While I like Super Ginrai and enjoyed him as a single unit, the moment I saw Perfect Effect were producing upgrade sets - the first being essentially supplemental parts for the second, a fully transforming, independent cab - I knew I was going to treat myself to the full Super Ginrai/Powermaster Optimus Prime upgrade, and ordered both PC-15 and PC-16 as soon as they became available.
Packaging:
Perfect Effect's Perfect Combiner boxes have tended to be fairly plain, and mostly 2-colour, but these sets clearly demanded something a bit more impressive... So there are gorgeous product shots on the front and back. The fronts show dramatic poses and feature all kinds of special effects - the lightning on the PC-15 box is perhaps a little overdramatic - while the backs detail what's contained within for PC-15 and how it all comes together on PC-16. The boxes themselves are nice and sturdy, with a matte finish. Inside the PC-15 box is a small, black and white instruction leaflet printed on rather crummy paper, while the leaflet in the PC-16 box is printed full colour on glossier, heavier paper.
Now, rather foolishly, perhaps, I installed the inner thigh plates onto my Legends Super Ginrai and the LED-lit head into Jinrai Prime as soon as the two sets arrived, so the only photos I mananged to take of PC-15 are of the Powermaster alongside the replacement torso plate for Super Ginrai/Powermaster Prime from PC-16. Then again, the two pieces of grey plastic aren't much to look at, even when installed - they literally just fill in the hollow inner thighs of the robot - and the new head is a bit meaningless out of context, so it was probably best to leave that till after installation.
The Powermaster figure behaves exactly like the G1 figures, only with a bit more articulation: shoulders are ball jointed (one rather loose on mine, and prone to popping off), knees are ball jointed, and then the hips are jointed such that he's a reasonably poseable mini action figure in his own right, then the legs can fold up and round to each side to transform him into the traditional Powermaster engine shape. The shape of the feet and the way the legs move mean that he's not super-stable but, with a bit of fiddling, it is possible to balance him as long as one foot is flat on the ground.
Since taking these few photos, I have fully installed Jinrai Prime into my Legends Super Ginrai along with the PC-18 GodJinrai set for Legends Godbomber, and will add photos - most likely in a new post - sometime soon.
Vehicle Mode:
One of my biggest bugbears about G1 Powermaster Optimus Prime was the fake chest detail on the back of the cab... so it's actually a little disappointing to see it not only replicated here, but fully exposed at all times. I guess the inclusion of the Powermaster gimmick - even in this limited, nonfunctional and not spring-loaded form - and the fact that the super robot's head is concealed behind the 'real' cab windows, means that there's no other option - those sections can't be easily used within the transformation so the traditional robot look has to be faked. Even so, I wish there could have been some concealing panel over it, because having the robot's fake cab chest sitting plainly on the back of the vehicle - windows, grille and all - really ruins the look of this truck. Making matters worse, the robot's white groin section sticks out just below and behind this. It's surprising how like the G1 toy this really is... In general terms, at least.
As is traditional, the cab is molded largely in a nice, bright red plastic, with the windows painted in metallic blue, and the stripes, grille and bumper painted silver. A couple of joints - a flap on the roof and the robot's shoulder ball joints - are molded in other colours of plastic - blue and grey, respectively - and stick out to varying degrees. The ball joints, being grey, blend reasonably well with the conveniently-placed silver stripe, but the blue panel on the otherwise entirely red roof looks pretty terrible. Both the smokestacks and the petrol tanks are painted silver, as are all six of his hubcaps and a pair of panels on the rear of the vehicle, either side of the trailer hitch. Rear indicator lights are painted in yellow and red, making the paint job very functional overall, not to mention very traditional.
The trailer hitch is just a socket made out of half hollows on the inside of each leg, and accommodates the screw column on the underside of the Powermaster Optimus Prime/Super Ginrai trailer though, naturally, it cannot be screwed together the way the attachment to the original cab was screwed into place.
