartoons) that was in scale with the rest of the Stunticons, or a giant gray robot that looked more like the original toy :)

I think I largely agree with this. I don't have the toy yet, but in my opinion - and contrary to popular opinion - it just doesn't quite work as Motormaster for me because it appears to have been designed with Optimus Prime in mind first. Thus, it's missing iconic elements that scream Motormaster such as the integrated trailer and the cab becoming the feet. If it doesn't turn up over here before I go away, I may end up just getting Grand Scourge instead.

[GoktimusPrime]

I agree that it would be cool, but there's less redeco potential with a toy like that for a relatively less popular character. By making it Optimus Prime-esque, they've obviously been able to redeco the toy as Optimus Prime to help get more money back that they spent developing the mould. We all know that redecos are important to help keep the cost of these toys down. We've seen how Leader Class Jetfire has been redecoed as Thundercracker and Starscream (and it wouldn't surprise me if Skywarp happened too), and Megatron was simultaneously released as G1 and Armada.

Ultra Magnus is arguably a more popular character, and it wouldn't surprise me if Hasbro thought up of some way to redeco the toy later on, even if it's an awkwardly shoehorned redeco like CW Cyclonus. :o

[prjkt]

the only thing with turning into a Cab/Trailer in one means that alt mode would be totally out of sca... what, nevermind, this is Transformers we're talking about, carry on.

Might not be the G1 Motormaster we remember, but he's not the only Classics-verse character to have a pretty decent makeover - Kup, Perceptor, Windcharger (RTS version), Jetfire, multiple Optimii etc. While MM's deviation from the original design might be further than the others listed, I can deal with it, because it means I've got an affordable Menasor.

[UltraMarginal]

I always thought they could do a Motorrmaster using the cocept pioneered by the original G1 Ultra Magnus. That is they could have a black cab that turned into a robot then a gray trailer that became armour that fit over the smaller robot. Then people could have the best of both worlds - a black robot (like he appeared in the cartoons) that was in scale with the rest of the Stunticons, or a giant gray robot that looked more like the original toy :)

That would be a really interesting toy and a hell of an engineering challenge. :D

[Bidoofdude]

I agree that it would be cool, but there's less redeco potential with a toy like that for a relatively less popular character. By making it Optimus Prime-esque, they've obviously been able to redeco the toy as Optimus Prime to help get more money back that they spent developing the mould. We all know that redecos are important to help keep the cost of these toys down. We've seen how Leader Class Jetfire has been redecoed as Thundercracker and Starscream (and it wouldn't surprise me if Skywarp happened too), and Megatron was simultaneously released as G1 and Armada.

Ultra Magnus is arguably a more popular character, and it wouldn't surprise me if Hasbro thought up of some way to redeco the toy later on, even if it's an awkwardly shoehorned redeco like CW Cyclonus. :o

I think that Magnus would make a great Powermaster Optimus Prime. You'd need to fill out a bit of the trailer with some panels, but you've got the chest good to go and some type of powermaster thing you can probably do with Minimus' space.

[GoktimusPrime]

That would feel forced to me, although not much more forced than say CW Cyclonus. :o One key difference between PM Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus is that PM OP's cab does transform into a smaller robot which we do see in canon.
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_medium/4/49448/1766033-autobot_powermaster_optimus_prime03_tfuniverse.gif
http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/2/26/PeoplePower-reprogrammed.jpg

[philby]

just picked one and playing with it now, mine seems a bit floppy and to be honest I'm have a real hard time trying to work out some of the instructions to get him into truck mode....

[shockNwave]

More attention grabbing than his Optimus counterpart as shown by a better torso with a balanced usage of color. The chest section has a way better look due to more depth than the bland 2D-like equivalent that Optimus shows. The overall color scheme of Motormaster combined with his bulky look adds to his tyrannical personality. It's a bummer that when it comes to weapon storage, the sword can only be attached to the gun. And finally, the robot mode is better than the alt mode.:)

[k.wong23]

Anyone also having issues with floppy knees? I know the ratchet in the hips are an issue for others but seems OK on mine, but the knees can't hold the weight especially when combined as Menasor.

[Zommael]

Anyone also having issues with floppy knees? I know the ratchet in the hips are an issue for others but seems OK on mine, but the knees can't hold the weight especially when combined as Menasor.

The knees are held in place by screws, so getting a small crosshead screwdriver and tightening them a touch might help, but be careful not to over-tighten and crack the plastic. I did this with my version to assist with standing in the alternate combined mode.

[doublespy]

Anyone also having issues with floppy knees? I know the ratchet in the hips are an issue for others but seems OK on mine, but the knees can't hold the weight especially when combined as Menasor.

Mine had one loose knee out of package too. Tightening the screw will help as Zommael said. But the panel that plugs in on the thighs should be able to hold it in position in combined mode if you follow the official transformation.

[k.wong23]

Thanks guys will try it out tonight :)