We've been doing a lot of shots of the car-leg/copter-arm configuration for a while, I thought I'd switch things up. Notably, this is the configuration illustrated all over the box and shown in the instructions. I'm using the stock hands and feet this time, on a tablecloth for friction for the action shots. The above shows Victorion in a nice action pose, but here's a few shots illustrating different touches. First is a relaxed stance with everything transformed "officially." Well, almost--I have the fronts of the cars angled up and out, instead of folded down flush like I do for leg mode. Same pose, with some things rotated to an angle. The angles do a lot for me to make Victorion look a bit sleeker. Not necessarily feminine but a little lighter (for a super robot). I've angled the legs backwards slightly, which helps with her balance. I've also put Rust Dust's legs at an angle on the chestplate, to distinguish her a bit from Defensor (most of her artwork shows more angles on the chest too). As you can see, she can still pose fairly well this way. In anticipation of someone suggesting I give this a try, in order to further "slim" Victorion, I've folded one leg of each car away. I don't recommend this for a few reasons. One, while it works pretty well on Jumpstream, it does not on Dustup. The leg folds awkwardly, the matching hole has to be folded out of the rear spoiler--and it doesn't peg in as well on mine--and she can't hold her sword worth beans. Moving along! As usual, everything is better with a 35 dollar set of hands and feet. The stance is more natural, even with the official configuration, and the hands feel like they fit the car-bottoms a lot better than the standard hands. This also makes it easier to do the "Bruticus fan mode" though again, I've angled the legs slightly (the opposite direction this time). I'm not sure which way I prefer, to be honest. I think this is a fine configuration. I know people shy away from it--in my mind, I felt the cars as arms would give her a sort of gorilla-like appearance but this simply isn't the case. With most of the cars only being visible in profile (and with the fronts angled up, as mentioned), she actually looks slimmer than with helicopter arms, in a few ways. Especially given how much thinner her legs look like this. I'm a fan! I'll probably switch between both, regularly. And as a parting shot, here's a pose that shows how dynamic you can get these Combiner Wars figures with a little help from the 3rd Party! "You who would douse the light? You're welcome to try."
She looks SO much better than she did in stock photos. I especially like the Combiner mode's headsculpt.
I got my Victorion today. But the store I ordered it from had a bit of a problem with the online payment. So now I can't open it until I get an email saying they got the payment.
Picked up this set from a shop in Orange County. The toned down green actually works really well in person. I think the hands are a bit tiny, but I also think I'm used to the huge mitts that the HFGs give combiners.
Also posting this here. The unused pegs on the blades are for them to be pegged into the side of te Heli-twins tabs so they can store. Thats a detail I didn't expect Hasbro to throw in but they did.
The Store I bought Victorion from said the payment will be complete on May 3rd. I've got to wait that long to open it.
The two rectangular tabs you peg the arms into can also tab into the slots in the swords, it's what their there for. Also something IMPORTANT that i didn't mention earlier was that my Pyra Magma had an assembly error. The red strut that connects to her leg and collapses into it for transformation was installed backwards, meaning it pushed on the plastic warping it. All I had to do was shave down the plastic sticking out (But left a little so it could firmly catch.) and she's perfectly normal. I'd advise anyone getting her to watch for this. When i originally tried to transform her knees it pushed on the plastic so hard it bent. I went back in place obviously but you can see the damage it left on both legs.
I just looked at my PM's legs, assembled wrong too; looks like it's not affecting anything luckily. And PM has the heel tab like Onslaught
I keep getting my car names mixed up. JUMPSTREAM was the girl with the problem when trying to use one leg for the combiner forearm instead of two. The Breakdown mold. Dustup (the Dead End/Wildrider mold) worked fine. Don't ever expect me to keep Stormclash and Skyburst straight.
I just remember it by the fact I like the name Stormclash more, and she has the visor head I like more. I have no problem with the cars. Still need to write up a proper review of her, later.
For those who have the toy in hand..... What colour is the green/grey/not red! colour used for the toy? It varies from picture to picture!
I'd say it's a more mint color than anything else...but what the hell do i know, i don't have swatches of green laying around lol