Like the Hasbro toy, the front of the cab an be opened up... but on this version, it's only the windows and the grille that open out, and the latter only to facilitate the simplified Powermaster gimmick. On the back of the grille section, accessed by rotating the panel 180° once the windows are opened, is a basic plastic clip into which the Powermaster figure can be plugged in its engine mode. It has absolutely no bearing on whether or not Jinrai Prime can transform, nor does it activate any hidden features.
Jinrai Prime's weapon can be plugged into a square recess closer to the cab, but this gets in the way of the trailer hitch, so only really works if you're planning to keep Jinrai Prime and PMOP/Super Ginrai separate. It also points the weapon straight back, which isn't necessarily that helpful... Honestly, though, weapon integration is of little concern in the grand scheme of things, and his gun can just as easily be attached somewhere on the Powermaster Optimus Prime/Super Ginrai trailer.
Robot Mode:
I have to say, despite the faked chest, I'm really impressed with Jinrai Prime's robot mode. I'm also surprised by his similarity to the G1 toy, at first glance. In particular, there was no particular need to make the forearms blue except to specifically match the original which, to be honest, looked to have blue forearms simply because they were the same piece of plastic as the fists, and were concealed when the arms folded round the back of the vehicle to cover the fake cab chest details. On this version, the forearms become the vehicle's bumper, and so could just as easily have been molded in Optimus Prime's traditional red. Still, you have to admire Perfect Effect's commitment to Ginrai/Super Ginrai.
The overall construction is, naturally, way better than the G1 virtual-brick - both more advanced and more aesthetically pleasing - but most of the shapes and angles are much the same. The silver stripes on the chest are at a similar angle, the fake windows are much the same shape (and feature a cut-away section which reminds me of the Combiner Wars Optimus Prime mold). The fake grille on the belly is actually a transformation hinge, and sits at an angle, while the Powermaster socket ends up at the top of Jinrai Prime's back, just behind his head.
There's not a massive amount of sculpted detail - I doubt it was ever intended to be super-detailed as it's such a G1-styled figure, and the retooling (released later as 'Jetforce Revive Prime') occupies something closer to the movie/niche - and what little detail is here references the G1 toy quite well. The upper arms are pretty nondescript, with more sculpted detail on the hidden, inner face than on the forward-facing part, which then features only angled panels and some parallel grooves alongside the shoulder joint. The forearms aren't much different, but have silver panels echoing sticker detail on the G1 toy. The legs don't turn out quite so well, as the bare grey plastic thighs are clearly fully covered with armour plating and have no visble inner workings at all - the sculpting doesn't even have the detail implied by the G1 toy's stickers - and even the knee joints are barely detailed. The lower legs have a silver panel just above the shin, but there was missed opportunity to reflect another G1 sticker in the detailing and paintwork. Instead, pretty much everything from the knee down to that silver panel is only shallowly detailed and features no paintwork. He even loses the silver of his faux-fuel tanks, as they're folded down, unpainted inside face out, over one of the wheels on each leg. There is, perhaps, more sculpted detail on the backs of the legs than on the shins, but there's really not much in it and, again, there's just a panel painted silver at around ankle level. The strangest part is that the back of the legs are filled in by a plate which reverses itself for vehicle mode... and the vehicle mode face - which is hidden on the underside of the vehicle - is fully painted silver.
Much of the forward-facing part of the torso is completely covered with paint - the faux-truck front is painted a vibrant, glossy red which is slightly punchier than the red plastic around it, the smokestacks, grille and traditional stripe across the chest are all painted silver, the front of the groin is painted white with three blobs of yellow, loosely in the style of the G1 animation model. The coating of white paint isn't great on mine, being noticeably less opaque in the recessed areas either side of the central mass, and on just about every corner - as if the paint used was too thin - but it's the sort of thing that's only apparent when looking for it. The figure's designers have done an excellent job of paying homage to the G1 toy, but with greater attention to detail, such as the rows of rivets, carrying over from the real vehicle mode front to the faux detailing below the robot mode's chest 'windows'.
