Mastermind Creations

[stencilator]

Definitely looks a bit off in my opinion. I can't quite pick it.... is his head too big?.... has he pulled his pants up too high?..... is he about to cry?

I'm pretty happy with my DX9 Invisible and this does nothing to change my mind. I think Invisible's proportions are better.

[kup]

MMC Spartan!

A superb toy all round and an excellent interpretation of the IDW take on the character. It could also be said that it is also a faithful modernization of the original Marvel UK character model.

The only real difficulty with this toy is the crapola MMC instructions which make the transforming process much more complex than it is as they can be misguiding. Once you understand what is required, he is very easy to transform with the trickiest bit being the upper thigh swivels.

[doublespy]

Very nice pics Kup. Love the group shot of wreckers. I really need to get the team together myself.

[doublespy]

I'll post my review below as well....

And saw yours on TFW Kup. Thanks for the compliment


I have to admit I'm not generally a big fan of third party toys. I feel like they always tend to over-engineer the figures to justify the premium they charge. I'd only bought about 4 or 5 third party figures before I got Spartan, and all of the were small toys like Toyworld Bee and the Igear mini-bots. But soon as I discovered Mastermind Creations were going to do an Impactor based on the LSotW design, AND with a Metal Slug inspired tank mode, I knew I had to get him. And he is just fantastic!

TANK MODE:
I've always loved double homages, like Animated Huffer and Pipes. I think it's really ingenious of MMC to incorporate the Metal Slug aesthetics into the tank mode design. I grew up a huge Metal Slug fan and still remember the days playing the first two games on the arcade machines. The unique aesthetics were part of the draw for me, and MMC did a great job capturing the essence of it. From the extra-heavy-duty-looking treads, and the curved tread guards to the hydraulic cylinders connecting the body and turret. And because the designer also managed to snuck in some curved surfaces on the turret (the upper body in robot mode), it doesn't feel like you have curvatures colliding with the hard-edges which are necessary for robot mode. But I can understand that some might not like the idea of a tough, bruiser type character turning into a chibified tank.


The plows add just the right amount of hard edges to the tank mode.


There's two 5mm peg holes on top of the turret (one is for the shoulder canon in robot mode). There's also one set of dual barreled cannons on either side. Because they extend from the tip of the robot mode feet, you can use the hinges on the toes to pose them a little bit. These were not present in the earlier prototype and CAD drawings, but I like that bit of extra armament on my Cybertronian tank.


The hydraulic cylinders limit the turret rotation to about 15 degrees each side, but they do look good. I generally like to leave them unattached, which frees up the turret to a full 360 degree rotation. The main turret canon is hinged at the base which gives about 30 degrees of tilt upwards in tank mode.


A very nice and compact side view



Because of how the legs transform into the sides of the tank, there is a bit of gap at the back, but it doesn't bother me at all.


He looks good with Springer in vehicle mode.

TRANSFORMATION:
Transformation to robot mode is involved, but not frustrating. There's a couple of tricky bits you need to be extra careful of, especially how the thighs transform. The upper thigh piece is a separate piece that rotates independently of the thigh in relation to the hip joint. You need to rotate that to a specific position in order for the thigh to be able to swivel all the way forward and for the leg to collapse. The instruction booklet is not very clear but I find this video instructionvideo instruction manual to be quite helpful.

After a couples of times transforming back and forth you shouldn't have any problem and I'm now quite enjoying it.

ROBOT MODE:

The robot is fantastic. It's like he jumped right out of a page of LSotW. The plastic is very sturdy and nice to handle. The muted colors look great in person and imo far better than what the earlier renders looked like with the bright gold and over-saturated purple.


In robot mode there's more paint apps exposed, mainly in the chest and abdomen. These are cleanly applied without issues. Oh and the little yellow plug on his right arm is for plugging the arms together in tank mode. They stay just find without it so if you don't like parts forming you can just throw it away. I generally leaves it there in robot mode.


The head sculpt is spot on. I do wish there was an extra face with neutral expression though.


Spartan has pretty every articulation on a modern transformer toy, with his knees being only able to bend about 90 degrees my only small gripe. The lower elbow joint on mine is initially quite stiff and when I tried to bend it the plow pieces would pop off, as they're only friction held in place and not glued on. After some play time this joint has loosened up and the plows now stay in place during posing and transformation.




He is a good Voyager size and fits the CHUG aesthetics perfectly. Also there's a screw hole on the elbow that takes 5mm pegs, so you can put some extra weaponry on Spartan's forearms and make him look even more bada$$.

He also comes with a right hand and the drill from when he was best pal with Megs. (which I forgot to take photos of...) His hand is also compatible with Prime FE Bulkhead's wrecking ball so you have a few options as to how you wanna armor him up.

Just a few shots to show off how accurate he is to the LSotW design:

The shoulder cannon could use a few extra paint apps but all in all a great job by the designer to transfer the 2D design into a 3D figure.




I don't have the set up or the chops to do this shot justice, but the back-lit grim feel is there.


VERDICT:
I've handled MMC products before but this is my first actual purchase. I like how their plastic feels and the engineering of this figure a lot. I'm also planning to pick up their Not-Turmoil as well. And now I'm really looking forward to their other IDW inspired releases.
High recommended.

[Trent]

Great write up guys.

I like this guy a lot. The only thing stopping me from getting him is the fact I am trying to get out of chug collecting. But the thing that really is tempting me know is that the alt mode almost has an Animated aesthetic to it.

Hmm.

[doublespy]

Great write up guys.
But the thing that really is tempting me know is that the alt mode almost has an Animated aesthetic to it.

Hmm.

Thanks.

Yeah Metal Slug aesthetic is uite similar to TFA. What's also amazing to me is that the comic design of Impactor has mostly hard edges and MMC managed to sneak the curves that made the alt mode work, without compromising the robot mode too much.

[VGMStudios]

Metal slug?


So cute.