Zeta Toys ZV-02 Core Star / 1Studio Cell (G1 Unicron)

Discussion in 'Transformers 3rd Party Discussion' started by foxracing, Jul 22, 2019.

  1. octobotimus

    octobotimus Bad company ruins good morals

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    HE IS HERE!!!!!
     
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  2. mikeszekely

    mikeszekely Not Pessimus Prime

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    See, complaining did help.
     
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  3. MysticFortune

    MysticFortune Well-Known Member

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    I've been complaining for the last two weeks... What do I gotta do? Level up my complaining to 'Karen' status?
     
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  4. Gojira101

    Gojira101 Well-Known Member

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    Cons: You have to be careful of the raised details, Outward shoulder ratchet is a tad softer than I’d like, finding a stance is a little tough (tons of articulation but at a cost) and maybe just mine but his chest isn’t flush how’d I’d like it.
    Pros: He’s a stunner, all that sculpted detail is great, the eyes look great with that reflective paint job, for a big boi tons of articulation, it’s active while still being clean as all heck, opening jaw & lights are great, lastly the plastic is on par w/Zeta’s better releases.
    Huge caveat though, I feel much better that I got this at the original price. In no way would I be happy at the $429.99 price even though I understand that the price is probably to offset the cost of being shut down in the 1st place. I can’t stop looking at it.

    End of the day I’m very happy with my purchase, is it perfect: No
    Does it look better than HasLab: Easily Yes (but that’s subjective)
    Do I have regrets about not buying HasLab: Hell no

    Can’t wait to get him on the display.
    C520BFA9-61DB-4E4C-BF48-64C4AFC2B424.jpeg 50B6F73F-1F92-4CC5-BE3B-B0620CCFF196.jpeg 9E6950AC-5B55-4DC7-AFE5-E872E109FF80.jpeg D85A91EC-ECD4-491D-9599-79ACF2E38FE2.jpeg
     
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  5. ph4zed

    ph4zed Sarcasticon

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    I might even get my real camera out after I put in the little spikey things and figure out where to stand him.

    1595449222062.jpg

    1595459059756.jpg 1595459254546.jpg 1595460062891.jpg 1595462159006.jpg 1595462215498.jpg 1595463370699.jpg 1595463462082.jpg DSC_0787.jpg DSC_0790.jpg
    DSC_0791.jpg
    They have next to no articulation, but you can get them on ebay still... hzj has em super cheap!
     
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  6. p1akuma

    p1akuma Member

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    Haven’t kept up as much with the thread as I waited for this guy but there was some talk some ways back about one of the pieces on the inner knee being misassembled on some pieces - was there any post on a correct/wrong orientation to look for?
     
  7. Keiman74

    Keiman74 Perfect geometric shape box

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    Finally!

    ..to the tune of the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme..

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]
     
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  8. UtahRobotInDisguise

    UtahRobotInDisguise Herald of Utahcron

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    It’s been almost a month... Still loving him. Only transformed him once, but he’s been quite the attention hog. I find myself changing up his poses daily.
     
  9. TranslucentBag

    TranslucentBag Definitively "Graph Guy"

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    I tried to stop him, but Zetacron has a message for those doubters who said he’d never amount to anything but a fever dream. He threatened to eat my car if I didn’t pass it along.
    19D4713F-3019-4C5D-A2CD-1FE87A9487D2.jpeg
     
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  10. TFPSoundwave

    TFPSoundwave Well-Known Member

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    Mine’s at my local post office which means if I’m lucky I may have him in hand tomorrow!
     
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  11. Freakencreeper1

    Freakencreeper1 Well-Known Member

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    Yes and when it works inform me on what you did
     
  12. octobotimus

    octobotimus Bad company ruins good morals

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    So initial thoughts on Just transformation are this: It was a living nightmare for me and I probably sat for a solid 3 hours trying to line everything up. And no, that’s not an over exaggeration, 3 hours did in fact go by. The instructions were pretty bad at telling you the most crucial part which was that the blue torso separates and extends. So far, Can’t say I’m a fan of how they went about the transformation, but it may just take a few go’s.

    The robot mode however is absolutely wonderful. He’s clean, well articulated, and SOLID. The eyes are absolutely beautiful with the chrome green and the light up feature works really well with it. Outside of wishing he had more sculpt work in him, he’s an amazing bot.

