3P advice: TFC Hercules v Maketoys Green Giant

So basically I've decided to plump for one of these for Christmas for myself as a 'well done for slogging through to the end of your seven year degree' reward/present.

Either the TFC Hercules + Rage set, or the Maketoys Green Giant set.

Can't really decide on which, I've watched a couple of video reviews for each and never handled either in person. From what I can gather Green Giant is generally reviewed better though to be honest I'm leaning towards Hercules on looks, size and cost.

Basically I'm after opinions.


Things that DO matter to me.

- Minimal partsforming - I know both have this to an extent, and I know that the Rage kit adds elements of this to the Hercules set (forearms etc)
- Articulation - in individual and combined modes. I suppose durability in terms of holding up its own weight comes into play regarding the gestalt mode.
- Playability in vehicle mode - I know that some of the Maketoys figures don't have the same level of vehicle mode interactivity as the larger TFC figures.
- Durability - in all modes.


Things that DO NOT matter to me.

- Specific accuracy to any particular iteration of Devastator -G1 cartoon, IDW, etc. Doesn't really matter to me - my baseline is satisfied by the big/green and purple/made of six Constructicons factor.
- The precise shade of green
- Whether the aesthetic of the set gels with any particular existing group - CHUG, other 3P stuff etc, again doesn't matter. I'm not really big on display so it will probably end up standing on its own.


Things that MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT matter to me.

- Price - Green Giant is generally more expensive
- Size - I am aware Hercules is larger.

I did a little research and viewed many a review a month or two back
generally speaking maketoys came out on top. In addition for me maketoys has the better aesthetic and appears to be more solid so I would choose that one

However I don't have either so what do I know? ;)

I can only comment on Hercules, because that is the one I opted for. Like you, I also checked out video reviews on both and went with Hercules for a few reasons:

1. He scales well with generations figures.
2. Well the size, he's freakin' huge!!
3. Minimal partsforming - I especially liked how the treads became his forearms without having to be removed. Also his head in combined mode is part of the crane.
4. The transformations weren't too difficult, but were still ingenious enough to pique my interest.
5. The individual vehicles included playability, for eg the extension on the crane arm and the movement of the shovels on both the excavator and the bulldozer.

Durability wise, he's made from very good quality plastic.

In terms of articulation, he's not too bad, you can get him in some pretty good poses but they are reasonably limited by the sheer weight of him in combined mode. The individual figures have pretty decent articulation. Again, in combined mode, the only downfall is that there is limited articulation with regards to the shoulders, that is they can't move right up to 90 degrees. However I believe that the Hercules Rage extension corrects this issue so you should be ok.

I'm extremely satisfied with him, and while Maketoys Giant looks good also, the things that attracted me to Hercules were the things that turned me off Giant.

That's just my opinion though, it would be interesting to hear from someone who owns Giant, or better still, both.

I have only Giant, though I do have TFC's Uranos.

I prefer Giant based on aesthetics, both in design, and colour and plastic used, TFC's Constrcuticons seem to suffer more from strange proportions. I think Maketoys also have more articulation in robot mode, though only by a tiny margin.

TFC's win on vehicle mode playability though.

Both are durable I imagine. The TFC plastic is not what I'd call the prettiest but it gets the job done, while Maketoyts uses a collectors plastic which is also as strong as it needs to be.

The only partsforming on Giant are the arms, chest piece and gun, which is less than the G1 toy, not sure about Hercules.

Since purchasing, I have had no second thoughts about Giant, and he is still my favourite 3rd party combiner. Though partly because six same size robot combiners are more interesting than 5 bot teams to me.

From your listed criteria, from what I've read Hercules wins out on either 2 or 3 out of 4 of your "Do matter" counts. The 1 definite + for Giant is that apparently it's better in terms of durability, especially for combined mode, as well as combined mode stability, and I'm not sure about partsforming (hence the maybe 2 bit). I don't have either of them myself (3P combiners are too expensive for me, though I've made an exception for Feral Rex) so I'm just going on reviews.

