I like this figure so much that I have to do a proper write up for it. So here it goes.. I have to admit I'm not generally a big fan of third party toys. I feel like they always tend to over-engineer the figures to justify the premium they charge. I'd only bought about 4 or 5 third party figures before I got Spartan, and all of the were small toys like Toyworld Bee and the Igear mini-bots. But soon as I discovered Mastermind Creations were going to do an Impactor based on the LSotW design, AND with a Metal Slug inspired tank mode, I knew I had to get him. And he is just fantastic! TANK MODE: I've always loved double homages, like Animated Huffer and Pipes. I think it's really ingenious of MMC to incorporate the Metal Slug aesthetics into the tank mode design. I grew up a huge Metal Slug fan and still remember the days playing the first two games on the arcade machines. The unique aesthetics were part of the draw for me, and MMC did a great job capturing the essence of it. From the extra-heavy-duty-looking treads, and the curved tread guards to the hydraulic cylinders connecting the body and turret. And because the designer also managed to snuck in some curved surfaces on the turret (the upper body in robot mode), it doesn't feel like you have curvatures colliding with the hard-edges which are necessary for robot mode. But I can understand that some might not like the idea of a tough, bruiser type character turning into a chibified tank. The plows add just the right amount of hard edges to the tank mode. There's two 5mm peg holes on top of the turret (one is for the shoulder canon in robot mode). There's also one set of dual barreled cannons on either side. Because they extend from the tip of the robot mode feet, you can use the hinges on the toes to pose them a little bit. These were not present in the earlier prototype and CAD drawings, but I like that bit of extra armament on my Cybertronian tank. The hydraulic cylinders limit the turret rotation to about 15 degrees each side, but they do look good. I generally like to leave them unattached, which frees up the turret to a full 360 degree rotation. The main turret canon is hinged at the base which gives about 30 degrees of tilt upwards in tank mode. A very nice and compact side view Because of how the legs transform into the sides of the tank, there is a bit of gap at the back, but it doesn't bother me at all. He looks good with Springer in vehicle mode. TRANSFORMATION: Transformation to robot mode is involved, but not frustrating. There's a couple of tricky bits you need to be extra careful of, especially how the thighs transform. The upper thigh piece is a separate piece that rotates independently of the thigh in relation to the hip joint. You need to rotate that to a specific position in order for the thigh to be able to swivel all the way forward and for the leg to collapse. The instruction booklet is not very clear but I find this video instructionvideo instruction manual to be quite helpful. After a couples of times transforming back and forth you shouldn't have any problem and I'm now quite enjoying it. ROBOT MODE: The robot is fantastic. It's like he jumped right out of a page of LSotW. The plastic is very sturdy and nice to handle. The muted colors look great in person and imo far better than what the earlier renders looked like with the bright gold and over-saturated purple. In robot mode there's more paint apps exposed, mainly in the chest and abdomen. These are cleanly applied without issues. Oh and the little yellow plug on his right arm is for plugging the arms together in tank mode. They stay just find without it so if you don't like parts forming you can just throw it away. I generally leaves it there in robot mode. The head sculpt is spot on. I do wish there was an extra face with neutral expression though. Spartan has pretty every articulation on a modern transformer toy, with his knees being only able to bend about 90 degrees my only small gripe. The lower elbow joint on mine is initially quite stiff and when I tried to bend it the plow pieces would pop off, as they're only friction held in place and not glued on. After some play time this joint has loosened up and the plows now stay in place during posing and transformation. He is a good Voyager size and fits the CHUG aesthetics perfectly. Also there's a screw hole on the elbow that takes 5mm pegs, so you can put some extra weaponry on Spartan's forearms and make him look even more bada$$. He also comes with a right hand and the drill from when he was best pal with Megs. (which I forgot to take photos of...) His hand is also compatible with Prime FE Bulkhead's wrecking ball so you have a few options as to how you wanna armor him up. Just a few shots to show off how accurate he is to the LSotW design: The shoulder cannon could use a few extra paint apps but all in all a great job by the designer to transfer the 2D design into a 3D figure. I don't have the set up or the chops to do this shot justice, but the back-lit grim feel is there. VERDICT: I've handled MMC products before but this is my first actual purchase. I like how their plastic feels and the engineering of this figure a lot. I'm also planning to pick up their Not-Turmoil as well. And now I'm really looking forward to their other IDW inspired releases. High recommended.