    The planet mode ends up pretty good, and is amazing to see be fully round. Could again use a bit of sculpt work to be more planet like, but that’s me. The ring is pretty annoying to tab together at the ends and I still can’t fully tab them together. Overall a perfectly serviceable planet mode but not amazing.

    So far I think he’s a great figure but I’ll need to take a break from him because the transformation nearly killed my hands and interest. Still really happy he got here tho.
     
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  13. mikeszekely

    mikeszekely Not Pessimus Prime

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    Yeah, I'm not even going to transform him tonight. I'm going to pop on the screw covers and the little spikes and do my robot mode pictures. I'll put off transforming him and doing the planet mode pictures until tomorrow or Friday.

    I'll say this much, the robot mode is fantastic. It's like a 95% perfect robot mode representation and so clean you almost don't believe it'll transform (I won't complain if "Armortoys" does a second, slightly more movie-accurate toothless head, maybe with bigger wings). It's solid, stable, and has great articulation. I personally view any size complaints as irrelevant, since he'd still be out of scale even if he was a foot taller. Even if the transformation sucks I'd say bot mode was worth the price of admission (especially if you're getting the Haslab version; it can be your planet mode).
     
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  14. Snaku

    Snaku Primes Don't Party

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    I was ready to throw something by the time I finished my first transformation. Not Unicron, of course. He's too expensive and too nice a figure. But I wanted to throw something. My second transformation was much better. I won't go so far as to say it was a piece of cake but it wasn't frustrating at all. I'd watched a few more videos and realized a big part of my trouble was not getting the knee pads liked up correctly. I was also able to get all four shoulder panel clips pegged in on my second run. That's right: all four! Had to fight like hell (okay, I exaggerated when I said it wasn't frustrating at all) but eventually the last of them snapped into place. Transforming him back was easier this time as well. Getting those clips undone was a pain but the like grabby clips that hold the legs to the chest came undone much more easily this time. He'll probably be a figure I transform on a semi-frequent basis just cuz he's so satisfying and, again, that's after being so incredibly frustrated on the first transformation.
     
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  15. octobotimus

    octobotimus Bad company ruins good morals

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    Speaking of those light grey tabs, did any of your shoulder ones refuse to tab in? 2 of mine won’t go in at all.
    4FC4CCE3-2896-4B31-B965-0864CE6D9E94.jpeg
     
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  16. Snaku

    Snaku Primes Don't Party

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    They all refused but they were no match for me. I kept pushing and forcing until the last of them cowered in defeat. By the time I got around to transforming him back, they'd regained their courage and once again we had a mighty battle but the end was the same: all four fell before me and quivered in fear as I folded them back into their bot mode positions.

    So yeah, what I'm saying is it was tough. Really tough.
     
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  17. octobotimus

    octobotimus Bad company ruins good morals

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    Yeah I ended up leaving 2 of em alone cause my fingers were hurting enough from the rest of him by hour 3. If I still can’t get them tomorrow, I might just lightly sand em to fit in easier.
     
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  18. lordsmurf

    lordsmurf Well-Known Member

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    Two packages from ShowZ.

    LOS ANGELES, CA 90040, Arrived Shipping Partner Facility, USPS Awaiting Item -> Your item arrived at a shipping partner facility at 6:38 pm on July 17, 2020 in LOS ANGELES, CA 90040. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date.

    GRAPEVINE, TX 76051, Departed Shipping Partner Facility, USPS Awaiting Item -> Your item departed a shipping partner facility at 6:24 pm on July 20, 2020 in GRAPEVINE, TX 76051. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date.

    Slowly moving. S--L--O--W--L---Y moving. :mad: 

    I had a Marvel Legends figure from Walgreens disappear on July 3, and reappear this past weekend. It had a neon yellow Fedex label on it today, and the box was crushed. The figure inside was still fine.

    Now on my 2nd MIA package from Amazon, though nothing that can't be replaced and re-sent (not a toy).
     
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  19. mikeszekely

    mikeszekely Not Pessimus Prime

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    So the instructions for this guy are pretty shit, and doesn't tell you at all what to do with the screw covers and spikes. There's a video a few pages back that I used, but it doesn't have sound and it kind of glossed over a few things that you should probably pay attention to. I found myself rewinding to double check some things, and in my case that meant running to my computer, watching for a few minutes, running back to my work bench, putting a few things in, then running back to the computer. Kind of a hassle. To save the rest of you, here's a step-by-step written guide (with pictures). NOTE: a lot of the parts on this guy are mirrored, so the inside of his right arm and right leg is the outside of the left.

