he already attached them in the same post.

 

Megatron

We need pics to fuel the discussion

 

Joined last night so bare with me as I educate myself on the use of computers and by doing so become an asset to this forum with information and pics that will be of benefit to all discussion's about Transformers based on my experience with and opinion's of the thing that has my attention 50% of my busy day being a father of 4.

 

Let me be one of the first to welcome you, as well as warn you... So...
Welcome! Coffee table is to the left, sorry we have no cookies...

There...
Now for warning, this particular thread is for comments and reviews of figures.
For "day to day" figure discussion, there are main threads for just about all of 'em... Usually, random, out of context photos get deleted by moderators (who watch the threads like circling buzzards)...

While by no means a requirement, my recommendation is to pick a thread or two of characters you are interested, read up where the discussion is going, and then join in whatever the discussion is about... You'll figure out soon enough.

Again, welcome!

 

thanks fellow sentient being for the heads up, should ever I fail in my judgement on whats the routine norm and reminded for doing so I will fondly remember you LOL and thanks for being the one who was first to take me under their wing on this site with its buzzard's circling. cheers webz

 

When is this coming out the wait is killing me lol

 

COUNTDOWN 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2....one day..

 

Whaaaa?

Please tell me these come to us soon!

I've never preordered any toy. In my head that was always a "limit" that I didn't want to venture into. Megatron is one of my all time favorite bad guys in comics, transformers, the movies.. I have alot of Megatron stuff. When this was mentioned I paid attention.

$150. I thought it was wrong. I mean.. I've seen one leg of a 3rd party toy sell for that. I've paid over $100 for retail hasbro TFs...

Im very happy to have popped my preorder cherry on this. It's worth it. But let me tell you.. Its a freaking roller coaster ride, reading the threads everyday in anticipation. I almost canceled my preorder 2 times just because of something negative someone said, and it fucking snowball into a shit smeared mess. Glad I kept the preorder.

As dicky as this sounds... And Holy shit.. I know it sounds dicky. But I hope this figures skyrockets in price. Not so that people that don't have it can't have it.. No.. But I would like to hear about the naysayers and shit starters that talked all the crap about it, have to pay a shit ton extra after all the scare tactics and negativity. I've never preordered a toy before... But lemme say.. Im not ready to jump back and do that again. Reading the threads everyday, wondering about a review... Shipping... New pics.. And then have to hear read crap people are saying about this toy like they are trying to get people against it or "on their side".

From what I see, $150 is a crackhead price for, possibly the most incredible 3rd party offering ever. Is there bigger? Yep. Is there more detailed? Yep.

But its not this.. And this price. And the more I look at this.. The more I think hastak Will just say "fuck it.. Apollyon is about as good as it gets.. Let's make a G2 to skirt the gun laws".

 

As I am new to the whole preorder thing... Do companies like this usually have enough product for all the pre-orders? All of the pre-orders sold, should be for the 1st product run.. Right?

Want this thing...

 

How are you guys pronouncing this name?

Is it like Apollo, or like Napoleon? I tend to favor the one that sounds like Napoleon.

 

I pronounce it Mega-Tron  

 

Everyone has a different opinion on what is great in terms of this figure. I myself am happy to have an accurate display version where as others will want an example of technical engineering transforming giving praise to it being a TRANSFORMER. I value this site/thread/posts/members of all opinions and scrutiny for the love of and voice of all us transformers fans with all our varied and also uneducated views on upcoming bots. Without the scrutinizing of members on everything and nothing one is unable to be truly informed of what decision to make on certain bots when purchasing. Apollyon is show accurate and worth acquiring when you consider TAKARA version being good but not great, therefore investing in this is a gamble well taken when taking into consideration not all collectors feel the need to be so demanding in what they expect but thanks to these members for setting the standard in which bot producers will want to capitalize on and so endeavor to deliver on their promise of.....Masterpiece..QUALITY

 

TFsource has my Apollyon instock and I have shipped my stack, happy Mothers day

 

A Fans Toys Fanboi’s Bot Only Review/Impressions of X-Transbots’ Apollyon

Apollyon is my first non-Fans Toys third party figure. I’m a Masterpiece only collector who took the plunge into the third party world because the Dinobots are my favorite subgroup and I saw no hope of Takara ever getting to any of them outside of MP-08. Scoria was a revelation. While the shoulders were just a little loose (until FTs sent replacement parts) and the hips were not really designed to hold all that diecast in his massive legs, the figure blew me, until that time an official only collector, away. The build was top notch, the materials were in some ways superior to official, the transformation was clever, and the heft…well, let’s just say MP-08 feels like he could put on a few pounds.

So when Takara decided it need not rush to release a reboot scale and G1 cartoon aesthetic version of what is easily the second most important character in the Transformers franchise, I decided to take another plunge and purchase a Megatron for my G1 cartoon aesthetic collection. I knew of X-Transbots’ reputation for fiddly and perhaps lower quality figures, as well as its association with KFC, another company with a less than stellar rep. And yet images of Apollyon were stunning, and X-Transbots was saying all the right things about getting things right. They seemed to be planning a major push into the MP style, and with representations of Scourge, Cyclonus, Reflector and others on the way, they have a lot riding on the success of their take on the leader of the Decepticons.

