Finally managed to pick this set up through a fellow fan for about $100
It's more than I was hoping to pay, but less than what they're going for on ebay.
The Centurion Drone is a nice figure in and of itself. It's pretty much exactly the same as Brunt, but matches the Stormbringer model pretty well.
Moving on to the accessory pack which I think interested most people:
- I've had some issues with the mace and axe on Prime and Megatron. The axe seems designed in terms of direction to suit Prime's right arm as per More Than Meets the Eye Pt 2, however doesn't appear to fit over the hand properly on that side. The axe fits better on the left side, but is then oriented wrongto be effective.
- Megatron's mace is a tight fit on the Siege figure, but seems to fit better on my G2 Earthrise Megs. Does anyone have any experience in filing down the post to make it a less tight fit?
- The Megatron gun is great, but I seem to struggle getting the silencer on to the gun barrel. I notice that Goktimus doesn't have his all the way down, so I wonder whether this is a limitation of the moulding or whether using a jewelery file to open up that slide would make it fit better. Similarly I love the Shockwave gun.
- Prime's ion cannon is great and wonderfully moulded. It appeared too large to me in photos, but seems okay in person, depending on how you have Prime hold it. It could probably have been about 20% smaller and would have been perfect. It seems designed mainly to reflect the scene in TFTM where he holds it two handed taking out the Decepticons in the hallway
- Roller on the other hand feels too small and really should be about 20% larger for my tastes. Making him too much wider would have probably made issues trying to hold in the trailer, however he could have been easily made longer and taller to feel a bit more substantial.
- The jetpack is great, and works well with both Prime and Sideswipe, although the fit is slightly harder around Prime's backpiece.
- The Soundwave and Reflector pieces are well sculpted and are nice additions. Skywarp now holds Soundwave and Thundercracker is now holding Reflector.
- The cage is a fun piece, but is strange in how it was moulded to split along the diagonal. I haven't tried putting Ravage in it, but is a nice addition.
- There's little more to say about the remaining pieces - Bumblebee's gun, Cliffjumper's glass gun, Ironhide's drill and Trailbreaker's radar dish - they are as they appear. Nicely moulded.
- The Energon cubes are fun accessories, but haven't spend too much time with them.
Overall, I really like the idea of the accessory kit, but feel it was let down a little by a series of choices in its production. It seems that everything was moulded in either grey or clear, which means that paint was then needed for features like the ion cannon and Roller, which then impacted the ability to paint other pieces of the set. We'll probably never know the size of the mould sprue that they were using, but if it was me I would have done the following:Black - Prime's Rifle, Roller's wheels, Ravage's cage, Megatron's Scope
Blue - Roller, Soundwave, Reflector
Grey - Jetpack, Megatron, Shockwave and other guns
Clear Purple - Mace & Energon Cubes
Clear Yellow - Axe
This would have freed up some paint budget to better colour the grey accessories, maybe using black and a purple/light blue