The gun packaged with this figure is very much in the style of the G1 cartoon's interpretation of Optimus Prime's gun, though it's far bigger than I'd have thought necessary. Plugged into either fist, and with his hands by his sides, it reaches almost all the way down to his feet! I'd say it's far too big for a figure this size, personally, but that size does come with a reasonable amount of sculpted detail - not least inside the barrel of the gun - and it's far more solid than the kind of thing Hasbro and even Takara Tomy are making these days. There's even some paintwork on this weapon, in the form of silver paint on the grille sections at the back of the gun. One curious feature that I've not seen any explanation for is the ports and tabs on the gun. Just in front of the silver grille sections on each side is a 5mm port - so far, so unremarkable, as that simply lets one plug accessories (such as other guns) into the sides of the gun. There are also tabs - about 4mm long and approx. 1mm wide - on each side of the gun barrel and, rather than being simple sculpted detail, they appear to be intended to help the weapon tab in between... something... But I've thusfar been unable to identify what.
Along with his standard 5mm grip hands, he comes with a pair of open-handed, splayed-finger hands, which simply peg into the wrist sockets... I've never really found much use for such accessories, though I would concede they can make for some extra drama in the right pose. Personally, I've left them in the box.
The head sculpt is a fair medium between the puffy G1 original and the slightly less puffy Titans Return Voyager class Optimus Prime's head... Probably skewing closer to the former than the latter. The mouthplate is curvy and the antenna seem to curve inward as they rise out of the sides of his head. It's not one of the greatest or most interesting Optimus Prime head sculpts... But this is coming from someone who'd prefer to see them designed to resemble the G1 toy once in a while. Your mileage may vary, especially of you're more into the cartoon aesthetic.
New Super Ginrai/PM Optimus Prime Head:
The new head supplied with PC-15 is very similar to the original head in terms of overall shape, but the details are subtly different. The cheek/jaw guards are simpler, without the raised, jutting piece at the very bottom, the band across the forehead is a single piece, with a thin line just below the very top, and the details either side of the central crest are recessed rather than raised. Additionally, the eyes seem smaller, because they're set within a silver 'face' behind the mouthplate, and the mouthplate itself is curved rather than angular. The protrusions from the sides of the head are, again, broadly similar with minor differences in the detailing. The most noticeable change, to me, was the lengthening of the neck - possibly intended to raise it up specifically for the combined mode with Godbomber, since the new chest plate is slightly raised versus that of the base robot it's covering. For use just on Super Ginrai/Powermaster Optimus Prime, it's a bit too long, and looks a little unnatural... but on God Ginrai, it looks just right. The only problem I've had is that the back of the head can clash with the hinges behind it, so I have to tilt the head forward before turning it.
Of course, it's also worth noting that there are LEDs within the head, and the eyes light up at the touch of a button on the back of the head. There are no special effects - no blinking, no fading - just on and off... which works for me. Since the Powermaster figure from PC-15 and its interaction with PC-16 is fairly limited, this feature informed my decision to buy just as much as anything else... even though I don't expect to use it very often. It's just a little bit of added value, and can make for some cool-looking photos or display options.
