Magic Square MB-49 Spider Gear & MB-50 Energy (Legends Scale Gears & Windcharger 2-pack)

Discussion in 'Transformers 3rd Party Discussion' started by poor man, Dec 18, 2022.

  1. Craigmcgowan1984

    Craigmcgowan1984 Well-Known Member

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    The happy face is from that one episode where he gets his personality changed by Megatron.
     
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  2. magicube

    magicube Legends Scale Collector

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    You're totally right; I had forgotten about that episode. Thanks for the clarification!

    ChangingGears_Happy_Gears.jpg
     
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  3. e prime

    e prime Chosen by the matrix

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    Ahh Gears. The Grumpy bear of the transformers. Lol. Pretty much the same colors too.
     
  4. Treadshot 2.0

    Treadshot 2.0 Action Master

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    I think the reason why gears gets the happy face is because of his spotlight episode, “changing gears.”
     
  5. Rewind

    Rewind Swoosh!

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    Got the set for Windcharger only and he is pretty great. Insanely poseable for such a little guy. He’s the same size as his G1 toy yet more articulated than a modern Hasbro voyager.

    My one complaint is that I wish he had come with an alternate toy-style face (or whole head, the face would be pretty tiny).

    Regardless, fantastic little figure, pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Magic Square.
     
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  6. breaux man

    breaux man I'm Me

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    I'm more than likely only going to be in for this set for Gears...still hoping someone upsizes the Windcharger and maybe fix the backpack people are complaining about
     
  7. Rewind

    Rewind Swoosh!

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    Chargers of Wind

    73D506BA-D57C-444E-9320-CB06711F4A4E.jpeg
    I do wish the backpack actually tabbed into place, unless we’re all missing something. It’s not horrible and mine isn’t floppy, but it seems kind of unfinished and half-assed to just have it fold into place and not secure in any way.
     
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  8. Snaku

    Snaku Primes Don't Party

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    Finally arrived today. Gears pretty much nails the look in bot mode. Could use a little more articulation (deeper elbow bend and damnit gimme up/down foot articulation!!) but otherwise he's pretty typical MST engineering and quality. That is, if we ignore the holes in his head which everybody has already covered pretty well.

    Windcharger, on the other hand, feels like a step backwards for MST. The roof and hood just sort of hanging out unpegged on his back just screams you mistransformed him, but no, that's just how he is. Headsculpt seems wrong but it's not like he was exactly a particularly handsome fellow in the cartoon. Having the neck molded into the head sculpt looks awful when you have him look up at all so you kinda' just have to treat it like he doesn't have up/down head articulation. Single joint elbows are unfortunate but the one advantage he has over Gears is the heel spurs that can be flipped down so you don't have to have him standing flat-footed. I was able to give him a pretty convincing running pose, which is nice.

    I haven't transformed them yet. Waiting for the waterslides on their chests to dry and hoping that this time they actually stick (MST plastic and waterslide decals don't get along very well). I decided to try swabbing the areas with alcohol first, in case it's mold release or something that keeps them from sticking (in Gears' case, that meant a very quick and gentle wipe since that spot is painted but for Windcharger I really scrubbed).
     
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  9. FredVIII

    FredVIII HUMAN GERM!

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    Maybe apply a little gloss coat in the area underneath the decal? Conventional wisdom* in modeling is to gloss coat before decals, since, so the belief goes, the surface texture on non-gloss finishes can lead to air getting trapped under the decal, causing poor adhesion. Might be worth a shot.

    Also, have you tried any setting solutions?

    (*Nota bene: I've seen good modelers question this wisdom too!)
     
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  10. Snaku

    Snaku Primes Don't Party

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    Gloss on Magic Square figures would be a problem. Have to gloss the whole thing at that point. Not sure if the alcohol made a difference or if I just got lucky but the decals seem to be sticking pretty well. And yeah, I use Micro-Set and Micro-Sol on all of my decal applications. In the past, it didn't seem to help. As far as trapped air, I squish the hell out of them with a paper towel once I get them in place. Micro-Set, apply decal, squish out all the liquid, apply more set, give it a minute, squish again, Micro-Sol, give it a few minutes, squish a final time. I like to use the solvent even if it's on a flat surface in hopes that it softens the edges and also, combined with squishing it down, it should be pressed into the texture of the plastic to get better adhesion and to look more like it's painted on. Considering how well it went this time, I'm thinking that cleaning the area is the thing I was missing (never need to do that with Newage figures). But then again, I might've just gotten lucky and I don't have another set of these figures to use as a control in this experiment. The red color of the Autobot logo is a pretty similar value to the grey on Windcharger's chest so it doesn't stand out as well as I'd like, but it seems that's pretty accurate to how he looked in the cartoon (albeit with a black outline) so I think it's fine.

    [​IMG]
    PXL_20230127_002344833~2.jpg

    Quick and dirty desk pic cuz the photo tent it too much of a pain to bother setting up. Even with the solvent squish, the top of the decal still catches the light but honestly tampos do that too, though to a lesser degree. Also it wasn't until looking at the pic I realized I'd forgotten to fold away one of Gears' leg panels :confused: 

    Having transformed them, I appreciate both figures even more. Magic Square continues to impress with their clever transformations (which makes it all the more surprising that Wincharger doesn't peg). Since the parts that form the bottom of Gears' feet aren't visible in alt mode, there's no reason that the back of them need to be squared off, so I shaved them down and now he's got articulated heel spurs. Not as good as genuinely articulated feet but good enough to fake it for a lot of poses.

