FT-03 Shockwave

[kup]

I also got the shipment notice from Captured Prey

[VGMStudios]

Got my shipping notice today from captured prey!!!
He is on his way

same here. Looking Forward to getting him.

[Ozboticon]

I also got the shipment notice from Captured Prey

Me too
I had sent as express post. Wonder how long it will take?

[kup]

Me too
I had sent as express post. Wonder how long it will take?

It's always random from the US. Could be next week or could be the week after that.

[Iriorne]

Changing the gun and hand is pretty straight forward, all you'll need is an appropriate size* Phillips head screwdriver. Here's a step by step if you want to see what's involved:

1. Remove three screws from right arm. The inside half of the arm can then be popped off. The hand just slips over a round post so swap it over and close it back up.
2. Remove three screws from the left arm. Remove the battery cover and inside half of the left arm.
3. Carefully slide out the gun barrel, switch, and battery compartment. The wiring can be quite fragile. If you don't care about the electronics, you can probably just insert the opaque barrel and reassemble the case, otherwise remove the small screw from the base of the barrel.
4. The tip of the gun barrel can be popped off and the halves separated. Remove the LED and wires from the barrel. Disassemble the opaque barrel in the same way, install the LED then reassemble the barrel and arm. Don't forget to put the end of the hose back inside before you close up the arm.

Larger image



Sorry for the less than optimal lighting.

* Some people have reported that the screw heads might be prone to stripping if you use too large/small a screwdriver. A 1.8 mm jeweler's screwdriver fit perfectly for me.

[kup]

Thanks! That will be very helpful reference for those who wish to swap parts.

[Iriorne]

A word of warning: If you have the backpack plugged in you may want to fold the gun sight slightly outwards so that it's not hard up against the small of his back. If folded all the way up, the backpack can scratch the silver paint on the sight when you rotate at the waist.

[Trent]

Mwuhahahahahaha!!!!!! My enemies are doomed!!!!

[Trent]

Oh and this guy is pretty damned awesome. A very well executed figure.

[Trent]

First impressions:

QW is a weighty figure, 560g with his backpack. Most of the weight is in the legs and feet so he feels very stable. I don't think I've seen any photos that capture the colour correctly, but Vert's photos on page 18 of this thread are fairly close, as well as the official FansToys colour images.

Someone on the TFW forums was complaining about the texture of the plastic, I believe a comparison was made to a horrible '90s CRT monitor shell. Maybe I just had some really terrible monitors, but I don't think the texture is anywhere close to that. It's just textured enough to give it a satin look while still feeling smooth. Looks good but it may wear with extended handling, like keyboard keys getting shiny after a while.

I was concerned about the stability of the joints for the handle in gun mode, I thought they might be prone to breakage when held by the grip. Fortunately all the weight in the legs gives the gun excellent balance and it feels really solid.

Leg and hip extensions are pretty stiff, be careful when extending and contracting. I thought I was being careful and still managed to draw blood! The instructions would have you extend/retract the legs together as one unit after connecting them, but I found it easier to do them individually as they felt like they required less force.

I haven't attempted to change the hand and gun barrel yet. Will try and document the process with some photos and post up later.

Edit: The collector card included in the box is very pretty too. I was expecting cardboard like the TT MP cards, but this one has got sparkly inks and is on a harder plastic, like a credit card.

I'll back all the above comments. He is one of the most solid MP style figures yet. At no time during transformation do I feel like I'm gonna break anything, which is more than I can say for every other MP except for Prime. I can see where the comment about the CRT monitor style plastic finish came from, but the guy is on drugs if he doesn't rate the feel and finish of the plastic. I wouldn't expect anything different from an official version.

I did notice that the box was a little beat up. Not from shipping, Captured Prey packed it excellently so it wasn't the postal service. however the toy itself was flawless.

One thing however was the mid-section on mine was collapsed when I took it out of the box. It is required to be like this for alt mode but you can't get the backpack on in that state as the torso is too short. You have to pull pretty hard to extend it and this did concern me only until I did it the first time. Oh and there is nothing that I could see in the instructions about collapsing/extending the torso for transformation either, so just be aware of that.

Transformation is relatively simple, but still satisfying. The way the gun handle is made out of the legs I thought was particularly clever.

My gripes are few and small with this guy. The biggest one for me is his lack of a neck. His head is just sitting on his shoulders with nothing in between. A little bit of a neck would have given his head a bit better range of motion and also helped the overall appearance. The gap I between his arms in gun mode. I think this could have been improved on without greatly affecting the robot aesthetic. The lack of a trigger for gun mode. And the legs are a tiny bit to bulky compared to the rest of him.

However these are minor gripes and overall I think this guy is completely awesome. FansToys have really lifted the bar with this guy. While I can understand that people would want to wait for an official MP Shockwave, and it may equal this one in terms of quality and looks, Takara will be VERY hard pressed to beat it.