I don't know if this will work for everyone, but I found a way to remedy the Banana Boat issue on my set by trimming the little footpegs that plug into the butt in alt mode:

Before:


After:


The key is to take these square pegs and using the bladed implement of your choice, trim about half off of the peg, on the top side closer to the knee.



After I finished, my peg was reduced from about 1.85mm to about 1.3mm.



This image should illustrate what areas to keep (in green) and which parts will be trimmed off (in red).



I did the fix on both of mine.
It's not super perfect but it looks a lot better to my eyes than the warped chassis out of the box.

 

These are fun little figures...

Now where's my Pipes Hasbro!!

 

Tried it on RR, works. Honestly just a few mm of difference does so much to make the alt mode not look doofy. Thanks man.

 

Something about this Puffer looks better than all other uses of the mold. I lucked out and was able to grab one on ebay for a decent price. Hopefully he gets here soon!

 

I got this set specifically for Puffer, and I'm a little conflicted. He looks good in robot mode, definitely the best use of this Huffer mold so far. Oddly, the pipes have a 5mm hole on the main end, but also a substantial 3mm peg at the back end, so he's good to go for blast effects in both directions, like some sort of stubby Darth Maul saber. The chest sculpt isn't terribly detailed, combined with the white plastic it feels a bit simple, but there is some G1 charm to it. The metallic blue plastic looks really nice, has a sheen that gives the figure some life. The arms on my copy were painted silver very well and they look great. The mouthplate is painted a flat light gray to match the off-white parts like the thighs. The backpack just swivels about on its added joint, there's no built-in stops, so when you pick him up it does dislodge slightly.

That said, in alt mode they fixed none of the misaligned vehicle issue, they didn't do anything about the ugly gap under the cab, and actually made the toy a little worse because the Pipes mold's chest is deeper and sharper, so the alt mode can't roll anymore at all. The chest is literally a micrometer or so from the ground, and there's so much play in the snap-on wheels that he totally bellies out. What's baffling is the large edge on the robot chest, it doesn't match the G1 toy or animation models which are all angled at the top -- also angled on Kingdom Huffer, so it's not there for engineering clearance.

Another issue are the pipes/guns accessories, their pegs are ever so slightly too short to be held in the hands straight, they have to be pushed on so they angle down, it's a really minor issue and he can still hold them if you don't mind the little angle, but I hate having to force parts like that. Of course, they are designed to be plugged onto the forearms and that works just fine. The accessory is shot in metallic gray plastic and painted black except for the handle.

All in all, Puffer is a "B-" in my book, a step up from Huffer for sure, but still could have been better without substantial changes.

(As for Road Ranger, I was planning on selling my copy as I don't really have any attachment, but it appears the value has cratered for just him and with ebay's 12.55% take it'd make him needlessly expensive to offer to a market who doesn't want him, so maybe I'll just keep him after all.)

 

I enjoy having fire-guts Road Ranger chasing Bug Bite through cross dimensions, but the real gem is Fusion Fuffer-Fipes!

Absolutely awesome!  

 

Meh...

 

If anybody wants to sell their Puffer please let me know.

 

Add it to your Amazon cart. I saw amazon warehouse damaged packaging for $38. Still wasn't low Enuff for me to buy. Will bite at $30.

 

It took me forever to notice because I dont have good lighting in my room, but Road Ranger actually has a nose!

 

Good but unremarkable set. I am a fan of the Huffer mold, and Pipes was a solid remold, so, yeah, this is a decent set if you like the colors.

Wonder if they goofed on the color assignments, as the whole point of Puffer is that he's a Huffer mold in Pipes colors, not a Pipes mold in slightly different Pipes colors. Not really a big deal as it is easy enough to leave the cab up on Puffer and swap his weapons with Road Ranger. As for Ranger, love me some Halloween color schemes, so he works great for me.

 

This justifies just using him as euro Pipes

 

Wow! That looks amazing! Thanks for sharing! I will definitely do the same once my set gets here (already on its way)

 

Fire guts Road Ranger with AU Prime's trailer! Not bad!  


With Puffer's Pipes

 

Another thing about Puffer, I like his visor over the Pipes mold's eyes, it's just preference but it suits the headsculpt better IMO. One thing which I hadn't considered until I opened up Road Ranger to compare to was how different Puffer's arms are. They're totally different at the bicep and forearm, different details and less of them, opting for a cleaner look; they also have that rectangular notch on the bicep molded cleaner than Huffer and Puffer's notches, which look like crap due to both mold slop and paint challenges from the black to the silver. And both figures in this set, Puffer and Road Ranger, are a bit easier to accidentally de-transform their upper torsos than Huffer who is fairly locked down, folding them forward away from the back half without a lot of force while posing - good when you want it, bad when you don't.


Speaking of Road Ranger, my thoughts on him will be briefer than my usual:

- I wish he hadn't been sporting that huge Autobot logo on his chest just because my Decepticons really need more characters, but I get that's the character's design. In robot mode, his orange is brighter than Huffer's and looks a little more toyetic for it, good or bad. The red paint on the orange chest comes off too plain, the orange material and the red paint both suck in the sculpted details going on which are themselves shallow, so a light wash would have brought them out. The new head has interesting proportions, larger eye/lenses than Huffer but the lower face is narrower. The sculpting is simple yet not lazy, the mouthplate has a shape and a nose above that, the paint makes for a little contrast. The head on mine isn't glued together tightly at the bottom.