    [​IMG]

    We'll start off easy. You'll have eight of these blue-gray screw hole covers. They go in the lower legs, and there's enough for both legs. If you look at the molded detail on the other side you'll see that the line across them is basically horizontal. You'll also note that those details are slightly recessed so you'll want to push them in pretty far.

    [​IMG]

    Before we continue let's take a closer look at the orange screw covers. There will be six loose ones; two with lines, two flat circles, and two that are kind of like rectangles with bulges on the short sides. Then there's two T-shaped sprues with two covers each and two Y-shaped sprues with two more covers each.

    [​IMG]

    The loose covers all go on his biceps. The rectangle goes in the top front so that the flat sides line up with the molding around the top of his bicep. The flat circle one goes toward the back. The one with the line goes at the bottom, and it'll protrude a bit. Again, if you look at the molded detail on the other side you'll see it protrudes there, too, and the line on it angles up toward the front.

    [​IMG]

    Look carefully at the T-shaped sprues. You'll see that one of the covers is thinner than the other. Clip the thin one off, and it'll go into the side of his thigh, nice and flush.

    [​IMG]

    Now lift up his hip skirts. One hip will be flat, the other has a screw. Take one of the fatter covers from the T-shaped sprue and stick fit it over the exposed screw. Then spin him around. With the hip pieces mirrored you'll see the same thing, one flat and one exposed screw. That's where the other one goes. However, like a few other people have mentioned one hip on my copy seems pretty good and the other seems a bit tight. If you think you might want to open up one (or both) hips to lube up the ratchets, maybe shorten a spring a little, then you should probably leave these covers off. His hip skirts cover them anyway.

    [​IMG]

    Lastly we've got the Y-shaped sprues. These covers go on the planet horns (although you don't have to transform him all the way if you don't want to right now; just open his chest and back, pull the flaps with the horns out, and then fold the horns out from behind the flaps. Note the molding on each cover. The one that's got a little molding near the edge goes near the base of the horn, an the one with the molding right down the middle goes near the middle of the horn. The molding on the covers lines up with the molding on the horns.

    Now onto the spikes.

    [​IMG]

    First, you'll have two sprues with six spikes each. These are the easy ones. Each sprue has enough spikes for one arm (inside and outside); you'll need to decide if you're going to use the yellow parts or the blue, because you only have enough spikes for one color. Now pay attention; while all six look the same at a glance the middle pair have slightly longer tips, and they all have a c-clip at the base. Push the c-clips onto the arm, with the longer spike in between the shorter ones, on both sides of his arm. Once they're clipped on they can fold flat against his arm. If you're going for movie accuracy the spikes on the inside of his arm should be flat, the ones on the outside should stick up.

    [​IMG]

    Now, you should still have two identical sprues of spikes left. Before we continue let's take a closer look at one. On one side you'll have spikes that are at an angle to the base with their c-clip. You'll have four others that look very almost the same, but take a closer look at the bottom near their c-clips. Notice how two of them have thicker clips that are basically flush with the spike, but two have thinner clips that leave a little ledge (circled).

    [​IMG]

    Take the ones with the thinner clips. They'll go on top of his shoulders. They fold like his arm spikes, and for robot mode you'll want them flat.

    [​IMG]

    Now, take the sides of his forearm (where you put the spikes earlier), unpeg them, and fold them back. Take the back of his arm and pull it away from the rest of his arm a bit, then bend it back toward the elbow. Be careful; if you just go straight to folding the arm back you'll stress the tab near his elbow (that's the one Bobby broke in his review). Once the the back of his arm is free spin it so the inside is facing you and you'll see a trench. The spikes with the thicker clips fit into little bars inside the trench. They'll stick out for planet mode, but for now you can fold them back in and close his arm back up.

    [​IMG]

    Last but not least are the angled spikes. You might want to pop Unicron's wings off if you already put them on; the spikes are going around the hole where the wings plug in on his shoulder. I'm not sure what Zeta/Studio 1's intention is or what the consensus is on this, but I clipped them on that the spikes angle away from each other. When you're done you can pop the wings back on. When you're all done you should have something that looks like this:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2020
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  20. User_96283

    User_96283 Banned

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    The hardest part is tabbing in the legs to the chest tabs and way harder to untab. My fingers have abs now.
     
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