Okay, mostly a photodump for now, will type up more as I have time. But Hooray, Diesel got here today!



The contents of said package. Of note, M3 stands for Motor Force Military Multiplexer. There is no mention of Intimidator in the official paperwork.



He are the two halves of the vehicle mode. You have to take the back doors off of the back half of the trailer and put them on the back of the cab portion to form the shorter truck.



A quick comparison with Orion in vehicle mode:



And in robot mode:



Here's the rear section of the trailer, split in top and bottom halves. Very full in there.



The gang's all here!



All armored up with Orion:



Transformation on this guy is insanely fiddly, both from truck to robot and robot to combined mode. There are unfortunately already several stressed tabs, so of which I'm sure were there from TFsource's photoshoot, but I have no doubt I added a few myself. The instructions are annoying vague in a few spots and a few parts HAVE to be done in the right order so everything passes by each other in the proper order. There are also some REALLY neat parts too, so it's not a total wash. The combiner head reveal is OUTSTANDING. Definitely some wow factor, but a lot of small thin parts that could break easily if you aren't paying super close attention to a few parts. Slightly frustrating but worth it.

Here's the base form without the other guys.



Regarding the connection ports, you only use the triangle of peg holes starting with the crotch plate as the top and the two leg holes as the bottom of the triangle. Anything else that can be moved around you can position/deform to your liking. You'll see I messed with the leg cars a bit in the forthcoming photos. The triangles for the arms as well as the main peg are smaller for the arms. I have not yet successfully found a way to scramble city these guys. I will make further attempts later on, but it's looking less likely now that he's in hand and I have been able to fool around with it.



And all put together!



The back isn't too bad, those panels tab in at the top and bottom and stay pretty well, he's not anywhere near as hollow back there as previous photos made him look.



And here's a few comparison shots with other combiners. I'll just get this one out of the way first:



With Giant and Colossus:



With Defensor, so you get and idea of how much larger he is than his G1 counterpart:



With Hegemon:



With Computron and Glacialord:



He scales pretty well with Hercules, I think:



with Uranos:



With FOC Bruticus:



Video and more pics coming later!


EDIT! Forgot Car Crash and T-bone had those flip up chests earlier. Finally got more time to mess around, scramble city confirmed!



A quick vehicle group shot I didn't get earlier.



Video is up.

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans...-13-diesel-m3-video-reviews.html#post10396384

 

Oh jeez, photobucket compressed those photos into crap. I'll replace them with better ones later on, I have to run some errands at the moment.

 

I buy this in christmas)).

 

Peaugh, how would you compare the fiddly frustration factor on Deisel with the FP Insecticons? More, less, same?

 

Looks very cool without the leg cars. There are even pistons that otherwise get covered up.

How is the articulation? Waist swivel?

 

I do like the way he looks with Herc,

Very Nice

 

I was looking forward to the element of surprise for transforming this, but I'd rather lose the surprise than end up with stress marks...video review it is.

 

Anywhere on Diesel to hold the leg-bot's guns when in combined mode? Whether intentional or not? I just do not like the "angled-out trunk" look for "knee-cap guns". With all those slots and holes, there's gotta be somewhere...

Seems to be a few more (tasteful*) paint apps added----some purple on the sword hilt, and some black(gunmetal?) on the rear of the trailer-sides.

*take note TFC

::edit, one more thing::-----Peaugh, in many photos, including yours, Diesel's front wheels always seem to be "out of position" in robot mode----are they very floppy? They never seem "pegged in place" anywhere in bot mode---like they're just swinging around by his knees.

 

Damn this look so much better than from the zoomed out shots everyone has been posting. Glad you finally got him in hands hopefully your foot isn't swollen and your week got off to a good start.

 

"Fiddly transformation and stressed tabs". One night, the FP designer and ToyWorld designer met in a bar an exchanged a few ideas .........

I still really really like my Orion though. The fiddly transformation is too late to change but I hope those stressed tabs are not a feature, more like a pre production defect.

 

Thanks Peaugh!!! I don't like how the cars just sit on top of the legs.

 

I knew the leg cars weren't proper limbs, but seeing in practice how they're really just decoration really turns me off.

 

Peaugh, thank you for the excellent pic review. The way you arranged Diesel's back Kibble is muco better than the fake scabbard-looking things we've seen in the proto pics. Is that the standard configuration?

 

^ Agreed with this, the kibble does look better in Peaugh's photos. Can you show the back shot when he is not in combined mode? And thanks for doing this. Hopefully the toe is a lot better or at least this takes your mind of that for a few mins at least.

 

I just noticed---is Intimidator carrying Diesel's shotguns on the sides of his back kibble?

 

That looks really good. I think his proportions are great. He doesn't look nearly as skinny as previous photos made him appear. Very excited for Diesel to come in!

 

Awesome pics!

Unrelated question: Where did you get the add-on parts for Brawl to hide his fists on Colossus?

 

I'm actually ok with the legs being slapped on cause of stability reasons overall cannot wait to get this guy now on to the transformation...

 

Combined this looks very nice.

Having said that your review is concerning. Fiddly transformation that has to be done in a exact way or else you break tabs?! That is the trifecta for an overly annoying TF.

On top of that, the lack of Scramble City also a disappointment. Maybe you can find something, but shouldn't that be included in the directions?

When you do the review, can you please talk about how well it holds its poses and as on. I have a feeling he will hold it pretty well though.

Thanks for your review on this btw.