Toy Review - MP-11NR Masterpiece Ramjet

[kurdt_the_goat]

Series - Masterpiece
Sub-line - none
Size/class - n/a
New/remould/redeco - remould/redeco
Wave - n/a (MP-11NR)
Released here - released in Japan March 19th 2016
Approximate Retail Price - 15,984yen
Approximate Size - 24cm
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Fighter Jet
Main Colours - White, Black, Maroon
Main Accessories - Hologram Pilot, 2 missiles.






Pretty mixed feelings on Ramjet here. To look at, he's very nice. Though mostly coloured plastic, the colours are crisp, bold and a great match for Ramjet. His face is a metallic dark grey - appears as though the stock photos caught too much flash. His sculpt is good though perhaps the face is a little big and curved, more humanoid than robotic. Mine has a couple of rough patches of plastic around the cockpit, and what looks like a bit of smeared glue on the cockpit itself. My front landing gear door doesn't hinge properly either, it just folds right off. In hand, overall it feels a little cheap with some nasty joints on some of the new parts...



To transform, it's a little shoehorned and clever at the same time. The cockpit is handled well - it rotates to sit around the other way on his chest, and the head has no clearance issues at all with this new approach. The wings split in half and while the piece that normally flips the wing upside down remains, it serves no real purpose here. The small red pieces left on the side of his chest end up hindering backwards leg movement (not that it was great to begin with). Plugging in the wings to the arms for jet mode was way tougher than on my MP-11, at first it didn't seem like it will align but eventually it goes in and stays solidly.

The front of the nose and top of the plane end up on his back - pegs and holes from previous versions of the mould remain but aren't utilised now - things just hang and pretty loosely. On the plus side, this version seems to have a tightly locking chest! I'm not really sure how though, it appears to connect mostly at the shoulders, but i don't have my MP-11 to compare if anything changed. I can hold him from the intakes in robot mode and it stays stuck, i know my MP-11 can't do that!



Worst part here is the big section of wings. They're on a slider on the legs, but neither end locks very tightly. The engine hides cleverly but is a pain to get out without a tool. Tilting the wings back is a scary experience! At first i was certain they wouldn't move, and with both sides starting to show stress marks on the pins, I was about to give up. But the pictures definitely had them back... so i tried again and managed to get them tilted.

What you have to do is open the engine hiding spot and support the black section that's at risk of stress, from both sides. If you push from the outer side... it eventually clips around into place. It's one of those hexagonal pieces that's a real bitch to rotate to it's next stop. I'd advise lots of caution! The smaller parts of the wing also move on a similar joint. Something akin to MP Magnus thighs would have been much better.

It's a bit lame, but the wings do aid stability since they're basically touching the ground no matter what you do in terms of posing. The tailfins don't move at all either.

For the price... i think they could have done a little more/better, though they've done more than i expected they would at the same time! I think mostly the mould is just showing it's age - from complete scratch i think they could do a much better job these days. It's nice to have, but for me i definitely prefer MP-11's mould overall.