What follows then is a first impression review from the perspective of someone who really has only collected official and Fans Toys figures. Does my lack of experience with the full breadth of offerings out there make me less qualified than others to write a review? Perhaps. But on the other hand maybe my limited perspective will give others a sense of from where that perspective comes. You know what my experiences are, and therefore exactly to what I’m comparing Apollyon.

Note that this is a bot only review at this time. I will likely do a part two in order to finish this review after I’ve transformed the figure, but I won’t do that for a couple days and, since this is hitting right now, I wanted to share my thoughts. In any event, I hope this will be useful to people.

Aesthetics
Aesthetics is where Apollyon shines. This figure really is pretty. It’s sitting on my mantle between MP-13 Soundwave (well, the Hasbro version) and his cassettes and my MP-11 mold Seeker trio that includes MP-11 Starcream, MP-11SW Skywarp, and Hasbro Thundercracker. He looks like he belongs. In fact in some ways, likely due to the paint, he looks more premium than my seekers and Soundwave. He scales perfectly and has a perfect amount of presence. He’s clearly the dominate personality in the display by virtue of his physical attributes and the fact that the mold, when properly posed, exudes power (more on that later). He completes a 1984 focused display. Save Reflector, the Nemesis crew is all present and accounted for. Wow.

The face sculpt…if X-Transbots got one thing right it’s the face sculpt. This is Megatron. Menace, arrogance, avarice, hunger. It’s all there. The proportions are wonderful, and while some would prefer the eyes a little larger I think we’re just getting nitpicky. I think it’s very safe to say this is the single best Megatron face sculpt we have ever had on a transforming toy. There’s really no competition.

The only quibbles I really have with the figure are that the insides of the legs are a little busy and, perhaps, the fact that his posterior is silver not black to accommodate alt mode. But no transforming figure is going to be perfect, and this one comes amazingly close.

Rating: A

Materials
My first impression out of the box was that, materials-wise, Apollyon is a step down from official Masterpiece figures. I felt a bit of a letdown because he felt less heavy than what I was expecting. To be fair I may have been subconsciously comparing him to Fans Toys Soar and Scoria, which are both very hefty figures. Apollyon isn’t nearly as heavy, so my initial reaction may have been overblown. Picking up MP-10 and Apollyon one after the other confirms they are in the same neighborhood.

Overall the figure is solid, but I think there are parts of the figure that feel lower quality. This is most noticeable in some of the smaller, more fiddly parts that hang off the legs or that combine to form the shoulders. Also the hands are extremely light, and while they are very well articulated they aren’t on par with what Fans Toys includes. The figure doesn’t feel cheap by any means, but there are definitely sections where I wish they had upgraded to a higher quality plastic.

The silver paint is shiny and smooth without being overwhelming. It seems well applied. There is just enough red and black to accent what could be a fairly monotone character design, but isn’t.

Rating: C plus/B minus

Design and Posability
Apollyon is fiddly. But maybe he has to be. He has to go from a robot, through a sideways transformation, to a hand gun. That means he’s shifting his symmetry 90 degrees and can’t take advantage of a symmetrical transformation the way a car, dinosaur, or tape deck can. So yeah, there are a lot of small parts, and when you handle him this is somewhat apparent. If you grip him in the wrong place you’re inevitably pressing on something. On the other hand he is incredibly stable and solid all things considered, and it’s not that much trouble to handle him if you focus on handling him from the chest, torso, and waist.

One thing I want to commend X-Transbots on is how menacing Apollyon is when posed. As I mentioned above, he drips power. The wide hips, about which some have complained, gives him this wide stance that makes him seem imposing and immovable. I stole a pose from a picture that I believe was taken by TFW2005 forumite TCracker (who’s pictures are always amazing) in which his hand is held out as if threatening to crush someone’s head, and it’s full of personality. It really does look like something Megatron would do.

Because there’s a lot of articulation in the joints (waist swivel, ankle tilt in just about every direction, a lot of movement in the arms and legs, fully articulated fingers, good tilt in the head, etc.) you can get a lot of excellent poses out of him. The only real limiting factor I’ve noticed is the shoulders, which are large and don’t allow a lot of movement in terms of stretching arms out to the side. But other than that I haven’t been frustrated in terms of posing him. I also love that I can move his arm cannon from the side to the top, depending on how I want to pose him. I prefer side most of the time, but sometimes it needs to be on top, and X-Transbots made that possible through a simple but clever little piece and a twist of the cannon.

Btw, the orange plug on the barrel was extremely simple to remove. I heated it with a hair dryer and pulled it off with pliers. I’ve seen the silencer plug come out easily, too, though haven’t done it myself yet. No worries there.

