The base hands are articulated. There is no needed hand swapping. The instructions even jokingly say that the extra hands are included "as a souvenir". The QC on mine is good. A little paint slop, but nothing major. The little dude is really cool. Lots of clever locking pegs. I opened up his hips to check sturdyness and it seems like a simple but solid design so I don't think they'll do anything worse than wobble slightly if they aren't perfect. I think he's worth getting if you like the design. He's got a lot of character and feels very much like a toy designed by a someone with a lot of enthusiasm for making a great representation of the huffster. Edit: also. The cab WILL slide down a tad more than shown in the OPs photos- the plate behind the head will tab into his back and not leave any gap.
Yeah I just got mine today, and I'm really impressed. Thankfully no QC problems for me. The controversy over his proportions being more 'childlike', which I could sort of understand looking at photos and comparisons next to Krank, evaporates in person - he's a perfectly formed bot in his own right. I also had my concerns about the weight of the cab backpack, but in hand the figure stands and poses fine. Good job by Cubex. I think they even topped TT's official MP Huffer sketch, which is no mean feat!
As other people have said this guy has a nice intuitive transformation and looks very nice - the main drawbacks is that the company needs more experience with joints and plastic quality if they want to match the engineering and those hips (on mine) really needed to be stiffer (front-back) to deal with the weight of the cab.
Short little review - I like Cubex's take on an MP style Huffer very much. It's by no means a perfect toy, and it's got its fair share of faults but it manages (in my mind) to overcome most of its shortcomings with a decently clever design that makes a nice looking and poseable figure that's got all the right design cues and features you'd want for a Masterpiece Huffer. His truck mode looks great. He's got nice, fold out wing mirrors similar to igear's vanbros. The (plastic) wheels all roll solidly and everything tabs together to make a compact little mustard colored truck. I appreciate the fact that his arms properly form his exhaust stacks (as Huffer should) and he's got a lot of little paint details all over that make his otherwise plastic colored car body details pop. As advertised by the really really excellent instruction book (which I would like to note is probably the best designed instruction manual we've got for a 3rd party toy in a long time as it A) actually shows you all the proper steps you'd need to convert him properly, even including English language descriptions of actions that wouldn't be obvious, such as sliding open the bottom of the cab so you can push the gun out from below, and B) has some great original artwork and information about the toy's development) there's room in the cab for the little Spike figure included with MP10 to ride around in him, although getting him up in there is a bit tricky. Robot mode is really nice - Once again, everything pegs together (mostly) solidly with all of his extra kibbly bits like smokestack caps and wheels all folding away and hiding in what is a pleasantly satisfying transformation that's intuitive without being overly simple. A common complaint for him in robot mode is looseish hips, which depending on their severity can result in a Huffer that's constantly bending over backwards. This is pretty easy to fix as you can get at the inside of his hip rotation mechanism with the removal of no more than three screws, and it's easy to get some future or some nail polish in there if you want to. the hips on mine were basically fine so I didn't bother, other than opening him up to see if I could. He comes with a spare face (which is pictured above - the stock face mine came with had some paint splash on it, which I'll discuss in a moment when I come to his drawbacks) as well as spare closed hands, both of which can be swapped out with the use of a small screwdriver - don't go yanking on his face thinking it will pop off like I started trying to do (before reading the instructions that told me not to, go figure)! The closed hands are totally optional, and the instruction manual even says that they're just included because they had already been made when the toy was in its early design phase, encouraging you to leave them in the box as a souvenir. Hah! His gun, which is made from a combination of a bracket you pull out of the inside of the truck cab and his trailer hitch, is simple but effective, and can fold away to stow away on his back if you don't want him holding it. Nice but simple. The robot mode is nicely poseable and has great proportions (although some people aren't fans of his fairly thin arms, I think they're just right considering their secondary purpose as smokestacks in vehicle mode. He's got all the requisite moving parts, rotating wrists, biceps, waist joint, thighs, double jointed knees, super deep-bending-ankle-tilty-ankles, and even a forward and backward head-nodding joint so that he can look down (or up - more likely considering his height) at his friends and foes. The bad stuff: As nicely designed as he is, he's not perfect. There's a good amount of tolerance issues with the various plugs and tabs that connect him all together in both Robot and Alt mode. For the most part everything fits together, but you'll probably have to futz with him more than you'd think is necessary if you have OCD obsessions with getting rid of gaps on transformers, especially around the area where the legs fit together in alt mode. During transformation as well, things like the way the wheels bang against his chest and upper