Personally, if I was going to get a not-Devastator I'd go for Green Giant, but I have a different focus/different priorities to you collecting-wise. From what you've said it sounds like either will do OK - just get the one you like the look of the best is my advice. It vaguely sounds like he'll be a once-off special for you in the same way that Feral Rex is for me, so the way I see it you might as well go for the one you like the best and make it count.

if price is an issue get it from chimungmung. giant is $389 and herc is $489 including rage kit both plus shipping.


i have giant and i love it. and it purely came down to price for me.
also they really nailed the green on giant.

I have Hercules.

+big.
+looks good
+vehicle modes are pretty good.
+rounded plastic feels nice to hold and play with

-individual robot modes suck.
-shitty limb connections ports, much prefer the lock and release on MMCs Predaking.
-quality control is poor as typical with TFC but haven't bought anything from them since.

Heard rumblings of an official devastator release in the combiner wars line made up entirely of voyager figures. Rumours for now, but personally I'm hold off for a bit till I hear more (been wanting a 3P devastator myself for a while now)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oberon Sexton

Heard rumblings of an official devastator release in the combiner wars line made up entirely of voyager figures. Rumours for now, but personally I'm hold off for a bit till I hear more (been wanting a 3P devastator myself for a while now)

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me too.

I do really like the Hercules design incorporating the treads as forearms.

Can't comment on your points that do matter (as I have not played with Herc for a fair comparison), but considering your points that do not matter - accuracy/green/aesthetic, all which Giant seems to have more weigh, I would suggest Herc for you. If size sways you, then Herc easily. However according to CoRDS, Giant seems to still win on price.

Personally, Green Giant for me. If I had the cash to toss around for a second 3P Dev, I'd go for Yellow Giant.

I own both moulds (Green Giant and Perseus) and there are good points to both. GG is definitely the more solid of the 2. The hips in Perseus (who I've repurposed as classics Sixbuilder) are pretty weak. He has trouble doing anything more than the standard A-stance. That's not to say more dynamic poses aren't possible, but due to his… floppiness it can be difficult. GG on the other hand is only limited by gravity.

The bot transformations are quite involved on GG where as Perseus bots are more in line with a typical HasTak voyager. But they are quite blocky and not as appealing aesthetically. They are however more fun and easy to handle.

In the end if I had to pick one over the other, GG would win all day long. But that's just me and I can definitely see why people would prefer Herc. I still think Perseus is great though. I love how everything can be integrated.

HTH.

I have the Perseus giftset box in my sales thread.

Thanks for your input everyone!

I'd been leaning towards Herc for a while but thought I'd ask because opinion seems to skew towards GG. My only 3P combiner experience has been FP Colossus, which I've since sold, and FP Intimidator which after getting to grips with I severely enjoy (so whichever of these I plump for will get displayed probably with that, and I've got no problems reconciling in my head the idea that Devastator is going to be quite a bit bigger than Menasor).

Like AJ and UM said I quite like the treads for forearms setup, and would probably not use the arm extensions from the Rage set (which I'm in for mainly for the shoulder extenders).

Chimungmung has the TFC Herc + Rage set discounted further down to 419 at the moment... far far too tempting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trent

The hips in Perseus (who I've repurposed as classics Sixbuilder) are pretty weak. He has trouble doing anything more than the standard A-stance. That's not to say more dynamic poses aren't possible, but due to his… floppiness it can be difficult. GG on the other hand is only limited by gravity.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by kaiden

-shitty limb connections ports, much prefer the lock and release on MMCs Predaking.
-quality control is poor as typical with TFC but haven't bought anything from them since.

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Both of these points are of interest to me, could you go into them in a bit more detail if you've got a moment? On the bot modes, I've seen a couple of video reviews for the individual bots and know a couple of them are very backpack-ey

the connector joint is an octagonal stub which plugs into the connector port. they are a pain to pull apart on mine, the arms giving me the most trouble.

the connector port (knee) on mixmaster isnt tight most likely due to the wear on the ratcheting teeth - but i haven't played with them much, mostly just posing but i suppose this is due to me being unlucky. i do remember having to replace a join on long haul because of a shitty ratchet joint. basically the set required a number of replacement parts to be issued.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SharkyMcShark

Thanks for your input everyone!

