TW-01 Hegemon

[lcz128]

I don't know of any incident of a G1 Megatron being confiscated for example.

You do now. I had mine confiscated when u bought an encore one several years ago via f2f. At least I got the rest of the contents of my box eventually. The policeman I ended up having to speak to was a tad short in his demeanor but totally understandable. He was doing his job. (:


I would like this, but he doesn't scale well at all. Poop

[kup]

You do now. I had mine confiscated when u bought an encore one several years ago via f2f. At least I got the rest of the contents of my box eventually. The policeman I ended up having to speak to was a tad short in his demeanor but totally understandable. He was doing his job. (:


I would like this, but he doesn't scale well at all. Poop

Wow! first time I hear of it. I actually know of 5 people who imported G1 book reissues during the time when MP5 came out and they had no problems. I based my comment on that.

[Hursticon]

Wow! first time I hear of it. I actually know of 5 people who imported G1 book reissues during the time when MP5 came out and they had no problems. I based my comment on that.

So evidently Customs has been told to focus on the "Big Guns" huh?

[kup]

Since this is a completely unproven new 3rd party company, I have been studying the latest pictures of the Hegemon figure in order to work out it's quality and any possible flaws. Since it's priced at $100 it is a bit of a leap of faith to buy without some consideration.

I came accross this picture which is causing me concern:


http://www.seibertron.com/images/toy...06-600x600.jpg

As you can see, the elbows seem to be ratcheting joints made of red clear plastic. This is a huge concern as clear plastic by nature is more brittle and ratcheting joint by the way they work, put a lot of stress on the plastic.

Two things I can see going wrong with this choice of plastic for a moving joint:

1. Eventually the gear teeth of the joints will wear out causing Megatron to have a floppy arm.

2. The stress of the ratchet will cause the elbow joint to crack and chatter - This is the more probable scenario.

There is also the possibility that they are not ratcheting joints but pressure joints like ball joints. This is just as bad as clear plastic lacks the flexibility to allow the stress of ball/socket motion.

I hope that it's just a trick of the light and the elbows are actually solid red pieces but it doesn't look that way.

[SuspectimusPrime]

As you can see, the elbows seem to be ratcheting joints made of red clear plastic. This is a huge concern as clear plastic by nature is more brittle and ratcheting joint by the way they work, put a lot of stress on the plastic.

This is the biggest concern for me as well.

Been burnt once by MasterMind Creation's Knight Morpher Commander.
I watched a YouTube review before buying, where the seller noted an odd quirk in the LEFT shoulder connector piece - for some bizarre reason they chose blue translucent plastic for a connector piece, which snapped for the YouTube reviewer. Same happened to me, despite being patient and using only gentle nudges. Quite disappointing for an $100 acquisition.
Knight Morpher has been transformed twice, and now sleeps in his packaging in a very secure 50L container.

[kup]

This is the biggest concern for me as well.

Been burnt once by MasterMind Creation's Knight Morpher Commander.
I watched a YouTube review before buying, where the seller noted an odd quirk in the LEFT shoulder connector piece - for some bizarre reason they chose blue translucent plastic for a connector piece, which snapped for the YouTube reviewer. Same happened to me, despite being patient and using only gentle nudges. Quite disappointing for an $100 acquisition.
Knight Morpher has been transformed twice, and now sleeps in his packaging in a very secure 50L container.

I heard about the 1st release issues with Knight Morpher. I only bought the 2nd release which has all those issues ironed out and I am very happy with it.

Clear plastic should always be decorative, not functional. It is not able to sustain much pressure and lacks flexibility.

[Hursticon]

Clear plastic should always be decorative, not functional. It is not able to sustain much pressure and lacks flexibility.

Yep, you're dead right there dude as it's been demonstrated by both 1st and 3rd parties alike.

[1AZRAEL1]

Still tempted on the figure though, don't know how much tempted lol

[Gutsman Heavy]

I'll wait for reviews, dat clear plastic worries me.

[Sutton]

Got mine this morning. The parcel was intercepted by Australian customs for 24 hours but wasn't even opened, so I guess that means he's all good to import to Oz (never mind that you could probably rob a bank much more successfully with this guy than with the comically oversized MP Megatron). He's pretty damn cool, and I'd certainly mirror the positive comments on other boards so far. The orange cap fell off on it's own


My only little niggles so far are as follows.

Firstly, there's already a tiny bit of plastic stress on the ball joint socket for the waist flap thingies. The ball pops out very easily which makes transformation a bit of a pain. Hopefully it doesn't get worse.

Another issue is that the tabs used for gun mode (of which there are many) are a little bit too snug. It was very hard to get this guy lined up just nicely and took a lot of force to get it to stick together. This will probably be a good thing over time, as the tabs should hold together tighter for longer this way. But it does make one nervous when handling a $100+ toy with that much force. But MP Megatron's tabs snapped for most people the first time they transformed him

Some joints are a little looser than I'd like, the arm cannon in particular swivels a little too easily. Not enough to wreck poseability but it will move very easily if bumped. The main weight bearing joints are good however.

I like that the muzzle, trigger and scope can all be removed for transformation and/or display. The option is there not to cheat for purists but it does make it a lot easier just to take them all off. The muzzle being off can bend over on his back out of view to make better room for his right arm to move.

I would also like to have seen a bit more weight on the stock, at the back end in particular. It's not enough counter balance to keep the gun upright on it's own, which is a shame because the gun mode is cool enough to warrant displaying on it's own. Pivoting the gun on the stock works, but looks a little odd.

The clear plastic elbows don't annoy me anywhere near as much as I thought they would, btw. I'll probably still paint them at some point but they're fine for now. The light piping to his eyes is wonderfully vibrant. I usually paint in blue or red eyes for my classics figures since there's rarely a light source behind the shelf, but Hegemon's eyes seem to catch the light really easily.

Overall I would recommend this guy to anyone looking for the best G1 Megatron available to date. Yes, he trumps MP Megs for me since he achieves both modes well, the robot mode is near perfect, whereas MP Megs was an anorexic mess. Hegemon even uses far less 'cheaty' strut transformation techniques (second only to parts-forming in my opinion).