cab (and likewise against the panels on his legs on his rear wheels) when you're folding them away gives the impression that they were originally designed to be a little smaller and someone didn't get the message to check the tolerances after resizing them along the way. Similarly the panel behind his head doesn't want to fit through the space it moves through perfectly and can sometimes pop off if you're just shoving it around with reckless abandon. Paint-wise, while he's mostly good, there's a fair bit of slop in masking of some parts; as I mentioned previously the pre-installed face came with several blotches of paint on it (which I scraped off, but in the end I decided I liked his alternate face more anyway), and the paint on his fists makes for a terrifyingly tight connection to the pegs (which are also painted silver) that they clip onto when in Alt mode. You'll likely want to sand down the pegs inside his exhaust stack caps a bit after the first time you transform him into a robot just to avoid any future yanking and tugging. Finally, as you have no doubt noticed if you've looked at ANY preview photos of the toy, he's got a fair number of rough sprue marks all over him. You can carve 99% of these down yourself with an exacto blade, but the sprue marks on his forearms are basically unremovable since they've been painted over. Again, it's a fairly minor thing, but I can see it annoying some. Overall I'd absolutely recommend this guy to anyone looking for a Masterpiece Huffer; granted, that's probably a really small subset of the fandom, but if you're willing to put in a little work and elbow grease to clean up any little blemishes along the way, Cubex's Huff is a pretty great little robot who's a spot on representation of a little yellow cab-over truck who was in a TV show from the 80's.
So, can this guy be transformed without reattaching his trailer hitch in truck mode? Like, can it just store in the cab along with the other gun part? I only ask because storage in both modes without having to move pieces around is nice. Sort of like how MP Soundwave's battery blaster can stay attached in the same spot no matter which mode he's in.
Got mine today, haven't been this impressed by 3rd party engineering in a long, long time (and I pretty much got them all). I'm in love!
Never really checked the instructions, but I just noticed yesterday that the headlights could rotate to hide in robot mode. That made my day.
Are the QC issues really bad. What other Transformers toy does he compare to in QC? I am debating whether to cancel my preorder. Thanks.
I do like this figure, but I have found that paint chipping is an issue, especially around the thighs. I'm thinking Future floor finish (Tile and Vinyl) should help preserve the paint from further chipping. Probably the weakest aspect based on the two Huffs I have gotten. The silver doesn't seem to have that problem, but the light blue paint has some major issues.
Ah yeah I've just noticed some small chipping on one of the thighs on mine tonight. Probably the only knock I have against this figure. Mines perfect otherwise <3
Mine is great aside from some distortion in the cab plastic making the rotating smokestack cover piece come loose, but no worse than some official releases. I may Future the blue paint regions just for peace of mind. Too many reports. In all, I like him and feel like he was a good investment. For comparison, though: if Hasbro puts out an mp Huffer, I'm still listening. If they did a Shockwave, Quakewave has my ears closed.
Just got mine today! First 3rd party toy I've ever bought... and he's beautiful. Minor mold flash here and there that was easily removed, and a few spots where the paint is minorly imperfect. However: the black piece of plastic by which the left arm attaches to the torso was assembled backwards on mine, preventing his arm from being able to raise. Scared the crap out of me, but I looked up some tutorials on youtube for taking out pins. 20 minutes later, I gently knocked the pin out, turned the piece around, and reassembled him. (All this time I've been afraid of disassembling TFs... that wasn't too bad!) Now he's lovely. And I prefer the "old man" face. The other one is more cartoon accurate which I usually prefer; but the one with the scowl and the chin exudes way more personality to me.
so i got mine today. observations: he is lighter than i thought. his cab shell seems to have been made lgiht on purpose, the plastic density reminds me of pp-05. the thighs seem to be made of different heavier plastic or maybe just thicker walled. the paint on mine is not perfect though far superior than mp sideswipe's for instance. There are a few extra nubs from where they singulated pieces from the sprue. pros: looks great in both modes. He really looks like what I think an MP huffer might look like. The transformation is easy enough to do and complex enough to keep your attention. overall feel is solid, not a high end collectible but a collectible as opposed to a child's toy. poses really well. supreme balance and great ankels. looks at home with mps. cons: sprue marks, mine has a failry loose right elbow joint. Some tabs and panels don't tab in sercuirely. also ther are some parts of the transformation where you think...thye just kinda fudged it and relied a little too much on assembly slop and material flexibility. doesn't "feel" like an mp fijgure in the way it handles the transformation and feel in hand. verdict: i like the figure a lot. its not perfect by any means. it shows great promise from cubex...but its just not quite there. that being said...i kinda knew that goin in...and he looks awesome with mps...so i still recomend it if you can get it froma place that will help you out oif your example has bad Qc.
