(Femme-Bot Friday #57)
There was me, thinking I'd got all the Mastermind Creations Azalea variants I wanted (apart from Eupatorium... maybe...), only for Kapow Toys to announce that they would be bringing the all-new, TFCon 2016 exclusive boxed set of Feral Queen (a repaint originally intended as an April Fool joke - a Femme-Bot companion to the Feralcons/Feral Rex - which was turned into a real figure with a unique head sculpt) and Nero Queen (a black repaint of same, to accompany Nero Rex) to the inaugural TFNation that same year. Stocks were naturally in short supply, so preordering for collection was advised... but, at that point, I wasn't even sure I would be going.Naturally, my wacky sense of priorities meant that this announcement - and particularly the preordering advice (I'd asked if I could reserve one to be sent to me after they returned from the show, but they couldn't guarantee they wouldn't run out) - tipped the balance in favour of attending the show... and led me to spend even more money on other items of plastic crack.
The big question, obviously, is whether or not the cause of my attendance was actually worth all the effort and associated expense...
Packaging:
Despite being an event-exclusive, the packaging for this two-pack of Azalea variants is comparatively sober, certainly compared to the slipcovered, neon green glory of Asterisk Mode, itself a TFCon exclusive from a previous year. Opting for a blue-grey/tealish background, rather than black, but retaining the radiating tech detail, the two Femme-Bots are depicted in beshadowed CGI form, with only their eyes standing out from their silhouettes. Their names are picked out on the front and left side of the box in a shiny purple foil, but this is the only variation from the matte finish of the box until the front flap is opened, revealing a window to the two figures and a full colour, spot UV varnished CGI depiction of the same action pose as appears on the front of the box. The packaging describes the pair as 'Combiner Speakers' - clearly an intentional parallel to Windblade as a IDW's Cityspeaker - and gives a little over five lines of somewhat jumbled bio for the pair.
Inside, there's a very much cut-down instruction booklet featuring mostly monochromatic images (with the Queen head obviously just Photoshop'd in), detailing the only transformation this iteration of the mold is capable of due to its enlarged shoulder armour. Along with the figures are four copies of the standard Azalea handgun - two black, for Feral Queen, two metallic cyan for Nero Queen - four copies of the standard sword - two gold/silver for Feral Queen, two black/metallic cyan for Nero Queen - and what's described as a 'cudgel', but is actually more of a quarterstaff.
As exclusives go, it feels a little bare-bones... but it's all about the figures, right?
Feral Queen
Vehicle Mode:
The first thing to note is that, like Salvia Prominon, the two Queens can only adopt the extended, streamlined 'hovercraft' mode that the mold offers - legs splayed, wings pulled out, nose cone added to the front of the vehicle. The second thing to note is that the colours used on Feral Queen make her look like a knockoff. I said much the same about the Collectors' Club's take on Razorclaw - something about this set of colours just screams 'bootleg'. It's strange, because it works well enough for MMC's Feral Rex and Feralcons, as well as Hasbro/Takara Tomy's Predaking and the actual Predacons... but any kind of exclusive, individual figure ends up looking wrong. It's not even helped by the translucent red cockpit window or the gold paint on the robot mode's armour, visible to the sides of the vehicle and just in front of the cockpit. More than any other version I own, this iteration of the mold looks jumbled and incoherent.
As with other versions, the two handguns clip onto the plate at the back of the vehicle, while the swords can be plugged into the upper or lower surfaces on the sides, near the wings. There doesn't appear to be any way to attach the 'cudgel' - nothing documented in the instructions, at least - despite the fact that it can disassemble into the central red pole and two gold clubs with obvious slots cut out of them. This is particularly strange given that Salvia Prominon's hammer could be disassembled and attached to the vehicle mode... but then, only Feral Queen has this specific weapon, so perhaps it was a bit of an afterthought...
Robot Mode:
More gold paint and a slightly more consistent look to her colourscheme in robot mode does nothing to dispel the feeling that Feral Queen looks like a knockoff, so I think it's just that a combination of bright yellow, muddy orange and matte red looks like the sort of colourscheme you'd get when someone's just using up leftover plastic. It's a shame, because she is tailored to fit with either an official Predaking or Mastermind's own Feral Rex and, in theory, these colours should be ideal.
In a way, I think it's as much the distribution of colour that upsets the overall look as it is the choice of colours. Black plastic is used for the feet, lower legs, hip joints, hands, elbow joints, shoulder armour, chest plate and waist section, with red paint applied on the feet and belly, and gold on the shoulder armour (featuring exactly the same curvy, spiky extension piece as on Salvia Prominon which, in this context, looks almost like an adaptation of the Maximal insignia). The arms and upper legs are red plastic, with yellow used for the kneecaps/shins and vambraces, while orange plastic is used for the tassets, groin and head. Assuming this is down to the sprue layouts, it may simply be that too many colours are in use to make this work (most other versions have only used a couple of plastic colours, albeit with a couple of different shades used) but, even if that is the case, paint could have been used better to remedy the issue. She didn't need a gold chest, for example - that could have been black, with gold paint applied to the armour plate stuck on top... It's all very puzzling. All in all, the colourscheme proposed by the original image, where she was mostly yellow and orange (albeit with the standard Azalea head) would probably have suited her better.