Rating: B

Quality Control
To be honest I’m quite impressed by the lack of issues on my figure. Like most figures I have the shallow dimples on the chest and helmet, and my shoulders (which use ball joints) were not strong enough to hold up the cannon arm when stretched to the side. But I had no scratches, the paint seems to be good, nothing was broken, and everything was included. X-Transbots (and KFC) has a less than stellar reputation, but judging by my figure and reports from others, they seem to have done a very good job on this front.

I should note that X-Transbots has included some replacement parts with the figure. This includes tighter shoulder joints that are easy to install. I only switched the right cannon arm as that was the only issue. It took two minutes, but it made things extremely tight. Too tight, really. I have to grab the whole figure securely to move the shoulder now, being careful not to mess up the shoulders themselves, which are made of several parts that split apart for transformation. I’ve worked the joint and applied a bit of lubricant and it’s getting better, and I prefer it to how it was, but people may want to try Pledge Floor Polish Finish (formerly known as Future) as an alternative.

I should also add that the replacement joints are extremely hard to remove once installed because they hold the ball joint so securely. I'm worried about popping the whole joint out and not just the ball from the socket. Not that I was going to remove it...that said I don't think I'll have the cannon arm popping out any time soon. One other warning about the replacement joint: the replacement shoulder seems to hold the arm a smidgen closer to the torso, thereby limiting the horizontal rotational movement because the shoulder/upper arm hits the torso just a little sooner than before. Of course there never was a ton of horizontal rotation to begin with, but it's a little annoying that there is less than before.

I know I’ve written a lot about the issues with the replacement joint, but understand that is only because I wanted to clearly explain the issues. Over all Q/C seems to have been handled well, and X-Transbots is saying the right things in terms of fixing case-by-case issues that always arise on mass produced figures. I think they have done a solid job and consider this a victory for them and a major step up from their previous reputation.

Rating: B

Accessories
Truth be told I’m fairly meh about the accessories. That’s not because they are bad, but just that I don’t care about them one way or the other. They will mostly stay in their box. Apollyon comes with a purple energy sword, an energy mace, a damaged panel for his chest, the pistol of betrayal, the helmet Megatron used to control the Optimus clone in an episode of the toon, the key to Alpha Sigma, and of course his alt mode extensions. They are ok, but in some ways unnecessary (other than his alt mode extensions, which I’ve not really messed with yet) and only so so. I would have done away with a few of them to make the ones they did include just a bit better. Not that they are terrible. They are what they are.

Rating: B minus

Transformation
Not covered in this review…maybe later.

Alt Mode
Not covered in this review…maybe later.

Overall
Let’s cut to the chase. At $150 (or even $165) I have no regrets adding this figure to my shelf. It looks like Megatron and fills a massive whole Takara seems content to leave. It may be the nicest looking figure on my Nemesis crew Masterpiece shelf, outshining MP-13 and the Seekers. This is a good figure.
Is it great? Maybe not. I don’t think it’s as good as MP-10 or my Fans Toys Dibots. But it looks as good as those figures. It’s really only the quality of the materials and maybe its (possibly unavoidable) fiddly nature that keeps it from being great. And even then I don’t want to overstate things…it’s close, and I’m comparing it to what I consider some of the best figures I own. It belongs on a Masterpiece shelf.

One question that a Masterpiece collector might ask is do I consider Apollyon a placeholder. In other words, would I replace it with an official figure if Takara produces their own V2 Megatron? The answer is I don’t know. I believe in preferring official to third party figures as a general rule, though I fully intend to replace MP-8 with FTs Grimlock when it’s available. I don’t feel I need an official Megatron anymore and would be perfectly content to use Apollyon in that role forever. But I also believe in supporting the main line and believe there could be things that Takara might do better. I think we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. I’ll probably buy an official figure to support the line and then decide which to use, depending on which looks better in the end. But Takara has to be pretty darn good to surpass this in the looks department, and the quality is good enough.

I definitely recommend Apollyon, and will keep an eye on X-Transbots as a provider of figures. Aesthetically they are really doing a nice job. On the other hand, I’m not yet ready to latch on to them as a favorite. For example, all things being equal I’m going to pick up the Fans Toys version of Reflector before I pick up X-Transbots/KFC's version due to what I imagine will be better materials and a slight preference in terms of design choices.

Overall Rating: B Plus

 

Wow. Awesome writeup Yeled, much appreciated. You and I are pretty much of the same mind in collecting: MP only, generally prefer official over 3P, getting FT Reflector over KFC in large part because of brand. If and when an official Megatron comes out, I'll decide then which is better and go with that as well.

 

Thanks, Shiro. I'm not sure what compelled me to write that, but I felt the need to comment in some official capacity.  

 

Thanks Yeled for taking time to bring to our attention your valued review and educated opinion 

 

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic.    

 

Great write up. This is really a great figure. I got rid of my collection a year ago( which was also MP only) and This one is getting me back into the hobby to a degree. I don't have the interest to have 20 plus TFs, but I couldn't pass this one up and will likely restart a modest collection of MP and MP style TFs. Again, great job on the review Yeled.