Road Ranger's rifle isn't loose in hand the way Huffer's is. The shield has its "claws" painted a darker gunmetal gray which they only used elsewhere on the truck headlights, it makes for a nice contrast. Both accessories being cast in black looks so much better than Huffer's orange weapons, especially in alt mode.

In vehicle mode, the black plastic with silver paint looks nice, and the red translucent window part looks really good with that. Painting the top lights cowlings red lets the translucent plastic contrast against that very well, this aspect looks really good.

Overall, in some ways he's better than Huffer, other ways he's a little worse. He looks better with the shield and rifle for sure, but at the end of the day, he's still got the same issues that Huffer mold had so a generous "C".

Thanks for the info on this, I tried it and it worked nicely on Huffer. I doofed the second job I did on Puffer and cut away too much of the peg because I couldn't see the knife had slipped, it still works but it rests a little more on the strength of the legs.

It's obvious once this fix is done that the issue is Hasbro's, but I can't tell if it's an engineering error or a manufacturing one (a materials shrinkage error). To fix it, all they'd have to do is move the peg down the foot, it wouldn't cause a clashing issue with the foot sole either way. They can't move the holes as they're already at the end of a part wall, and the crotch can't be thinned to accommodate the folded leg because that's another part wall retaining the hip joints.

 

This is a line that only makes sense in our fandom.

 

My decision to get this pack, this mold, was a mistake. I thought I could adjust the back of the truck & make it look proper, but was unsuccessful in finding an adjustment outside of extensive, permanent modification. I also neglected to check beforehand whether there existed any trucks with profiles that aren't parallel to the road. I couldn't find any. Anyone who wants a solid-looking, straight looking, well rolling truck would best look elsewhere for better figures. (I also fell for the lower MSRP for 2 deluxes; $42<$46. I sure got what I paid for.)
On with the review:
One positive: Road Ranger is yet another example of redecos being better than their predecessors, imo. The black hands blend into Road Ranger's black truck whereas they stick out on Huffer's yellow/orange, & the odd detailing on the inside of the guns also blends better in black, while the bed & smokestacks look good in the same silver.


It does not fix the unevenness though. I tried the filing trick on the pegs on Rd Ranger's feet &, while trying out angling the legs after, I pulled the thinned pegs too far while they were pegged in & snapped them off. The truck rear does hold together well without foot pegs inserted because of firm hip joint tolerances, slot pegs holding the legs together, & friction pegs connecting the thighs & shins. So my gallery shows Roady with no pegs while Puffer is unaltered, but unpegged. With or without pegs, in any configuration, it does not change the too-high elevation of the cab. I have gotten the cab and bed lined up, however the whole profile of the truck slants upward from back to front. If there are cabover trucks with frames not parallel to the road, I have not seen one websearching images.


Both of them roll okay after some fiddling no thanks to their loosely pegged-on wheels trying to grind against the back of the torso. The inner shoulder parts can also interfere if not pegged into the waist fully. Surprisingly have not had trouble with torso scrapeage though.

Even so, the cab is still ridiculous, with the front bumper higher up than the bed & the large empty space between fender & wheel. Unacceptable, imo.

With and without different accessory loadouts. Default looks best to me.



Size comparison truck show with Studio Series '86 Kup, Earthrise Optimus & Hoist, Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus, & Cybertron Armorhide.

Huffer & Pipe's show-accurate backpack configurations stick out very far & Pipes/Puffer's restricts shoulder movement severely.

Much better, though the wheels behind the shoulders actually hinder movement more than the backpacks. Pipes/Puffer's can swivel slightly side-to-side to allow greater range, an excellent retooling.


Other caveats include less-than-90-degree elbow hinges, up and down but not side to side tilt on both ball jointed necks (full rotation though), & thigh panels can bump into the pelvis. Otherwise, poseability, and joint & peg/hole tolerances are great, including Roady's blaster grip.


Stability is weird though. the truck bed soles are not flat to the ground on the outer rear corners, making him unexpectedly fall in some poses. Also there is nothing on the leg above the inside corners, so the soles can bend & bend back when trying to stand his feet flat.

Tiny ridges on Puffer's cannons keep them from pegging into his or Roady's hands (a breeze would knock it off in this image).

Road Ranger's accessories ,on the other hand, are amazing. His shield's three peg holes all at least barely fit in the hole in his forearm, including the one on the left of the inside.


Pegging it in this hole will give the shield enough height from the bent arm to cover his entire chest & head & allow him to see through the viewport! In addition, unpegging his other shoulder(which is firm enough to stay in place unpegged) will let him point his gun forward next to the shield!


The accessories effectiveness is reversed regarding robot mode storage. Puffer's cannons look perfect on the leg pegs, gunslinger-esque, while the rifle & shield don't look right anywhere (the cab's top lights keep the shield from pegging on top of the truck).

Alternate equip.

They look great using each other's gear!

Size comparison with Kingdom Soundwave, Studio Series '86 Blurr, Earthrise Optimus & Hoist, & Cybertron Armorhide.

So in conclusion, I cannot condone the trucks' egregious design flaws, but I can live with mistakes & try to make the most of an unfavorable occurance. And I have found things I very much like about Road Ranger & Puffer as described earlier. I only hope this duo serve as a reminder of what I should never do again. (& basically remind me of my sig about spending wisely & voting with wallet).