Just received by USPS. I'll start with a few initial impressions as I opened the box-- The artwork and poster are beautiful, packaged in a sturdy envelope with the instructions and collector card. I wonder if there will be a running change since the artwork has red hands. The blades of the sword fade from blue to white giving it a glowing appearance. I love the cracked windscreen detail on Rust Dust, it would have been an added feature if the rest of the team had this damage. Pyra Magna looks great in red, exactly how a fire truck should. Yes, the Victorion head doesn't hide to well but the sculpt is amazing, dig that blue visor. The cars and helicopters color schemes work great together. The new hands are definitely feminine, a lot smaller than standard HFGs. I am a fan of the finger articulation, better to hold objects. Glad to see they changed out the lower arms for the twins, fins look more appropriate for this variation of helicopter than missiles. The feet, best Hasbro has given a combiner, ankles tilts are extremely solid. They do resemble a pair of pointed high heel shoes honestly. The hands and feet are scaled for use with the helos versus the cars. More as the day progresses . . .
She's all together now except for Rust Dust. I wasn't happy with Groove on Defensor's chest and still am not. The beak protruding from the center just does not look aesthetic. Her chest panels have more fire truck parts than Defensor's which is an improvement. The right combiner leg has the Hotspot quality control issue, that peg inside needs to be trimmed down. I cannot believe this is still an issue! A very well balanced figure even when holding the giant sword. The colors flow together perfectly; the red, green, silver, and black are awesome. I didn't do a review on each individual member since there have been numerous reviews on these molds. They all have new heads, chests, and hands. I swapped out the box set hands and feet for Perfect Effect PC-09. The feet were donated to her nemesis, Galvatronus. The new Hasbro feet are the correct width for narrower legs such as jets and helicopters. I added a few Reprolabels too. My overall opinion, an outstanding combiner to add to any collection.
Found a minor quality issue: the right shoulder blade on back doesn't lock in tight, think my Defensor has the same issue. Some outside images--
I hope to get mine this weekend. Either Saturday or Sunday. Sunday I'm hoping, But Saturday I can play with it longer. IT's just that I have a big shopping plan, but going Sunday could be risky because one item I'm looking for could be sold out during Saturday.
I'd like to see pictures with the intended feet and hands and with the chestplate on. I love how Groove looks on Defensor.
Boy, have I been out of the loop. I've been keeping an eye on my email for a BBTS preorder announcement, but there isn't one. Where is Victorion being sold?
Online...some retailers ( i think Target ) put her out before the street date. Other smaller retailers online got her too
With the Hasbro hands and feet-- She wanted to lean forward and topple especially once I attached Rust Dust. There is too much of a gap between the chest armor and combiner chest. She wants to fall off too easily. The new hands and feet are sized beautifully to be used in conjunction with each other. Kudos to Hasbro over standard HFGs which are all the same size. Her feet are better suited to be used with Skyburst & Stormclash (helicopter twins) than Dust Up & Jumpstream (cars). Yes, the new feet look like a pointed toe high heel shoe (had my 14 year old daughter confirm that).
