I really wish it did. I feel a bit cheated that I can't have 4 sets of the blast effects. (1 set for each Rocket Booster.)
Was hoping to have 4 giant matching thruster effects by now , but yeah lol To be fair they’d still look too small on it.
So the arm ratchets in my Ark are just horrid. Super tight, to the point where i feared there would be breakage. So I went ahead and disassembled the arms. Turns out the ratchets are just sliding pieces with the triangular section. I don't have pics at this time, but I just went ahead and took them out. Friction holds the arms alright for the time being, without the fears of breakage. I'm hoping a third party will do a new set of ratchets that are strong, but not nearly as frightening.
I really want to love this guy but it's more of a love hate relationship. It looks good in both modes, the accessories and mainframe are really cool. I'm just really disappointed with that fact that it will not lock together in ship mode at all. That top grey panel will not lock and just keeps popping out. I wish they would have designed a better way to lock the ship together.
Just do the fix peeps, seriously. Do people even read other posts? edit: Oh boy, was I in a bad mood when I wrote this originally. Sorry people! (Still, I really think it’s worth exploring those tabs some more - if they still pop out, they’re still too big I reckon…)
He's overall pretty simple, but I really like him. He's absolutely majestic in spaceship mode, and suitably imposing as a robot.
What I can’t get over are those huge gaps at the back, sides of the ship mode. It just kills the most important part of this toy for me.
Totally get you. Now that I have a copy whole and complete, it is totally a mixed bag. Probably shouldn't be the case with a $170 toy, but it is. VEHICLE MODE On the one hand it is the Ark, a toy 37 years in the making. Generally speaking it fills its purpose. It is the Ark. It is recognizably the Ark. It has the same shape and color as the Ark. It's vehicle mode is suitably hefty. While technically scaling with the mini-micro Unicron figures, it will work fine with Legends scale, and if that's not your bag it'll still look good on your shelf. On the other hand, there is the gappy sides, the hollow tower (which to me is harder to forgive than the sides because it is completely unnecessary), and the general inability to stay tabbed together. The lack of rotating turrets is frustrating as well because it sure as hell looks like it should be a thing. It also saddens me that they essentially give 2 full blast effects for four thrusters. Sure you can break them up, but do those engines look like they'd be pushing out tiny flames? Grade: C+/B- TRANSFORMATION Probably shouldn't have expected much here. Nothing "wows" me here, but that's par for the course with this size class. May be for the best - at this size we shouldn't get too fiddly. Reviewers like to point out the way the arms and legs are filled in as you fold out the hands and feet, and I guess that's neat, but that's about the extent of it. Still can't transform it without the two triangular panels popping off which is annoying. Grade: C ROBOT MODE: He's big (but I've seen bigger), and I like that he's more lanky which contrasts the Ark's wedge shape. The shin thrusters are a nice signature detail. Articulation is mostly good and tight but really he should have better head and finger articulation. Actually the hands almost ruin the thing, which is odd, but they just look so awkward. Not sure how easy it would be to replace the hands or fingers, but if a 3P wants to tackle them I'm in. Grade: B EXTRAS/GIMMICKS: I'm a sucker for little robots popping off bigger robots, so I love the Soundwave-esqu gimmick of Mainframe, and outside the ramp and blast effects, he carries most of the gimmicks. I kind of like the robot mode, even with the picnic table on his back. Not sure what the mythology is but I see him as an avatar for the Ark, allowing him/it to interact with the Autobots on a more relatable scale. He is a first class panel-former, however you feel about that. Robot, computer, bridge - he might win as the oddest triple changer combo. Scale is weird, at least in Teletraan mode. I have no idea how big Mainframe is supposed to be, so I guess he works in the WFC scale. The bridge obviously is for the mini-micro scale. Teletraan? Obviously way too big for the microfigures (for them there is also an Ark on his bridge mode, so he turns into a smaller version of himself), too small for WFC scale, but too big for Legends. Ah well, he should still work as a prop for most photos. The golden discs and SkySpy are nice add ins and they make sense in context of the line. Grade: B+ Overall Grade: B- I can't help feeling the highlight of a Titan class toy should not be the Voyager sized pack in. Lost of little things that just reek of cost cutting and cause the toy to loose those special touches that could have made him much more satisfying.
Almost looks like a little command room where the rear bridge stores. Some shiny stickers would reflect their images enough to look like someone’s on the screens.
I’m anticipating/dreading all the pricey ToyHax and DNA Design upgrades this thing needs. And sadly, I may get ‘em.
The blast effects i got with my 2 Lava Dinos look far better with the ark than the blast effects the ark actually came with.
This toy reminds me, on a conceptual level at least, of the large 'supreme' toys from the Unicron trilogy lines, like space train Omega Supreme or Primus. The Ark ship mode is pretty cool, but doesn't hold together as securely as it should, and gives off the impression of a Star Wars vehicle or something else built to house action figures, with the oversized cockpit area up front, apparently a different scale to the naval-style bridge at the rear. It was easy to assume early on that the 'core class' G1 figures in the same line were intended to interact with it, but they only sorta do. I could overlook a lot if the ship mode was a good match for the on-screen ship of the cartoon, but the proportions are somewhat wonky, has a different number of engine exhausts, and sports large trenches down the sides to make way for knee joints. Robot mode has a pretty cool look, The chest area looks like it should close up more than it does, leaving obvious gaps around the sides or viewed from underneath showcasing the empty space inside (unless you brick up Mainframe in there, which seems like the least of it's available uses). Transformation is pretty basic, which works for me as more complexity on large toys usually means more can go wrong. That said, those little corner-panels on either side of the ship nose love to pop off near-unavoidably, and can go die in a fire. The panels that fill out spaces on the backs of the legs and forearms are pretty clever, but make me wish they could've done something about those knees leaving big openings in the ship mode. The real stars of the package just might be the 'accessories', the BW golden disks, sky spy satellite, and Teletraan 1/Mainframe. Having the Action Master turn into a pretty decent representation of the on-screen computer console is a pretty inspired decision, though putting in some of Mainframe's red and blue would help him look less bland in robot mode. Teletraan Computer mode is basically the robot unfurled like a bed sheet, and could maybe stand to be a bit bigger to interact with larger figures, but does the job IMO. Also clumps together into a bridge set to go in that empty hole in the Ark's middle, which is ... pretty OK. There's a lot of potential and good ideas in this titan set, but both modes have glaring flaws which make it ultimately disappointing. Perhaps the best part of it all is Teletraan/Mainframe and his associated stuff. but that doesn't carry the rest of the box contents.
I feel like this was what they started with. But the end result was what we ended up with. Overall I'm not gonna lie here. I really wish we got that design as the actual ship vs. what we ended up with. But I'm also being honest when I say, what we ended up with is better than nothing at all. At least we have an ARK representation at all. I'm betting they really tried what they could but in the end they probably felt a ship playset just wouldn't sell so they made it into a transformable Titan instead.