    [Edit] Also you can see how the camera on my phone struggles to resolve the lines in Windcharger's Autobot logo since, as I mentioned, they're pretty close to the same value (the red caught the light in this pic, though, so it came out a little brighter), while the exact same decal on Gears' looks great. In person you can see the lines and if I had a good camera instead of a cell phone, you'd probably be able to see them in pics as well.

    [Edit again] A few more pics showing them posed, and how the heel spurs make the hand on hip pose just a little better - makes it so his torso can lean back a little without being off balance. And a blurry pic showing where I shaved the plastic down.

    PXL_20230127_003712429~2.jpg
    PXL_20230127_003738665~2.jpg
    PXL_20230127_003837431~2.jpg

    [Edit one more time] I have no idea why my photos suck so much. I upgraded from a Pixel to a Pixel 7 Pro and my photos got worse. I mean I'm not shooting in good light in any of these shots but even my photo tent pics are worse on the 7 than they were on the 1 :( 
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2023
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  11. FredVIII

    FredVIII HUMAN GERM!

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    I guess the issue might be that with a matte surface (like MST's plastic), no amount squishing is gonna get the decal flat against the surface given the micro-irregularities that come with any matte surface. But the heck do I know, looks like they came out great! I wouldn't worry about the shine and raised edges, only topcoat is going to get rid of that (to varying extents). And like you said, you get that somewhat with tampos too.

    Anyway, I think it looks great. I really like that Windcharger. I've only put off getting this pack because Gears is just too ridiculous looking, although that's not MST's fault! :lol 
     
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  12. OstOgBajer

    OstOgBajer Well-Known Member

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    Magic Square's Devy got me into legends. I just wanted Devy. Now it's turning into a collection. MP was my primary focus... But... Damnit MS... And occasionally NA...

    Added these guys to the team:

    PXL_20230127_005931688~2.jpg
     
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  13. Ravewind

    Ravewind Well-Known Member

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    It's like a Lays potato chip. You can't stop at just one.

    I got my set in a few days ago after it sat in an LA sorting facility for a week. Still, I like the figures that I got but I couldn't help but notice the back for Windcharger.

    Not quite in the same way that others have mentioned but looking at the hood of the car you could probably fold it in a bit more so it could sit under the car roof, drastically cutting down the size and also giving Windcharger much closer his cartoon proportions. Hell, even after that if you rotate the hood you mimic the way his back is angled in the cartoon. Getting the hood to fit in the chest and roof seems to be the key to getting a accurate Windcharger figure.
     
  14. Rewind

    Rewind Swoosh!

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    Dang, I transformed Windcharger back to bot mode and now he has paint chipped off his nose. On closer inspection I think the hinge under the hood might graze his nose when it’s in car mode. Rotating the head 180 before transformation might have helped.
     
  15. Delduwath

    Delduwath Well-Known Member

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    Gears's gun has a hinge to fold up in half; do we know why that is? I assumed it was so the gun could plug in somewhere in car mode, but I couldn't find any spot for it.

    I really wish that weapon storage in alt mode became a standard feature that every figure incorporated.
     
  16. magicube

    magicube Legends Scale Collector

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    E620B10F-0832-4A03-886A-D3477B0A14E4.jpeg
     
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  17. Delduwath

    Delduwath Well-Known Member

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    Thanks! You know, that was the very first thing I thought of trying, but the tabs seemed slightly too big, so I figured that wasn't the right approach. Not the first time that a Magic Square tab didn't quite fit the slot it was intended for, though, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.
     
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  18. zfarsh

    zfarsh Big Penguin Chief

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    Hey buddy, can you pls take a picture of Windcharger's heel spur and how you have it working for better posing and what is this "flat footed" business? Anything that helps me improve my posing and using articulation is a big bonus in my collection, and i have plenty to learn, so looking forward to your responses.
     
  19. Snaku

    Snaku Primes Don't Party

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    So Transformers will almost always have side to side ankle articulation so they can stand with their feet apart and keep their feet flat but recently the front to back articulation has been left out. This makes it hard to pose them with one foot in front of the other because the foot can't sit flat and it's hard to keep them balanced. Arcee here...
    PXL_20230127_201630570~2.jpg
    ... has okayish ankle articulation (could do with a little more side to side as you can see her foot isn't flat but it's enough to keep her balanced) and she can stand with a foot out front and her lower leg doesn't have to be perpendicular to the ground. When a figure doesn't have that articulation, you pretty much have to have their legs straight up and down which means it's hard to get anything other than a guitar power stance out of them. But with heel spurs, you can kind of fake it. There foot still can't go flat to the ground but the spur can angle down and provide balance so they don't fall over.
    PXL_20230127_201711026~2.jpg

    Anyway, that's why I modified Gears' heel spurs. They had been designed so that they could fold away for transformation but couldn't fold down any lower to provide additional balance. I just shaved off the corner so it could rotate down like Cliffjumper's.
     
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  20. OstOgBajer

    OstOgBajer Well-Known Member

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    Weird. Those spurs folded down without an issue on mine. Maybe I just forced it... I'll need to double check to make sure I'm not stressing the plastic. Luckily, the plastic on these figures is super resilient.
     
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