Jinrai Prime probably counts as one of Perfect Effect's simpler creations in terms of its transformation. It's vastly more complicated than the G1 toy, obviously, but nowhere near as complex as PE's average standalone figure. The robot's arms make up the truck's front wings and bumper, and the legs compress and extend via a system not dissimilar to the extension hinges used in many Combiner Wars figures, albeit with a large flap on the back/underside which actually tabs in place in either position. It's largely pointless in vehicle mode but, in robot mode, it covers the space vacated by Jinrai Prime's thighs, so he looks more solid from any angle. The Super Ginrai/God Ginrai head stows in the chest in pretty much exactly the same way as on the Titans Return/Legends toy, but accessing the cavity is a little trickier because of the rotating grille section with the Powermaster clip on the back - for some reason, it keeps hitching. It's also preferable to turn the head to one side before folding it away into the truck, as the space inside isn't as tall. The back end was quite odd the first time I transformed it, as the entire fake chest section is on a plate that has to rotate 180° so the top of the cab plugs into the waist. Just to make this even more fun, the smokestacks have to flip round for the Super Ginrai chest mode, and there's very little clearance to do so thanks to the waist fastening pegs. The smokestacks have to be moved one at a time, by turning the chest plate first one way, then the other. Doing it this way, the smokestacks just have to be swung round away from the waist tabs, since there's no way to get past them.
While the Powermaster figure has only rudimentary articulation (albeit an improvement on the G1 version and substantially better than Hasbro's more contemporary Titan Masters), Jinrai Prime is very expressive. The jointing of the shoulder is a little odd - a ball joint inside the torso leads out to a hinge on which the shoulders swing about 90° during transformation, so they slide in either side of Jinrai Prime's head for vehicle mode - but these joints can also be used for posing, and allow for the arms to be deployed with the tyres facing forward, should one so desire. I've been able to get him to stand in fair approximations of most of the poses used for promotional images of Optimus Prime from the live action movies, but I'm not convinced by the feet. There's no heel spur, and the poseability and stabilty of his stance comes down to the jointed toe section, meaning he tends to do better when leaning forward. He's not back heavy, as such, but the lack of any footprint beyond the back of the leg can work against his stability in some cases. My main complaint on the legs is that the ball-jointed hips could have been tighter. They're not desperately bad, and he can certainly hold a pose, but they do feel looser than I'd like, particularly on a Third Party figure. The waist is hinged in such a way as to give him a form of 'ab crunch', but the connection between the upper and lower body can sometimes pop apart before the abs joint decides to move. While the hands aren't poseable beyond rotation and a bit of tilt at the wrists, the inclusion of an alternate pair of hands with splayed fingers allows for greater variety in posing but, as mentioned above, I don't really see the point in alternate, fixed-pose hands - either give me articulated hands, or just stick with the fixed grip.
My experiences of Perfect Effect are still a little tainted by the travesty of poor construction that was Beast Muscle Leonidas, but I've found that their accessories tend to be vastly superior to their full figures (the two Motobots, RC and Aranea, both being a bit on the fragile side), so these two sets felt like a bit of a gamble. Thankfully, PCs 15 and 16 are very much on the 'accessories' end of PE's quality spectrum. The Powermaster figure looks and feels a little delicate, but I'm not going to be larking about with him too much. Jinrai Prime is very solidly built and feels nice and durable. With the exception of the looseness of the hips, the joints feel sturdy without being overly tight to the point of creaking, and the materials used throughout - though as thin as contemporary Hasbro/Takara Tomy output in places - feel like they'll stand up to play.
These two upgrade sets certainly aren't necessary - aside from its beige plastic and desaturated red, even Hasbro's Powermaster Prime is adequate - and I'm sure there are those who actively prefer the single-unit super robot format of TR Powermaster Prime/Legends Super Ginrai derived from Combiner Wars/Legends Ultra Magnus. However, it does return the figure to its full, G1-homaging glory. In a way, though, it's a shame to keep the Jinrai Prime figure cooped up inside Super Ginrai/God Ginrai, particularly the somewhat floppy mess of the latter. Such a dynamic figure deserves to be enjoyed on its own merits, and I'm very tempted to acquire Jetforce Revive Prime at some point.
Additionally, the third upgrade set, PC-18, fixes most of the floppiness issues on both Legends Godbomber and the fully combined God Ginrai, as well as bulking out the wings and providing additional weapons.
No comments:
Post a Comment