I’m not gonna lie… I am concerned about the future NA Lambo bros and how they are going to scale because right now they have their upcoming Hitcher/Breakdown @ 10cm or 3.98in and that brings him to Soundwave height. That means they will tower over Ironhide who is 3.30in. Aren’t the Lambo bros supposed to be shorter than Ironhide and around Jazz and Smokescreen height?

Again, this is based on the specs we have for the NA H36 Hitcher/Breakdown

I don’t know… I give up

 

Sometimes they were itsy bitsy

 

Quoting Jobby The Hong "The figure might not be show accurate, but show itself isn't really 100% show accurate so it doesn't matter".

I am not a scale freak but as long as the figure height different isn't that noticable it doesn't really matter just collect the figure you want.

hell I'm about to buy this figure to accompany my TE-01 to poke fun at Sunbow animation error (and also because MP Bumblebee 2.0 has horrendous design)

 

Yeah I have those moments more and more lately.

 

Quit now while you're not in too deep. Prices aren't gonna get any better. Save yourselves while you still can!

 

to me that is like comparing apples to oranges and i get my oranges from a more direct source so the price gap may still be a tad higher, but isn't as bad. but more importantly i much prefer to enjoy my oranges over having to settle for apples, so to me it's worth it. ya only live once, especially now with the pandemic.  

 

Yeah, that is a perennial problem with combiners at any scale. Fanstoys' Breakdown towers over the MP Lambo brothers as well. There's just too much scale cheating between individual and combined modes. You either make the limb bots too big, combined mode too small, or go the XTB route and make 90% of the gestalt kibble. Triple lose situation.

 

I'm guessing the Stunts will be bigger--in bot mode--because they're Decepticons. I'd be very surprised if Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were that height in robot mode. I expect them all to be roughly the same size in alt-mode though.

 

It would be a shame if the NA Lambros were taller than their Jazz. I just assumed they would be the same height regardless of NA Breakdown

 

Wait, Has Newage hinted that we are getting Sideswipe and Sunstreaker?

 

Mine showed up today! Transformation to robot mode was smooth, haven’t had a chance to turn them back into cars yet. QC seems good but Cliffjumper’s hips are pretty loose and the ab crunch could be slightly tighter on both (similar to the NA seekers). Hopefully a little Future polish fixes things but overall I’m happy with them.

 

No. I wish

 

My set arrived today ahead of schedule. I've transformed them back and forth a few times and here are my initial thoughts:

-The paint job really make them pop in both modes. Looks quite a bit more premium than their Magic Square counterparts (which I do like as well).
-$60 for this set feel a bit high. I'm happy with the toys but it really should be around $45. NA is sneakily getting into Takara pricing territory but since the raw dollar amount isn't astronomical like the MPs, it's harder to notice.
-Not sure if the dedicated ab-crunch joint is necessary. The transformation joint right above it also does the job. Would have made the crotch section better without the visible joint.
-Alt-mode holds together well, with no need to massage it to close all the gaps.
-Robot mode look great from the front, but the heel spur is a bit big. Not sure how it could have been minimized though.
-The hip ball joints and elbow joints on both were a bit loose for my liking, but legend scale joints are easily tightened. I use Kiki on most of my legend scale toys and also tried out Vallejo Reducer on one of these.
-I don't love the "offset" waist swivel, but it doesn't affect robot mode posing too much.
-Gaps in the chest/torso area looked a bit much in pictures but is a non-issue in person because these are so tiny.

So far I'd say I prefer these over the Magic Square version because I like NA's paint and proportions in both modes a little better. They are all fun little bots to mess around with though.

Looks good up front:



Maybe a little too much heel:


I tightened Bee's joints with Kiki and Cliff's joints with Vallejo Reducer. Both seems to do the job so far, with Kiki producing a bit more tightness right away. Vallejo supposedly is more durable but takes longer to cure. It's new to me so I don't know how well it works yet.

 

since you have both, just out of curiosity, why do feel $60 for the pair of NA is high, when the pair of MS which is roughly the same, if not more depending on where you picked them up?

 

That's a good question. I guess I haven't thought of it that way. Probably because they are just so tiny. But if I'm saying the NA set's price is high, I probably have to say the same thing about the MS set since I think they should cost about the same given that NA uses a lot more paint. But the MS bots, at around $32 each, didn't strike me as too expensive, so perhaps $60 isn't too bad for the NA set.

 

I used some points at ShowZ to make this not feel so expensive and ordered it. They just look so good with the paint and Chibi car modes.

Personally I love MP45 and this is like a mini version and this Cliffjumper will have to do until I get a Chibi MP.

 

Saw this pic of them with Brawn in it by Mike Syfritt. Personally I would have wanted them a little taller as well. I guess NA prioritized vehicle scale that with their design required the bot mode to be that short

 

nah their robot scale is about spot on

good to know the alt’s good too though

 

Yeah, that would be quite unfortunate for me too.
I don't really care about scale being 100% accurate per se, but I like consistency among each line. That's why I went with MFT for Blaster/Twincast and Ultra Magnus for my mainly Magic Square Autobot display. I've come to appreciate the size of NA figures, so I really hope they stick to that for their future release.

They look indeed very good. 'NewAge' kinda good, but still good nonetheless.
As a cartoon/robot-mode-over-alt-mode guy, the two striking factors to me personally are the face scuplts and the paint finish. Brilliant stuff. Everything else is just fine and possibly better than I initially expected.
I wish MST would've used that shade of yellow to cast their Bee... Looks so much better and toon accurate than the pale one they went with.

 

Received mine today from Terry. Opening the package it's shocking how little the box is. LOL

I'm normally an MST fan and I like their Bee okay but CJ looked very disappointing and I decided to try this one out. I'm still more a fan of MST's sense of sc**e (it's a curse word right?), but for the Minibots I'm fine with smaller and for characters I'm really fond of, I don't mind having other versions. And in this case, these will definitely be my primary Bee and CJ figures until/unless something I like better comes along. And Bee at least will probably be done 300 more times.

What I'm noticing most is that the bright lights of photos are unforgiving for these guys. They cast shadows that you don't see unless it's in bright light. The torso in person looks much less pieced together. I do wish they had found a way to fold the feet in a little more, especially on Cliffjumper. But at this size, it's really not so noticeable. And they make up for it with a boatload of character.

I'm unsure if I'm taking Bee's gun out though. I lost the Flipper one so many times it's not funny. Every time I was sure I'd never find it in the carpet. This one looks at least as easy to lose.

I don't know if I have different expectations for tightness but my joints seem good. I can shake the figures and the arms/legs/crotch all stay in place. In fact, the crotch/ab crunch on these guys is worlds tighter than my Newage Jets were out of the box.