I'd been leaning towards Herc for a while but thought I'd ask because opinion seems to skew towards GG. My only 3P combiner experience has been FP Colossus, which I've since sold, and FP Intimidator which after getting to grips with I severely enjoy (so whichever of these I plump for will get displayed probably with that, and I've got no problems reconciling in my head the idea that Devastator is going to be quite a bit bigger than Menasor).

Like AJ and UM said I quite like the treads for forearms setup, and would probably not use the arm extensions from the Rage set (which I'm in for mainly for the shoulder extenders).

Chimungmung has the TFC Herc + Rage set discounted further down to 419 at the moment... far far too tempting.





Both of these points are of interest to me, could you go into them in a bit more detail if you've got a moment? On the bot modes, I've seen a couple of video reviews for the individual bots and know a couple of them are very backpack-ey

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if herc had been $419 when i was looking i would have bought it for the size.

but seeing as i have the UT not predaking im glad i got giant as he goes well with the UT not predaking

So how big are these guys.. I'm thinking to scale with MP's and having MP-01 Prime.

Always wanted a big Devastator :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SharkyMcShark

Both of these points are of interest to me, could you go into them in a bit more detail if you've got a moment? On the bot modes, I've seen a couple of video reviews for the individual bots and know a couple of them are very backpack-ey

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Perseus' hips aren't the best design. The ratchets tend to wear themselves out from what I have read. It hasn't happened to mine because I've hardly posed it. You can get a set of steel hips from Shapeways that fix the problem but it requires a bit of modification to install.

Also TFC use PCC combiner ports which while they work fine on power core combiners, struggle on something as large as Herc.

However, a lot of people love their Herc. I think Perseus is great. It's just not without its issues.

But don't think that Giant is perfect either. But it is more solid.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WeallscreamforStarscream

So how big are these guys.. I'm thinking to scale with MP's and having MP-01 Prime.

Always wanted a big Devastator :D

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At a guess Id say MP-01 would come up to Herc's nipples. Even higher on Giant. Not a great scale to use imo.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trent

Perseus' hips aren't the best design. The ratchets tend to wear themselves out from what I have read. It hasn't happened to mine because I've hardly posed it. You can get a set of steel hips from Shapeways that fix the problem but it requires a bit of modification to install.

Also TFC use PCC combiner ports which while they work fine on power core combiners, struggle on something as large as Herc.

However, a lot of people love their Herc. I think Perseus is great. It's just not without its issues.

But don't think that Giant is perfect either. But it is more solid.



At a guess Id say MP-01 would come up to Herc's nipples. Even higher on Giant. Not a great scale to use imo.

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BRB with pics of mp01 and mp10 next to giant
[EDIT: BAM]
http://i.imgur.com/mHRjRfJ.jpg
from left to right. spike in exo suit- mp10 prime, Make toys type 61 GIANT, (daniel mp10 under him) , DR whatshisface from mp03 star scream , MP01 prime and mp21 bumble

Awesome thanks for the pic!

Yeah i might wait for a blue moon to swing past and find a monster bigg ass Devastator.

I really don't want him a little bit bigger than mp-10.. I WANT HIM DEVASTATINGLY BIGGER:cool::D

Maybe not the best pic, doesn't do Hercs size justice at all, but might give a bit of an idea...

MP-1 & CS are both completely upright, with little leg spread - whilst Herc is bent at the knees, leaning forward and legs are pretty far apart... also his arm joints from ROH are upside down so they hang lower (initially just to fit into cabinet but I actually like the look better). Standing straight he'd be bigger than CS.

http://s9.postimg.org/to5c7z7bz/20141215_163056.jpg

Size and a meaner & (to me) less toy-like look are the reasons I went for Herc over Giant... still think Giant is sweet though and if I could afford & justify having both then I would.

if only i could find some way to get herc as well, but broke as a joke at the moment. and im pretty sure my shelf is going to be full when all my pre-orders arrive.

Herc + Rage set turned up today :D

In the mean time I'll be controlling myself until Christmas morning.