I picked up mine today! I haven't been this overjoyed at a combiner in some time. Art & Deco-wise is where these girls shine. The paint applications are beautiful. They really give credit to the art of Sarah Pitre-Durocher and colors of Yamaishi from the Combiner Hunters comic. I haven't found any nasty paint blotches or anything--these feel very much a step up from carded, individual figures. Of particular interest are little sets of... glyphs or letters, that look a lot like Cybertronian tattoos, but not in a style I've seen before. My only real color complaint is that Rust Dust's head is teal with a red-orange highlight in the center of her forehead, blue visor and silver face. In the comic, it was black with a silver face... and honestly, while I can understand wanting to change the layout so that she doesn't have the same general appearance as Groove, I think the teal actually makes it more obvious that they haven't retooled his/her head. Now on to the tooling: While most of the bodies remain identical to previous versions of these molds, the changes are most apparent in the heads, arms and--on Pyra Magna, Dustup and Jumpstream--chests. These changes are subtle by themselves but work really well together to make the girls seem like girls. Stormclash and Skyburst don't get as much but the new forearms double as both making them more feminine, and making them look like more aerodynamic helicopters. And as mentioned, Rust Dust is just a recolor of Groove, with no mold changes. Since a lot of these molds have been used--a lot--lately, I expected mold degradation to show up in a few spots on these ladies. Nothing doing. Every figure has tight joints--of particular mention is Pyra Magna, who seems to have had the Hot Spot leg issue fixed AND has (almost worryingly so) super tight thigh swivels. The only problem I've had is transforming one of Jumpstream's legs--part of the shell of the lower leg on one side won't peg in very easily. It will get there eventually, and stay together once in, so it's a very minor issue. As a combiner, Victorion benefits greatly from the new feet which have rock-solid ankle tilts that match her hip rachet range really well. The hands are nicely shaped and the pointer finger articulates separately from the three smaller fingers. All that said... Victorion as a whole still suffers from the front-heavy problem Defensor had, and has a much easier time standing on a friction surface (like carpet or bedding) than a smooth surface (like hard flooring or most tables). The front-heavy issue is made worse by the much heavier weapon she uses. Let's talk about the sword for a minute. It's gorgeous. It's really, really pretty. The paint work (where there is paint) is wonderful and the blue translucent plastic is personally a favorite of mine: bright, saturated but not painfully so. I suppose it's hard to make blue painful looking though. Storing them in vehicle mode is a mixed bag--they work well on the cars, but the helicopters have to store their swords on the bottom, and given the asymmetrical nature of the shape, it means they tend to lean one direction or another on flat surfaces. And Pyra Magna's fire ax/mining pick... there's really no easy way to store it. Sticking it at the front of her ladder keeps it from scrapping the ground but makes it stick out. All in all, I'm honestly more impressed by the individual bots than Victorion herself--which is saying something, because she really does impress me. With 3rd party feet and hands, I think she'll become my favorite or second-favorite combiner. But the individual bots carry so much character... Jumpstream is the rough and rowdy girl, Dustup loves adventure but has a soft spot for her teammates, the heli-sisters feel JUST like identical twins... Scrappy little Rust Dust looks like she needs to show everyone how tough she is and Pyra Magna feels like a feminine Optimus with her stoic stance and regal shape. Get this set. Any way you can. (Wow, I didn't mean to make this a review but that's a wall of text!)
If I may, could I make a pic request of you new Victorion owners? There's a configuration of the combined mode I'm interested in seeing. Attach the helicopters as arms, rotate Victorion's thighs so the fire engine cab windows are facing forward (ala the fan-mode Bruticus configuration) and attach the cars so that their car doors and rims are facing forward. I'm curious how Victorion will look with a slimmer lower-body profile, if she'll look less like Christmas Defensor. Many thanks in advance!
As requested: As you can see... she looks great this way! However I wouldn't personally use the lower legs this way, I like my knee articulation too much. Here's a variant with the cars switched back to normal position, while keeping the upper legs as suggested: While she's bulked up a bit again, this looks much better to me, and I think it makes her slimmer but also still clearly a combiner. Please note I'm use the PC-09 hands and feet for stability--on the wood surface of that table the stock feet would slip and she would never hold this position. Also, she can't manuever quite as well as Bruticus in this setup, since unlike Bruticus, she has... a ladder between her legs. Like Defensor. Still, for the wide-legged pose it all looks fantastic together like this. Hope this helps!
Much obliged! The first configuration makes her look ...super, duper tall and definitely gives her anime girl proportions, with legs that just don't stop. Second picture makes her appear a good deal more proportioned and ...probably the better of the two. I haven't messed with my Defensor in quite a while, so I forgot about the ladder and its affect on lower leg movement in combined mode. I'm glad you brought it up. Thanks again for taking the time to try this out and provide some visuals!
Wow that alternate leg configuration exposes a lot of red, I'll stick with the normal legs. I do like the cab sections as knees though.