After owning mine for two days, I'm glad to say that this figure is absolutely amazing. I was lucky enough to receive a sample without loose hips or flaking paint, although the loose chest is still present, and I received two of the same knee cover, meaning he doesn't peg together at that point in vehicle mode. Not too big of a deal, since the only visual indication is a small panel line that is asymmetrical in robot mode-which you don't even notice from more than a foot away. Despite the quality control issues, the figure feels amazing. The plastic feels every bit as tough as an official Transformer's, although the plastic is much thinner than would be used on an official Transformer in some areas, such as the blue butt plate or tips of the smokestacks. This is where I believe people are getting the idea that the plastic is cheap, but I can assure you it is not. All of the joints are nice and solid and don't move out of place unless I want them to, and the paint applications are as clean as any official toy. The silver in particular is amazing- reminds me very much of the silver Bandai often uses on SH Figuarts toys, and it is very brilliant. The visual aesthetic matches up perfectly with the Masterpiece line. In person , he does not look dumpy or child-like at all, he looks like Huffer-to an amazing degree in fact. The vehicle mode doesn't look like a toy so much as it looks like a realistic version of Huffer's original vehicle mode- which, from its original Japanese version, was supposed to be a "toy American truck." Since Huffer was never based on an actual vehicle, I am totally okay with the vision depicted here- like Optimus, it is a fictional vehicle given real-world qualities, and the amazing silver as well as the other various paint applications dotted throughout the cab allow this figure to shine in both modes. Overall, this figure is an amazing interpretation of a Masterpiece character we'd probably never see an official release of. The engineering in the transformation is intuitive and fun, just like I'd expect from an official Masterpiece toy, and it avoids falling into the trap of simply recreating the simple original transformation with a few tweaks added in. This was my first third party product, and if Cubex makes another toy of this quality, I won't hesitate to buy it- especially since the pricing is so spectacular at 70 bucks, which is ten dollars less than what most American online retailers charge for official Masterpiece Cars. That being said, I'd highly expect them to tighten up QC on their next release- like Sideswipe, the engineering is there, but the QC is not, and if Cubex can fix that, their next piece may very well be their equivalent of Prowl- a toy that's better in almost every way than the already good original.
Got mine yesterday. It looks great, but I'm afraid to touch it again. When I opened it the clear rear window/weapon storage was rattling around in the cab. It had to be glued back in place. When I went to transform the back and head, I pulled up too much, popping the head/neck assembly off (shouldn't that be screwed on or glued?) send pieces everywhere. It was a pain to get the cab back on and then reattach the head. Not sure what the hell I did but damn. The left thigh was so loose, I had to take everything apart and stiffen it up with an eraser cut to size and stuffed between the joints. The head joint is also so loose that he can only look forward/down a bit. If I try to have his head look forward with resting the chin on the chest, it just flops right back down. I wavered on this for product for a while. In the end I gave it a chance and while happy with the aesthetics, the functionality or Quality Assurance leaves much to be desired. For the price, I had to put WAY too much energy into tweaking this thing to make it tolerable.
I'm satisfied with mine. I can see the complaints regarding the plastic quality. It's not the best (by 3rd Party standards), but it's certainly not the worst. I'd say it's mediocre, but part of me thinks the plastic on the cab is light on purpose. The flexibility actually aided me during some of the fussier sequences of the transformation process. Outside of that, the only issue with my copy was the panel for the weapon storage. It kept popping off during transformation. Oh, and one of the headlights won't fold back. Huff is a bit fussy, and you have to take your time , but it's not a bad figure to own. Just be prepared to remedy some flaws out of the box.
I'd say the number one problem with mine was just how tight some of the joints were. I seriously was afraid I was going to break his arms off at first but now they are fine. The gun was also stuck in the back window holder so tight I had to pry it out with a small screwdriver but after doing it a few times everything is how it should be.