As mentioned above, her weapons are identical to all other iterations of the mold - two pistols, two swords - with the addition of the cudgel. This is neither as intricately designed nor as interesting as Salvia Prominon's hammer, and I honestly don't understand why it was included with this figure without a second for Nero Queen. On the upside, she holds it well - both one- and two-handed - without unduly limiting her overall poseability. Wrist tilt would have been good... but the mold was a good couple of years old by this point, and it's easier to see things like this in retrospect. The gold chunks at either end of the staff turn out to be ferrules, of a sort, as the slots allow the swords to be plugged in, lengthening the weapon and turning it from a simply bludgeoning weapon into something a bit more dangerous. Personally, I'm afraid to test it out because the swords seem fragile enough on their own - sticking them into the ends of a long pole could only make them more vulnerable to breakage either in a confined space or from being dropped. For storage purposes, the thicker section at the centre of the staff is precisely the same diameter as the cutout in the canopy section that, in vehicle mode, is occupied by the sockets into which the halves of the nose are plugged in robot mode. This does leave it sticking out awkwardly either side of her back, but it's not as if she'll be walking through any doorways or narrow passages, right?
The head sculpt is utterly fantastic... though perhaps a bit more TF Prime than standard Reformatted in a lot of ways. Take away her nose, and she'd look a lot like Airachnid. I get the impression the designer/sculptor if this head - Azim Venksta of Renderform fame - did not work on the Azalea or Eupatorium heads, simply because Feral Queen's face is more nuanced in its detailing, and the lips in particular look far more natural. Not to say those other heads are bad, they're just nowhere near this good. Again, the colouring is very Predacon/Feralcon-styled - orange plastic, with the face, 'ears' and the 'diamond' detail on her forehead all painted red, while the eyes are picked out in a metallic red which catches the light very well. I might have preferred a different colour for the face, for a bit more contrast, since the red paint blends with the orange plastic more in person than in my photos. The only downside to this head is that the crests and 'ears' are extremely spiky, which complicates her transformation for two reasons - it's uncomfortable on the fingers, and it's even more fiddly threading the head through the hinged arms attached to her butt-plate. For taking the vehicle mode shots used here, I simply detached the head from its balljoint.
Nero Queen
Vehicle Mode:
Rightly or wrongly, I considered Nero Queen to be the secondary, less important part of the set - after all, she's here to accompany the somewhat random and superfluous 'nemesis' repaint of Feral Rex. In person, though, she makes a lot more sense. Her colourscheme is far more cohesive, ranging from pale lavendar to both matte and metallic purples, black used extensively, and then metallic cyan on her accessories and the small parts that will be foot armour in robot mode. Translucent green has been used for the cockpit, with a small square section left unpainted toward the rear of the canopy, just like on Feral Queen, though more prominent here due to the contrasting colours. The paint used on the canopy is a slightly pearlescent, pastel purple, and is a fair match to the lighter lavendar plastic used for the wings. the flaps on the sides of the cockpit, and certain armour parts more visible in robot mode. The front end is heavily coated in metallic purple, both on the nose and on the robot's shoulder armour. It looks far better than Feral Queen, in my opinion, but the mold is rapidly losing its ability to impress, and this mode was never the best-looking option for vehicle mode.
With no new weapons, Nero Queen has to make do with stashing her handguns at the back of the vehicle and the swords down the side, but even these blend in better to the vehicle mode than those included with Feral Queen.
Robot Mode:
Again, the colourscheme here looks intentional rather than cobbled together from whatever was going spare. It helps immensely that this version is essentially back to two colours, predominantly using black and two or three shades of purple for the bare plastic, and metallic purple paint. As mentioned, the metallic cyan applied to her weapons is used on her feet, also turning up on the 'grille' at the bottom of her chest. Perhaps the craziest feature of this version is that the armour panel on her chest is molded in translucent red plastic, and painted black.
Everything here is functionally identical to Feral Queen, and simply looks more coherent due to the more uniform look in terms of her colour palette, so the only thing really left to discuss is the head... and the sculpt is identical so, again, it comes down to colour. The face is painted silver, which makes all the details that much more visible than the red paint on Feral Queen. Her ears, too, are painted silver, while the angled crests on the sides of her helmet are painted metallic purple, while metallic green has been used for her eyes and the 'diamond' on her forehead. In this colourscheme, she looks even more like Airachnid.
Of the two figures, I'd have to say that Nero Queen is the better one, overall. Feral Queen could have been awesome if a bit more thought had gone into her colour layout - perhaps matching her more closely to one of the Predacons, taking a certain feature from each one, or even just sticking to the colour layout depicted in her initial appearance, rather than just throwing in all the colours, seemingly at random.
As figures in their own right, they're decent enough but, with five of them already in my collection, I have to say I was feeling a little fatigued by all the variants once I had them in hand (hence it's been more than two years between aquiring them and writing about them, despite photographing them soon after my return from the show!). The new head sculpt is gorgeous, but complicates transformation due to its size and spikiness, and it was disappointing to find that the set included only one character-specific accessory that can't even be attached to vehicle mode. As an extension to the Feralcons, these two really deserved either a unique weapon set, or the full range of accessories including Salvia Prominon's hammer and Eupatorium's bow.
I can't say if they fare any better as companions to Feral Rex or Nero Rex because I don't think much of the Predacons and so don't own either set. They're slightly shorter than any of the component robots in the gestalt, and not entirely the same aesthetic, despite all being part of the Reformatted line.
This two-pack came in at about £80 at TFNation, which is only about £20 more than one of the single Azalea-derived figures when they first came out, so it was excellent value for money. However, going by the pattern of the other figures, they're likely to be vastly more expensive by now, should they actually turn up on the secondary market. I would certainly recommend owning at least one of the Azlalea-derived figures, but I'd struggle to put this set near the top of the list, even though their shared head sculpt is easily the best of the three available.
In a way, though, this set is precious to me more because it encouraged me to attend TFNation in the first place. I may not be into the whole 'community' aspect of the convention but, as a UK-based TransFormers fan, I can't imagine not attending now.
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