Flame Toys FuRaiModel Kit Windblade

(Femme-Bot Friday #84)

I've affirmed many times that I am very much against TransFormers merchandise - and particularly in the form of action figures - that does not transform, but model kits are something of a grey area. I went through a phase, some years back, of collecting Gundam and Macross model kits, because I found building them to be quite therapeutic. Some Macross models can even have the bonus of being transformable, since the variable fighters have been part of the anime from the very beginning.

My exposure to Armor Girls Project, Frame Arm Girls, Variable Fighter Girls and Eastern Model ATKGirl brought an interesting new angle to both action figures and model kits, blurring the line between them at least to the same degree as the Gundam kits I've built, and with just enough 'mecha' vibe to pique my interest.

All that said, when Flame Toys started producing licensed TransFormers model kits, I wasn't overly impressed by their exaggerated take on G1 and Beast Wars. They were all weirdly-proportioned and unpleasantly angular - different from the source material, yet cartoonish enough to put me off. IDW-based designs, such as stealth bomber Megatron and Hot Rod, looked better but I didn't feel compelled to buy into the line because, ultimately, they were non-transforming TransFormers, and that didn't sit right with me.

That was, until they showed early photos of their proposed Windblade kit. Windblade has, so far, got the short end of the stick. Created during the 30th Anniversary, her first toy was flimsy, unstable and showed signs of features having been trimmed to fit a budget. Remixes for RID2015, Titans Return and Cyberverse just seemed to get progressively worse, and improvements in Takara Tomy's versions were largely limited to additional paintwork. The problem was that Windblade was seemingly conceived as a robot, first and foremost, meaning her jet modes were invariably tacked-on rather than designed around her. This alone made her ideal for the model kit treatment, and Flame Toys took a markedly different tack in her design, versus the more established characters.

The bottom line seems to be that Hasbro and Takara Tomy are still having trouble creating feminine robot forms out of jet aircraft without dumping most of the nose on the back and leaving the lower legs rather hollow. Thus, a model kit for a non-transforming figure of Windblade's robot mode seems to be about the only way to present her as a solid-looking character, at least somewhat based on the interpretations of her from the comics... So, let's take a look...

Real Gear Robots Power Up VT6

One of the most common problems with the Real Gear Robots line was that it was a combination of extremely basic engineering and the need to ensure the alternate mode was instantly recognisable as the gadget it was intended to represent. Given that many of the gadgets chosen for the line were either awkwardly shaped, or essentially small boxes with buttons.

Over the years, Hasbro and Takara have come up with some genuinely ingenious ways of transforming rectangular blocks of various thicknesses into reasonable-looking robots but, on balance, I'd say they've probably had more misses than hits.

But which category does Power Up VT6 fall into? Read on, and find out..!

 

First New Purchases In Quite A While - AKA Not An Unboxing Post IV

When I started this post, I wasn't quite sure how long it had been since I last ordered anything TransFormers related. Having subsequently looked it up, it's technically only about five months... but that was a non-transforming model kit (Flame Toys' Furai Model Kit Arcee, specifically).

It's been a touch over a year since I bought an actual Hasbro TransFormers toy... Which probably tells you everything you need to know about my opinion of Legacy as a toyline. I (technically) still only own a single Legacy toy, and that was Tarantulas, from the second wave of Legacy's first year.

However, after successfully completing a couple of freelance jobs earlier this year, I decided to order a couple of Third Party figures I was keen not to miss out on... Both of them are Femme-Bots, so look out for some Femme-Bot Fridays coming 'soon' (though that's absolutely in the Fun Publications/TFCC sense of the word 'soon').

The box they arrived in was significantly battered, though thankfully there's only minor damage to Red Fantasy's box. Before even opening either, the first thing that struck me was how heavy Metagate's latest offering is - I knew there were die-cast parts in it, but she's much heavier than I'd expected. Conversely, Spider Lady is surprisingly light, especially in comparison.

Can't wait to get these out properly and have a fiddle with them before eventually taking some photos. Their arrival gives me a bit of motivation to tidy up the coffee table in the lounge, so I can set up the light tent... But I have to admit, I'm still struggling to find the motivation to photograph Furai Model Kit Arcee - which I put together before Christmas - or even finish the post about Furai Model Kit Windblade, which I photographed almost six months ago.

TransFormers Collectors' Club 2014 (Timelines) Rewind

Since I was not a follower of the IDW comics, this was a semi-reluctant purchase for me. I'd picked up the Club's Chromedome from the 2014 Subscription Service selection because the head sculpt was cool and it was made using the TF Prime Wheeljack mold, which had been one of my favourites from that toyline.

But, in the back of my mind, I was dimly aware that an IDW-style Chromedome was somehow incomplete without a corresponding Rewind and, since that was one of the other figures from the same year's selection, I tracked one down just to complete the couple.

I can't remember now whether I bought this before or after I picked up the TransFormers United Rumble & Frenzy set at TFNation in 2016, but one would surely have contributed to my purchase of the other. Thing being, on the surface and aside from the obvious physical similarities in their G1 selves, this is a particularly curious choice for one of Blaster's cassettes... Let's find out why.

First Breakage of the Year

A mere seventeen months ago, I posted that I'd acquired the Studio Series Ironhide based on the Bumblebee movie CGI, posting my write-up of that figure a little over a week later. By and large, I've not experienced any significant breakages with my TransFormers toys... but, let's face it, I've not bought that many new toys since Legacy Tarantulas.

Just this weekend, I decided to do a bit of customising to Ironhide, since he looks so plain. It all went as well as could be expected, and I was quite happy with the results...

...Until, upon starting to transform him back to robot mode after finishing the touchups on vehicle mode, his right forearm fell off when I unpegged it from his foot. The breakage was to the mushroom peg that facilitates his bicep swivel... and, while the joint was tight, I wasn't even using that joint when it broke, it simply crumbled as I tilted the arm out from the underside of the vehicle mode.

Making matters all the more strange, the mushroom peg doesn't appear to have sheared apart, it simply cracked... The other bicep swivel joint is just as tight, but shows no sign of any problems (so far!).

I've been thinking of replacing both Ratchet and Ironhide with the oversized KOs Shock Warrior SW-01 and -02 simply because they're a better size and have much better overall presentation... this breakage pretty much makes it a necessity.

2023 Retrospective

It's that time of year again... and, like last time, I'm going to keep the preamble short. Suffice it to say, 2023 was a difficult year and a disappointing year, in equal measure.

Not least, this has been one of the leanest years this blog has seen since it began, party due to a five month gap in postings. I've barely bought anything that wasn't discounted to half price (or less), and the Legacy line has utterly failed to engage me, while Studio Series has made a mess of the toys from the first live action TransFormers movie since Christmas 2018, and Hasbro's streams have consistently 'revealed' toys that have been common knowledge for months. As far as official TransFormers go, I think we can safely say I'm no longer an active collector... At least until they produce something a bit more innovative, that isn't deeply rooted in G1.

Though there's some cool Third Party stuff to look forward to in future...

So, let's get on with this year's retrospective: