Cybertron Menasor (pictures)

Just got C-Menasor in from BBTS today and a few thoughts and pictures:

Vehicle Mode




Colour scheme - Pretty good. I would have preferred a swamp green instead of the forest green used here, but the colours all work well together.
Sculpting detail - Generally good, although there are some flat areas and it could use a few silver highlights.
Stability - The 'cowcatcher' between the weapon arms splits in half easily, but everything else holds together relatively well.
Wheels - Slides on smooth surfaces.
Gimmicks - Right weapon arm has a 'live' hardpoint that allows a drill to extend forward when a Minicon is attached; works alright, but the drill is supposed to turn during deployment and about 1/2 the time it doesn't and sounds like the gears are stripping. It's also hard to get leverage to push Heavy Load forward and activate the gimmick without disrupting the vehicle in some way. Left weapon arm is supposed to produce light and sound when rolled; mine doesn't, so not sure if this feature was scrapped or I have a defective copy (doubt it, since the Key gimmick still works). Inserting the Key activates a 'drilling' noise that runs about 6 seconds and a red light in the drill that flashes about 10 times. This mode also has five 'dead' hardpoints for attachment of Minicons.

Alternate Vehicle Modes




Both of these modes are listed in the instructions:

The first mode is the "Powerlinx Minicon Assault Mode", which consists of standing Heavy Load up on his bumper, adjusting Menasor's weapon arms and pegging Heavy Load in between the halves of the cowcatcher. Doesn't change the appearance much (although some of Menasor's head is visible) and slightly improves the stability of the cowcatcher. However, it's necessary to detach the weapon arms from the rear treads for this mode and that reduces the vehicle's stability over all. In addition, Heavy Load isn't very stable and getting everything pegged together for this mode is a little annoying.

The second mode is the "Assault and Pacification Configuration". This consists of raising the weapon arms and deploying the wrecker drill. However, the weight of the raised arms makes the vehicle tip forward. There are wheels on the underside of the cowcatcher that are supposed to prevent this and provide support, but the cowcatcher transformation joints aren't tight enough to hold the weight of the weapon arms. This mode looks cool, but doesn't work so well in practice.

Work Mode



As with the alternate vehicle modes, this is shown in the instructions.

Transformation - Incredibly simple. Basically, stand up the vehicle on the rear treads, swing the weapon arms down and make the cowcatcher into shoulderpads. Unlike C-Metroplex, where there are a few twists and turns, nothing exciting going on here. Concrete proof that the "Skill Levels" have no basis in reality; there are Minicons that are more difficult to transform.
Colour Scheme - Not much change from the vehicle mode.
Molding Detail - Virtually identical to the vehicle mode, although there's some more sculpting visible on the chest and head.
Stability - Pretty good. The leg joints could stand to be tighter, as the weight of the arms gives the upper body a tendency to tip forward.
Articulation - Very good. Ankle, knee, upper thigh, ratchet hips in the legs. Universal shoulders, upper arm swivel, ratchet elbows, lower arm swivels. Neck rotates. Weight of the upper body restricts the positions the legs can be set in to keep the figure standing.
Gimmicks - All the vehicle gimmicks in the weapon arms can be used here. The wrecker drill is slightly easier to use, as it's simpler to get leverage when sliding the Minicon forward. Exposed gears on the one elbow allow the translucent drill to be rotated; rotation still doesn't trigger any lights or sounds. Planet Key gimmick is the same. Heavy Load can be stored in the chest as shown in the pictures below.

Robot Mode




Transformation (from Work Mode) - Connect the hips, extend the legs and rotate them 180 degrees at the thigh swivel. Again, really simple.
Articulation - Pretty much the same as in Work Mode.
Colour Scheme - Same as Work Mode.
Stability - As Dark Prime points out below, there is a new stability problem in this mode: The side-side hip ratchets are relatively tight and stronger than the clip holding the waist together. As a result, moving the legs to the side will frequently cause the hips to split in half.
Gimmicks - Same as Work and Vehicle Modes. However, four of the 'dead' hardpoints end up on the insides of the calves and aren't very useful for attaching Minicons.

Heavy Load



Colour Scheme - Looks fine in all modes.
Stability - Terrible. Dump bed splits in half and disconnects from the undercarriage in vehicle mode and the shovel blade pops off frequently during transformation and manipulation. This isn't so much of a problem playing with Heavy Load on its own, but is a major nuisance when trying to activate Menasor's drill gimmick or form the Powerlinx vehicle mode.
Articulation - Shovel blade can be raised 90 degrees in vehicle mode. Hip, shoulder and elbow joints in robot mode.
Gimmicks - None inherent to this figure.

Overall

Well...this isn't the worst figure in the line, but it has a number of problems that hamper the toy's play and display value. The biggest problems are the stability issues in basically every mode and the weak transformation. The aesthetic in all modes is nice, with the colours working well together and a decent amount of molding detail. The robot form and basic vehicles are the best modes to display, while the 'alternate vehicles' (though not entirely successful) are a neat bonus. Unfortunately, it looks like the designers tried to do a lot with this toy and ended up including too much extra stuff at the expense of tight joints and clips. I'd give this about a 4/10 and it's probably the worst of the Cybertron Ultras thusfar.

EDIT - Dropped the score from 6/10 to 4/10 after playing with the toy a bit more and noticing the stability problem with the main robot.

I got mine today and I would change is score to a 3/10.

In robot mode, does the waist lock together well? Mine doesn't seem to at all.

After playing with the toy a bit more today, I'm dropping it to a 4/10; I usually reserve scores 3 or less for toys with severe defects (ie - parts falling off, won't stand up/hold together at all, massive stability problems).

Yeah...I didn't give it that much manipulation last night due to the time, but while fiddling around with it today I notice that the side-side hip ratchets are a lot tighter than the clip that holds the hips together in the larger robot mode. Looks like BW (Fuzor) Silverbolt syndrome again. Added a comment about that to the review above and dropped the score.

So, does the left arm drill on yours do anything (lights, sounds) when the vehicle is rolled? I just want to see whether mine is defective or not.

I'll likely get him, if for anything just to have a big, tall butt kicking robot to sweep through the ranks of my smaller Autobot figs.
Thanks for the heads up on the mold's probs, tho, I'll keep them in mind!

Thanks for the review. I'm hoping to pick him up at Auto Assembly next week if anyone has him, this'll help me work out how much I should part with for the guy should he cross my path.

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Originally Posted by Lance Halberd Sol Fury can be likened to a German clock. A very exact, complex, and tightly-wound precision instrument that occasionally goes cuckoo.

Nope, doesn't seem to do a thing when I role it, other than spin the drill. The instructions says there's supposed to be lights and sound, but that only happens when i use the cyberkey.

Meh, I'll still pick him up..