Got my tracking number Thursday and delivered on Saturday. I like Bombusbee’s weekend deliveries!

Since I just opened a new Mercenary a week before the re-issue announcement I noticed a few differences with the packaging.

The instructions are way fatter making the box not close as cleanly (at least on mine). Also it doesn’t include the little mini screwdriver to change chests (Same one XTB usually puts in with their Stunticons etc) and they added some light tracing paper over the chrome mandibles to keep them safe (as well as the usual rubber blanket over the body.

For the figure, the chest is very clearly darker ( more orange) for the opaque plate. The blue highlights on the sides of the chest are also darker, like baby blue on the original and getting more navy on the new release. The purple on the arms look slightly different and I got some good ol’ bits of FT greasiness on the shoulders. Seems mostly the same the though.

Old on the left, new in the right

 

I only took one, half-assed photo of this guy because I’ve been sort of distracted with other collecting stuff of late, but if you’re on the fence about these guys still, I can tell you that based on Mercenary, they’re really good.

The bugs were never on my radar until the reissue - I actively avoided shopping for them at all because they always bored me as a kid - but he’s a pretty remarkable figure. The poseability, I expected to be really bad, like the original toy, but while it looks like that figure, it’s surprisingly good.

The symbol on the chest fit very well and the scale is pretty much spot-on.

 

Got Mercenary this week. I’m disappointed that FT didn’t manage to get a consistent color for their chest pieces between the different bugs.

 

Mine is arriving today. Thinking of selling it off .......

 

I like how small the boxes are, kinda like minibots. After years of FT figures in giant boxes, this year feels like an easier one for box storage space.

 

I feel like DX9 and XTB are both really good about economic packaging as well. With boxes for Constructor, Bruticon, MP-44 and MP-09 already in storage, I don’t need a tote for every new piece now.

 

It's not Shrapnel alone, but BBTS has the sets up for PO if you need more than just one of the guys

Purple: Fans Toys Set of 3 Figures (FT-12T Grenadier, FT-13 Mercenary, FT-14 Forager)

Grey: Fans Toys Set of 3 Figures (FT-12 Grenadier, FT-13 Mercenary, FT-14 Forager)

 

U people are crazy! Lol way too much money!

 

I just got my Mercenary in from Bombusbee - I'm really impressed with how well they pack these figures.

 

Picked up mine, all three, from ToyDojo this week. Having a hell of a time with Mercenary though. He's got these plastic bits on his hips that are sticking forward when you get him out of the box, and all the videos I've seen show that they're supposed to be pulled out, rotated back until they're pointing up, and then pushed back in, but my copy doesn't have anywhere near the clearance to make this happen or make them fit there. How is everyone getting those bits situated?

OK, after messing with it some more (and watching more videos) I realized the problem. Two of the sets of legs are on a big hinge, and that had to be folded in. It was so tight I wasn't even completely sure it moved, and the way he was transformed in the box, even trying to move them caused them to bump into other things. But once I unfolded him a bit I got it figured out. Not sure why he couldn't have just been properly transformed in the box, they maybe saved a centimeter by compressing things the way they did, but whatever. Very, very awesome set! Not $500 awesome, but definitely $300 awesome. The rest is a late tax, I guess.

 

Up on Show.Z
FansToys FT-13 Mercenary Shrapnel

 

if anyone's interested TCP has the sets available. Beware, the price isn't listed
Fans Toys FT-12T GRENADIER, FT-13 MERCENARY, and FT-14 FORAGER Set 2021 Reissue (thechosenprime.com)
Fans Toys FT-12 GRENADIER, FT-13 MERCENARY, and FT-14 FORAGER Set (Gray Chest) 2021 Reissue (thechosenprime.com)

 

Has it been thoroughly established if there are any updates to this figure, such as with Bombardier? I bought the set, but want to make a fully informed decision before I break seals.

 

From what I’ve heard, there are either no differences or minimal, with some versions - I think - having a different face for Mercenary.

Anyway, I wanted to provide a few photos I took of Mercenary’s back after installing the different legs. He doesn’t clean up quite as much as Grenadier, but every video I saw only showed this stuff in alt mode, so getting them changed over without transforming the guy completely took a little work.

As you can see, they all kind of stack on top of each other and any substitution from the original legs to these is going to take some effort to line up all of his hinges so that you can get at each screw. But it is doable.

If you have a better (i.e. more compact/sleek) way of transforming his back, please share it. I am not overly thrilled with this look, even though it is an improvement over the dead tarantula that came attached to his back originally.

 

Yeah Badcube did a better job cleaning up the back.

 

Without a doubt, they did. There unfortunately are not a lot of process videos for figures online where people give good breakdowns of how to install certain upgrade kits, transformation alternatives, accessories breakdowns, etc. so I’m just guessing that Emgo got the best possible configuration here.

So much of the video content you can find is either unboxing or comparisons. The latter of which, I find really useful. But I’d much rather see people experiment with how to make certain things work better than “share” someone’s excitement over their new delivery.

 

Got rid of the FT bugs years ago but got caught up in the hype with the reissue. Was going to swap out the toon style lehs but first move was failure. Will probably just take them all off for display.

 

This was exactly what I worried about. I was going to post a diagram of where to detach everything in hopes of avoiding this issue for other owners.

That hinged bar rotates up, but to me, it looked like it rolled on an axis like a log. But if you are careful, what you can do is just unscrew the hardware from the break and either reattach it with a slightly longer screw or just simply superglue the piece back on with the legs you want attached.

Because FansToys tends to use better hardware than Toyworld or Zeta, the screws should be long enough to mostly sink into the connecting port on the leg to hold everything together.

I hope you get it fixed.

 

I'm a display and dont transform kind of collector and removed the legs. I know we don't look at the back but cleans up nicely

 

It looks really good. Surprisingly better than I would’ve thought.

Is it some kind of weird optical illusion or did someone chew on his right pincer near his head?