Hey guys,

So I received Steelbane yesterday, and in my opinion: He's pretty nice, but could've been SLIGHTLY better.

The Good:
1) 90% of his joints are ball joints- so articulation is pretty nice- in both modes.
2) His dragon mode CAN extend the wings outward, for flying poses. (I'm not sure if that was teased in early toy show pictures, but I didn't see it- so I did it here)
3) He does come with unevenly applied paint apps- for a torn, worn down, weathered, aged look.
4) He has a peg hole available in both modes, so he can be placed in a display stand! (I used an SHF stand here)

The Bad:
1) His robot mode looks nice and complete, but his dragon mode looks like it was severely damaged and parts are missing- because you can basically look directly through it- there's enough gaps in certain places that it doesn't really look like a complete robot dragon, but more like a 75% finished one- at least to me it does. They could've done a better job with the design.
2) The sword he comes with is soft plastic and is just ugly (I didn't bother picturing it here, because you can definitely find a better weapon for this guy- come on...)

The Ugly:
1) LOOSE JOINTS. Dear god dude....this guy, out of the box, was ridiculously limp, and floppy. I had to add a coat of floor polish to tighten up the ball joints, but it might require another coat- because he's still a tad loose- so watch out for that.

Overall:
I can't help but get a Beast Wars/Beast Machines feeling from Steelbane- because of all the ball joints and his beast mode- but that's not a bad thing- at least not for me. His joints might need to be tightened when you get him, and his dragon mode might not look complete in some places- but minus those 2 things, he's not that bad.


For the record: I cosmetically modified mine. I added grey and black ink detailing on most of his body- so what you see here isn't what you get- just subtract the dark black spots and detailing = there ya go. Either that or check the product images- it's not far from it.

 

That is one awesome figure, I want it!

 

I wish they had found a better way to hide the robot feet in dragon mode

 

I'm not sure what we'll see more of based off of this guy--Escaflowne customs or Red Dragon Thunderzord customs.

 

I do like the robot mode. The dragon mode is really... DRAGON his ass. (I could have also gone with "the dragon mode is a DRAG")

 

Thanks for the 411 on Steelbane! WOW does it look exemplary, especially customized

 

fuck, dragon mode is even worse than i thought. oh well, still want him as deathsaurus

 

Where did you get it?

 

Looks better than I thought. As Awesomepow says, where did you get it?

 

He could go well with Thundertron.

 

Well, I've got cash to burn and little patience, so I ordered him off Ebay. I don't completely regret it.

 

So how big is he compared to other deluxes, if you don't mind?

 

Hmmm....Well, I have Barricade and Stinger in the other room, but I currently have a fresh coat of floor polish on Steelbane's joints, so I can't really move him- but if I had to guess right now: Minus his wings, he's probably just as tall as Barricade.

He's a little guy- I won't deny that- they definitely could've gone for a larger size class on him.

 

Thanks. That's too bad but I guess I didn't really expect bigger.

 

Can't wait, the Dark Souls look is the only reason I plan on picking him up.

 

Thanks for the review.
Didn't really understand what your words meant by incomplete dragon mode until I saw your pics.
I went from "wow the robot mode looks like an instant buy" to "omgwtf is that shit alt mode".

 

I should have Drift in a few days. I mean, they basically used the same mold as AOE, so if you already own that, then there's probably not much reason for anyone to give a review. Still, I think the red and black color scheme they gave him this time around is WAY better than the dark blue and baby blue paint job he had in the AOE line- that color scheme was dog shit. Plus, just like I did for Steelbane, I plan to add grey and black ink detailing to him- so he'll look even better. ^_^

 

Pretty much this. To say that his alt mode seems like an afterthought is an understatement. It looks like they barely tried with this guy once it came down to "what is he gonna transform into?" Without a real-world animal or vehicle to make him transform into, I really need a stellar alt mode or I'm not interested. This is how I've felt about all beastformers and dinobots since I was a kid.

Like others have said, his bot mode is freakin cool looking, so it really comes down to if I like him in the movie and if I see him on sale somewhere.