City Commander Review
Boy, if you guys thought Kyle was teasing you with his couple of photos, i can't imagine what you'll think of me after this!
First off, thanks again to Kyle for helping me (and everyone else) get our hands on these awesome kits! Secondly, i'm afraid i only have a Henkei Prime, so my vehicle mode pictures aren't as good as they could be, sorry about that! Feel free to buy me a Classic Ultra Magnus if you likeThirdly, the autobot symbols on his shoulders were added by me, printed up on double sided sticky paper (i'm too cheap for Reprolabels with this exchange rate!)
Onto the review! Click photos to enlarge!
Head
City Commander's head was a point of interest since the prototype photos first came out. Some said it looked a bit childish so there were modifications done before the final release - the improvements are subtle but overall for the better. Generally, it's very reminiscent of G1 UM's cartoon incarnation. It's a bit curvier than the angular original however. Particularly the face shield, which curves outward from the eye sockets, tends to make it look like he doesn't have a nose. I guess the nose shield has something to do with this as well, but i am grateful for it's inclusion - it helps give off the look of a commander ready for battle. Personally, i would have preferred his silver pipes to taper inwards at the tops, rather than be a consistent width, but that's just nitpicking. The Classic's line isn't so much about exact duplication, but updated favourites, so i'm happy to let the designer have a bit of freedom here.
Trailer Mode
The City Commander armour pieces transform into a trailer that looks like a cross between G1 Prime and Ultra Magnus' trailer - covered from all visible angles like Prime, and mainly blue like Magnus. It's admirable how well it all comes together, very solidly clicking into place - all the while not appearing like it could ever be transformed into armour! It is lacking in a few details that would have been nice, fuel tanks and the like. Also, when hitched onto the base toy, it's unable to rotate (good for straight roads but not much else!).
The colour is a very good match for the Classic UM (from what i saw at Nexus), and doesn't look too bad on Classic/Henkei Prime. The wheels have slightly different hub caps to the Hasbro toys, but they look almost identical from a distance. The back of the trailer can fold down, however it'd be a bumpy ride up into the lack of internal space! At the back of the trailer, there's a number plate (8 stickers are provided to choose from), which is supposed to (more on this later) flip around to hide in robot mode. It's a nice touch that you can choose the plate! Despite the cleverness with which the pieces combine to form the trailer.. ultimately, i think most people aren't really going to want to display their sets in this mode.
Transformation
A puzzle former - but a very good one. After a few attempts, it's easy to remember where each piece goes back into the Trailer mode. The pieces slot into place on the base robot in such a satisfying manner, that it's as if it was always designed to be there! I was constantly surprised at the cleverness of how they clipped each piece into place. Nothing will ever fall off if you've put it on right. The leg pieces are probably too tight though. They have such a tight fit, that it can be a real struggle getting the base toy out of them. It can be a bit scary, though i don't think the toy would ever break from this process.
Robot Mode
This mode however, is definitely a display piece! Gaining an extra inch or 2 over the base toy, Ultra Magnus is around the same size as the recent Universe Ultra's, so he'll fit into a battle scene perfectly. The look is a very chunky re-interpretation of G1 Magnus. The shoulder columns are not quite as lean, but the character is unmistakable. I find it amusing that with all the additional pieces, the toy ends up having less kibble than the base toy! The sides of the cab, previously a sore spot on the side of the arms, now blend in much better due to the added chunkiness. The detailing all over is very nice, with many shapes reminiscent of G1 Ultra Magnus. I particularly like the shoulder and groin pieces for their intricacy.
Surprisingly, when the armour is on, you only have to give up a bit of the base toy articulation. His shoulders and elbows can't go in and out as much as they could before, and his knees will get in the way of his lower arms if you bend them too much. You can fiddle with the position of the front wheels of the base toy, to give his shoulders great range of motion. His feet no longer swing forward and back, though they are much sturdier because of the increased size, and actually tilt to the side, to help his feet remain flat at all times. This is a real nice improvement. Considering the size of the armour, and being locked down to the base toy, they've done a commendable job here. I think we've seen official toys without armour add-ons, that have less articulation!