Awesome pics above, BTW - Specially the comic recreations. MMC Spartan! A superb toy all round and an excellent interpretation of the IDW take on the character. It could also be said that it is also a faithful modernization of the original Marvel UK character model. The only real difficulty with this toy is the crapola MMC instructions which make the transforming process much more complex than it is as they can be misguiding. Once you understand what is required, he is very easy to transform with the trickiest bit being the upper thigh swivels.
Prelude: Spartan is not a figure released by Hasbro or Takara-Tomy and thus not officially a Transformer. He hails from third party company Mastermind Creations and is, of course, meant to be Impactor, leader of the Wreckers, but for legal reasons he can’t be called by that name. Robot Mode: Spartan is roughly Voyager-class in size and has been lifted pretty much unchanged from the pages of IDW’s Last Stand of the Wreckers (more on that below). He’s got big, beefy legs with tank treads, a comparatively slim upper body and a head styled like an ancient Greek battle helmet (possibly a Spartan one?). The figure is nicely detailed and articulated and comes in the classic Impactor colors of purple and yellow with a bit of silver thrown in for highlights. Spartan comes with numerous weapons. A shoulder cannon can be attached to either shoulder or held in hand. A small silver handgun is his to wield and Spartan can also remove either of his hands (or both, I guess) and replace them with either a harpoon or a drill. The harpoon can double as a hand-held weapon, too. Nice accessories and the fact that I just love shoulder guns gives him some bonus points as well, naturally. Overall there is nothing bad I can write about Spartan’s robot mode. It looks exactly like it should, it features full articulation and quite a few weapons, just about the only even slightly negative thing I can think of is that he is just a tiny prone to toppling over backwards. Thankfully his big feet can easily balance that. So bottom line: very nice robot mode, nicely depicting Wrecker leader Impactor. Two thumbs up. Alternate Mode: Spartan transforms into a futuristic looking tank. The shoulder cannon becomes the tank’s main weapon, Spartan’s upper body is the turret. The transformation isn’t terribly complicated, but fitting everything together just right so it clicks into place takes a bit of fiddling. The end result looks good, a nicely detailed Science Fiction style tank. Those two struts connecting the tank body and turret are a bit strange, as they look cool but prevent the turret from turning. Oh, and I only just noticed that I forgot something, as you are supposed to extend two tiny gun barrels from each foot where they rest on the sides of the tank. So overall a nice tank mode. Not revolutionary, but nicely portraying the tank mode that we saw in a single small panel in the IDW comics. Remarks: Impactor was originally created as a one-off character for the famous “Target 2006” storyline in the Marvel UK comics. He was the original leader of the Autobot special ops unit The Wreckers, but was quickly killed off to make room for Springer (who actually had a toy on the shelves at the time) to step up and become Wrecker commander. He proved so popular, though, that he returned numerous times. First as a zombie in the Marvel UK comics and again much later in the IDW comic “Last Stand of the Wreckers”. Currently he stars in “Sins of the Wreckers” and shows no sign of disappearing again. While there have been official Impactor toys recently, they were just repaints of other figures. Mastermind Creations instead took the figure directly from the pages of “Last Stand of the Wreckers” and gave it life as Spartan. They also included a comic book featuring Spartan where he fights his way through some sort of enemy base filled with creatures, killing them all in pursuit of someone apparently meant to be Jhiaxus. So final verdict for this figure here? Pretty cool. He’s lacking that little something extra that would motivate me to give him an A-rating, but in terms of bringing the character from the IDW Wreckers comics to life? Misson accomplished. Recommended to all Wreckers fans. Rating: B+ Source: Transformers Universe
