Was thinking about picking up a 3rd party set for Menasor and wanted to know what others thought the best version was. I have JJ-02 Superion, which is a very good figure for the price, and wanted to pair him off. I do enjoy FT's Roadking but not sure how the rest of the set will hold up or if I want to wait. Also - are the Stunticons seemingly more popular than the Aerialbots? Just wondering.
All three of the Menasors currently being released will be taller than JJ-02. There's a guy going by @risingforce who's working on one that won't use the extensive partsforming the others are using, perhaps it might be a bit shorter? Just my personal opinion, but Spoiler and Magnum are actually better than Roadking, and I do think that FT's are the best of the individual Stunticons. Of course, we still don't know how well a combiner made out of FT's diecast-heavy figures will hold up. Meanwhile, with just Dragstrip left to be released I can safely say that DX9 has made a very good Sunbow Menasaor if it's the combined mode you're really interested in. But if you're thinking about getting the FT set do it immediately, as FT's stuff has been selling out fast and prices have been skyrocketing on the aftermarket. Can't speak for everyone, but I prefer almost the Decepticon combiners to any of the Autobot ones. If others feel the same that could explain why DX9, FT, XTB, and now Rising Force are all doing Menasor but only FT and Zeta (and, technically, JJ) have done Superion. Or perhaps the Aerialbots are simply more technically challenging. I'll be the first to tell you that FT's Stunticons are excellent, really some of their best work, but their Aerialbots are mediocre figures that look nice on a shelf but suffer from limited articulation and pain-in-the-ass transformations.
In my opinion, the Fans Toys set is the best, but also the most expensive, and the combined mode is somewhat in question in that it will be Fans Toys first combiner. For combined mode I am currently thinking DX9 may end up being the best, subjectively speaking of course. I think the best value or bang for your buck is the X-Transbots set, and I almost prefer the scale the most, scaling with the Autobot cars just looks right to me, and between the FT and XTB limb bots, it is a really close call between which one is more cartoon accurate. With Roadking I think FT slaughtered the competition, I think Gravestone is the weakest of the XTB set, mostly due to proportions, but I have read about QC issues...meaningful ones. No clue whether the Stunticons are more popular than the Aerialbots, but do know Zeta released a set of Aerialbots before any company has released a full set of Stunticons, and it appears Zeta Superion in combined mode was a huge success. To the point the MP collector community seems to have adopted the Zeta combiner height as the "standard" and the stability of Zeta combiners as a new standard. So the people who bought Zeta Superion and not all that interested in displaying both individual bot mode and combined mode will most likely pass on FT Aerialbots. My own personal opinion, I like the Stunticons more because of the variety between each character, to be honest the Aerialbots are kind of bland to me because the differences between them are far fewer, to the point I would think about displaying them in Jet mode just to bring out the variety and well they do look great in Jet modes.
I've opted for DX9, and love the 3 I have so far (Montana is on his way). Not saying there's anything wrong with Fanstoys, but when I was looking a few months ago at least one was already unavailable except at the ebay premium, and I don't regret going DX9. X-transbots looked promising, but I saw some complaints about fragility and didn't go for it. He's a little on the short side, but have you looked at the Transformission version? The metallic version is releasing and looks pretty sharp for a CHUG collection. I think in general the Decepticon combiners work out easier to make into a masterpiece combiner, pants or not, so we see more of them. I mean, Bruticus, core is a big truck, easy peasy. Stunticons, core is a big truck, easy peasy. Devastator, core is 2 medium size trucks, also not so bad. Aerialbots....the core is a skinny Concorde. Where people complain if you can see the robot hanging on the bottom, despite the fact that the plane is basically a needle, and they complain if you take the liberty of changing it to a more feasible plane. There's a lot of structural issues to work past there, so it's a project I wouldn't want to jump on when there is lower hanging fruit. Ditto for the Protectobots, where the core is easy enough as a fire truck....but you have a stupid leg that's a tiny motorcycle.
Right now you have to wait to finish any of the 3 Menasors. Rising Force Menasor will be 45 cm, I think that's like JJ-02, the other 3 are about 50 cm. I also think Rising Force will be cheaper and look cheaper than Fanstoys, which is good if you want to pair Superion off properly, or with Fanstoys you'll have a larger, shinier and heavier Menasor, just another whole thing.
What do you guys think about the TransformMission set? I think it might be the best stunticons set, although it's not G1 at all.
emgo’s review made it seem that with the upgraded parts it would be ok... in any case, I think the car modes of TFM are far superior than the others.
Thanks for the replies. I'm slightly leaning towards DX9, but I must admit I really like Roadking, even if it means I'll have to get another trailer to complete Menasor (so that might not be in the cards for me). Either one of these looks better than the CW Menasor.
did you use the TFM supplied upgrades (that came with the final member) or the echo transformers printed ones? or some combination thereof?
Yes but Maverick, Goose & Iceman do look amazing in bot mode. If Superion isn't perfect I'll definitely be displaying them individually. Those backpack mini planes are a work of art.
The fanstoys ones look nice but they're so big! I'd rather have the Stunticons as similar sizes to the autobot cars rather than dwarfing them, so I'm happy with the X-Transbots ones
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. With that said, I went with XTB mainly as I preferred the scale of the carbots As they all represent the same characters, it’s no surprise they all look so similar/good, but the scale was what tipped me.
I adore the designs that they went with for this set, but I only kept Dragstrip. Didn't want to spend the money on the critical piece, MM, so eventually sold off the limbs piece by piece. Oddly they didn't go for much on the secondary. Not sure if it's the designs aren't G1 or the combiner wasn't well received due to its instability or any host of reasons, but I didn't even make my money back on any of them.
This. Plus this looks so good.... I have a feeling I'll be upgrading Devastator in the next few years though as he'll look a little off with the cartoon looking Menasor and Bruticus that'll be flanking him. That said all this thread will be is ppl stating the versions they bought are best, so, I guess the real question to the Op is how big do you want your Stunticon cars to be? Autobot car height or taller than a seeker? Once you've answered that question you'll narrow your choices.
The great thing about scale is that it's somewhat subjective. I didn't like the scale of the XTB robot modes, but they look good. I took this pic of the DX9 carbots and FT MM, and this looks like a threat to the Autobots. I do like there are multiple choices for the Stunticons. None are perfect, but they all do something extremely well. I even considered getting the TFM one b/c the chrome on Wildrider looks amazing.
