Or "Conversion Metals Car" remolded Hound by A&L
Oh boy, this is awesome! Quality is very good, diecast content and pretty much all the chasis remolded
Got em yesterday from chimunmung, they came bubblewrapped and arrived in pristine condition. From what i can tell you can find them in Black, Red and apparently, yellow. Also there´s another package variant with them in robot mode (but takes double the space, keep in mind while ordering from China!). Ghenzao also have them in stock if anyone´s interested
Now onto the review
First, lets talk about this package. Designed similar to the Binaltech boxes, features a front window with a displayable background, i can see some inspiration from the movie line (mainly with the pseudo eye for the car stand) with lots of Engrish on there. The sides are also windowed to see the front and the rear of the vehicle like the real deal. The box have the same height & lenght dimensions of the original, but the width is slighter smaller
The car comes fully protected in clear plastic just like the original releases. The display tray is made of sturdy cardboard and great printing. Inside you can find the gun
The instruction booklet, comes with one side to transform to robot mode and the reverse order on the other side. To be honest i didnt bother to read at all those but i bet its full of engrish and confusing steps. Saddly, the detail booklets (mimicking those of the real Binaltech), from the first releases of this company are long gone
Overall, at least for this package version, presentation and inserts is top notch and make a nice piece for display, unless you are bothered with the Engrish. You can always make a custom box...
Lets see the figure:
Wow! so many remolds that at first glance you wouldnt know this used to be a Jeep at all! Construction is very well made, with diecast on the right areas (look at the pic highlighted in green to see whats metal), enough clearance to prevent paint chipping), H3 chromed logos (as well rear mirrors). New rubber wheels and rims (They kept the lettering of their later releases, "Ybertronian Adial")
This is pretty much a 1/24 Hummer H3 06´ (i took my ruler and compared to the real dimensions and its spot on), the only noticeable differences is the rear bumper (they didnt remolded Hound´s feet at all), and the front doesnt have the "H3 plate" below the grill. The extra tire on the back its the same of the Jeeps and pretty much all the interior (seats, console, dashboard), is from Hound.
Enameled Painting is well applied to all the vehicle and to the plastic pieces so they match very nice, very glossy like the real deals. Something that applies to all these KOs made by this company, is that not all the panels align smoothly, and saddly this also happens with these bots, the back doors mainly, but with some minor force can be corrected. The wheels are kinda flimsy, as if the peg was too loose to hold em up, but honestly, is barely noticeable. I noticed that the H3 logo on the passenger door is installed upwards,tried to fix it but its glued with an strong adhesive)
Transformation is the same as the Jeeps so i wont mention that, however, there´s a few extra steps with the extra pieces. First, you need to separate two tabs on the side fascia (similar to BT Jazz) to transform the legs. The roof is on a hinge just like the Subarus but the windshield keeps poping out (the pin on the dashboard is like 1 mm shorter), goes back without much problem, but something to keep in mind and prevent breakage on the long run (since the windshield is made of clear plastic)
The back doors only goes up and down, so they just hang like that on the photos. The back door and panels, fold nice and rotate on a pin installed on the rear lights (clear plastic). Try to transform these very gently since tolerances can vary from figure to figure (i broke the red one after finishing the photoshoot... i was able to fix it though). Saddly, these just hang like that next to the ankle, but on the right you can fold it better and close to the leg, something you cant do on the left thanks to the replacement tire (however, you can unscrew it and sits better like the other leg, the peg is strong enough to hold it without the screw)
Robot mode, there´s not much to talk about him other than he is slighty taller than Hound, every robot mode is not remolded (except the Head) and doesnt comes with the little gun on the rear tire. He comes however, with a Knock off rifle from the Roadbots 1:32 Hummer H3 (go figure), he can barely hold it thanks to the unremolded handle, but is kinda nice. Obviously there´s no way to store it on vehicle mode (other than put it inside him). For the head you get a flatter Hound head with helmet remolded and added mouthplate. Pretty basic if you ask me
Quality issues, hmmm well, the balljointed legs were extremely tight, i though i was going to break them! if you can, try to shave some extra plastic on the ball socket (i did this with my dremmel tool and a ball tip), but not much otherwise it wont hold it anymore (the red hummer got a loose leg thanks to this...)
The front seats doesnt collapse as nice as the Takara/Hasbro originals (seems to be a tolerance issue with molding deffect), but this is a known issue since the first KO Jeep made by A&L. Also, the plastic that connects the abdomen with the waist, its extremely loose, as if the hole was bigger than the pin
Final veredict? Seriously, if you love Binaltech & Alternators and like the Hummer´s, try to pick one of these! fully recommended! Just be aware that being a KO you need to be extra careful while transforming, otherwise you might broke an expensive KO (since these will cost you around $30 or more, each)
Both of these will be converted eventually to Traibreaker and Ironhide, since all they need is new heads and minor repainting (i think only the legs and waist should be repainted anyway)
I hope A&L makes reshells of their other KOs (Like the Subaru´s, Mazdas & Viper´s) and i wish they made at least the Mustang´s... since the other company making them (as well the Prowls) are made of poorer quality (heck, 2 years ago i got 5 KO Wheeljacks locally, and all but one had the left leg ball joint socket broken!)