Talking of posing though, the issue of the BFG comes up. The gun is very large, and can cause some instability when posing. More often than not, you'll find his arm just can't support the weight, even if the toy itself isn't going to topple over (the feet are quite good at balancing). Kyle posted a helpful guide on increasing the elbow joint strength - i've yet to do this on my own, as my Henkei Prime is quite new. It felt like the shoulders were more at fault, so i eagerly await news of possible shoulder joint improvements!
It isn't impossible to get the gun lifted though, and when it is, it certainly adds to the toys imposing presence! I much prefer the "in front of fist" position myself (i think the on-top of arm position looks like the gun is backwards). I've found that if i have a wide-leg pose, the centre of gravity is better able to assist the arms in holding the gun up - and also you can just rest it slightly on his knee guards. The gun is shaped in a way that makes it most suitable for the right hand, but it's still possible to put it on the left hand; it'll just be raised up a bit more. You can also use the base toys guns; though the pegs aren't perfectly sized, they still fit well enough, and look about the size you'd normally expect on a Transformer. The same guns can also be stored on the back of his shoulder pieces, though i'm not too fond of this look myself. I would have preferred if the large gun was made into two smaller guns still, as it can be frustrating trying to get him to hold a pose. The sides of the shoulders also have slots for G1 Magnus missiles, an enhancement from the earlier prototype we saw. Unfortunately, i'm still waiting on someone to buy me a G1 Magnus, so i can't try it out!
Although the armour is intended for Classics Ultra Magnus, i'm more than happy slotting my Henkei Prime inside. The silver on the legs is a perfect match to the groin and gun parts of the armour, almost looking seamless. The arms are just about as good, again closely matched with the armour colour. And that's about it! You can't really see a lot of the base toy. The legs show up if you pose one showing the inside.. the blue is different there but it isn't repulsive.
Quality Control
City Commander feels like a very high quality toy. The plastic is different to most Hasbro and Takara toys.. but i'm no expert, i'm not sure if one's better than the other. It feels a bit harder, and there are definitely no 'plastic swirls' anywhere to be seen, which is a plus. The connections between all the pieces are VERY solid, perhaps a bit too much so; some pieces can take quite a bit of force to get out!
The paint application is virtually flawless, not sticky, clean edges, deep, rich colours, bold whites. The silver is as i mentioned before, reminiscent of Henkei Prime's legs if you want to compare - i'm so glad they did this instead of "Hasbro Grey".
There were a few concerns on my toy though. The head was very tight at first, but Kyle again came to the rescue, with this easy to follow guide that works perfectly. The slots on the back of his shoulders, for holding the base toy guns, don't seem to be exactly the right size, so the guns fit a bit loose and can fall out. Not a bother to me cause i don't display this way.
Also, i touched briefly on the number plate feature of the Trailer. It can flip around to hide in robot mode - a nice touch.. however on mine, it is impossibly stiff! Apparantly the prototype didn't have this issue before painted.. the paint adding some thickness, making it hard to rotate. The thing to watch out for is this.. being a bit excited, i tried to pry mine open using a miniature screwdriver.. you can see in the photo, it was so stiff, i actually pushed the plastic in a touch, and it still didn't budge! That's when i decided i like the look of the number plate in both modes anyway
For a toy made by fans, the quality is admirable and in most cases greater than what we see from Hasbro (not particularly hard as of late, mind you!). I'm sure the small issues will get ironed out in upcoming releases as well, since they've shown precedent for improving the toy based on fan feedback.
Poses
Overall
Well, to be honest, this set is by no means a perfect toy. While the robot mode is a stellar display piece.. the gun is a bit big.. and the trailer mode a bit non-eventful (what can you expect for a trailer though). But as a toy made by fans, it's a remarkable achievement. I couldn't have imagined something of this scale was possible, until FansProject comes along and makes it all look easy. At the very least, i think it's a great thing to support guys like this, who are truly making something the fans will appreciate. But more than that, i'm just glad that I have the very epitome of Ultra Magnus up on my shelf. Not only have we not gotten an Ultra Magnus toy this good from Hasbro or TakaraTomy in the past, it's likely that after seeing this, they'll wonder how could they ever top it if they tried in the future.
Bring on the next FansProject release!!
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Originally Posted by kurdt_the_goat
