Galaxy Force (Toy's Dream Project) Fang Wolf Black Version

I mentioned in my write-up to Cybertron Snarl that the figure had been an easy pass - the toy didn't look that great, not least due to a bizarre choice of colourscheme. Even the Takara version looked a bit crap, so the one I bought myself was for the purpose of a custom repaint, and then a friend bought me another for my birthday. However, when the Toy's Dream Project repaint was announced, that caught my attention because the mold itself isn't bad.

Like the TDP Soundblaster and the more sober official repaint Dark Ligerjack, and as the name 'Black Version' would suggest, it's a darker repaint... though mostly grey rather than actually black. I've mentioned before that I'm a sucker for a 'black' repaint, but is a darker colourscheme enough to properly demonstrate this mold's merits?

Beast Mode:
The thing about this mold is that it always was beautifully detailed, but the weird, soapy white plastic used on the mass-release figures - both in the west and in Japan - basically swallowed all the detail, while the blue paint and plastic were just too much of a contrast to really work. Coupled with cyan and yellow as the tertiary colours, the mold ended up looking almost like a pound shop knockoff of itself.

While this so-called 'Black Version' doesn't actually feature that much black - even the darkest plastic reads more like a super-dark charcoal grey rather than full black. Nevertheless, it certainly looks far more striking as a largely monochrome cybernetic wolf, and the distribution of shades makes a lot more sense, visually. Apart from the paws, the wolf and its fur are darker shades, and then the armour on the back legs and the tail is lighter greys and silver. Additional shades of grey dotted about are supplemented by silver around the Cyber Key slot, on the 'hub' of each leg, on the armour panels of the back legs and on the claws, with yellow highlights for the eyes, the loin and the back legs. Glossy black paint is sparingly used, and serves to further enhance the sculpted details.

It really is amazing what a change of colour can do for a mold... and, if I remember correctly, this was the first iteration of the mold that I bought. Were it not for this, I might not have bothered with Timelines Weirdwolf.

Robot Mode:
Once again, the new colourscheme brings a huge improvement to robot mode. The choices made here make a lot more sense than on Snarl. Granted, the Takara version actually painted the belly to match the pelvis, and Hasbro's omission of that paint application was detrimental the look of the robot mode on their version, but the reduced contrast here is another factor that helps the figure. In fact, I'm tempted to think that most of the mold's problems were due to the extensive use of white plastic, when even just a pale grey would have been an improvement.

The upper body features more silver paint, following much the same template as the yellow paint on the standard Snarl/Fang Wolf but, where their chest has red paint on the central, shallow V-shaped detail, this version uses yellow... even though the rhombus at his waist is painted red, just like that of the standard version. Also like the standard version, the panels on each side of the pelvis are yellow, while the panels below are silver. Throughout, the yellow paint used is cooler than that of the original, almost looking as though it should be fluorescent, though it may just be because it's not very dense and is applied to far darker plastic.

The main disappointment here is that the translucent plastic used for his beast head's fangs, the light-piping on his robot mode eyes and his spring-loaded missile is grey. Granted, it fits right in with the monochrome figure, but it's kind of boring, and certainly a step down from the mass-released figure.

On the flipside, where the head on that version had a terrible, almost perfunctory paint job that left his whole face as bare white plastic, this one has glossy black paint for the sides of the head and his eyebrows, with silver paint over the whole face and on the front of the central crest. Finally, while it's subtle and a little difficult to see from some angles, the translucent grey plastic of his eyes has been painted over with yellow.


One of the strangest decisions on this mold was that it's Cyber Key feature is very much geared toward beast mode, with the jaw opening to reveal his enormous fangs. Sure, it still works in robot mode, but it's the expense of replacing one of his hands with the beast mode's head... Which kind of worked for a Beast Wars Megatron and presents a striking silhouette, but seems out of place - not to say downright wasteful - on a figure this small.

Nevertheless, this version of the mold is hands-down the best option available. Neither the Hasbro nor the Takara versions of Snarl/Fang Wolf made best use of the mold, while the 2007 BotCon/Collectors' Club repaint as Weirdwolf is only let down by some cheap-looking plastic.

This is another figure I've had in my Drafts folder for years now, more than a decade in fact, so it feels good to get another one out of the way... particularly as there now only a couple more of those ancient drafts left. It was also a bonus to find that the photos I took wayback when (June 2009, going by the file info) were of a sufficiently good quality that I didn't see a need to re-take them, as I have with many other posts originating those days.

One of these days, I'll take some proper photos of the extensive repaint I gave my spare Snarl figure to turn him into Galaxy Force Sabrewulf, a homage to the classic ZX Spectrum game from Ultimate/Rare.