Mech Ideas Demolition Crue Apex and Geminus - Pictorial Review

These past few years, the Transformers scene had change drastically as Hasbro/Takara focused more and more of their attentions to mainstream line (except for Takara's Masterpiece line) namely Dark of The Moon, Transformers:Prime and Fall of Cybertron, independent companies jump ship one after another into this gold mine of collectors. There are cases of failure debut while a few had significant improvement on their releases (Xovergen's Trailerforce TF-01).

Few however, passed with flying colors on their first try. Planet X for instance, went with the Genesis Project, their own rendition of War for Cybertron's Omega Supreme (hopefully, will be able to review him before end of February)

Another 3rd party company that kind of step in nonchalantly into the arena with the offering that (at least for me) really caught my attention. Mech Ideas first debuted their Demolition Crue (Not-Wreckers) project with Apex and Geminus in TFCon 2012 which schedule to be release on February 2013.

Apex and Geminus are homages of G1's Jumpstarters, Topspin and Twintwist which were said to be able to transform between modes in a fraction of a second providing them edge in combat

Jumpstarter - Topspin
Pic Credit : Web

Jumpstarter - Twintwist
Pic Credit : Web

The brothers made appearances in various series and publications like the Marvel comics and Dreamwave comics continuities. However, my favorite would be their appearance in the 5-issue limited series published by IDW Publishing in 2010.

The Last Stand of The Wreckers #1
Pic Credit : Web

 The story follows the adventure of the veteran Wreckers and their new recruits in a (suicide) mission of liberating an Autobots facility from the rogue Decepticons Overlord.

Different from other series, The Last Stand of The Wreckers focused on more 'benchwarmer' characters that hardly being explored in depth unlike the 'popular' characters.

A really recommended read but note, it's heavy and it gets bloody (or oily(?)) so if any of you guys can't stand the fact of losing any of your favorite characters, stay away! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!










 

The brothers - before the end
Pic Credit : Web

Let's get into the review, shall we?



In Package

In Package

Simple! That's my first thought of seeing them. Packed in like deluxe Henkei's were, Apex and Geminus are offered in perhaps one of the most basic packaging compared to other 3rd parties offering (excluding Renderforms, etc).

DC-01 Apex (Not-Topspin)

Nice artwork of Apex

Back View

Like HasTak releases, the back of Apex's packaging (also Geminus) are written his full bio, which I can't help to see the resemblance with the bio of Topspin.

And I never thought of this before but Demolition Crue is basically the Not-Wreckers which made me thinking will Mech Ideas be offering any other characters in the future considering most of the regular Wreckers already released. Only time will tell I guess

DC-02 Geminus (Not-Twintwist)

Back View

Seeing how these 2 figures are presented, couldn't help but thinking why Mech Ideas didn't release them as a set. They both were released simultaneously and I can't imagine why one would be buying only one of them so I failed to see the logic of the separate packaging. Still, not a problem, just general wonderment.

Out of package

Apex and Geminus came with 2 guns, a warhammer and an instruction sheet each. Aside from that, Geminus also comes with and extra head which we will get into later

The instruction for both of them are quite simple and using the same for both of them considering they share the same transformation sequence, However, panel 19 onwards shows separate sequence for each of them due to some differences in the back portion of the robot mode

Alt Mode

First, as always, let us travel back in time to see the Jumpstarters back in the 80's

Pic Credit : Web

And here they are now

Strong homage to their G1's counterparts, Mech Ideas gave us a well balanced alt mode for these two. Apex and Geminus have a solid feel which also reminded me of G1's plastic quality.

Taking the alt mode of a Cybertronian aircraft, Apex have a really smooth alt mode. Design wise, both him and Geminus had solids alt mode, no loose parts with all pegged well togather

Side View

Back View

Apex and Geminus had 2 different way of storing their weapons especially the warhammer.

The warhammer is disassemble and stored under the back portion of the alt mode

Geminus takes the form of Cybertronian Drill Tank, as he was in G1. As you notice, another way of storing the warhammer is on top of the alt mode, giving him extra fire power

Side View

Back View

You can notice an empty space underneath the back portion of Geminus alt mode which could be fill with his warhammer. Depend on how you see it, but I'm not a fan of large weapons on top of TF's alt mode

Size Comparison

Here's a couple of comparison shots with my version of Neo-Wreckers team
*sorry have to snap em separately due to space issue

From Left : RTS Perceptor, Generations Kup and Fansproject Warbot Defender

From Left : Fansproject Warbot Assaulter, Botcon G2 Spark/Pyro

Despite the size of their robot mode (which we will see afterwards), Apex and Geminus have a considerably large alt mode for their size

Robot Mode

Neo Jumpstarters

Mech Ideas take on the Jumpstarters. Along the year, there's a few type of releases for Classics figures, officials and 3rd parties. Some offer a different take but with slight homage that's recognizable enough for fans to relate while others an upgrade to the old design but with improved articulations etc. Personally these two have a little of both. A glimpse of them would totally brought you back to their original design but up closed, the designs are different enough with enhanced detailing and improved articulations

Up-Close

Mech Ideas opt to the hard personalities as they were portrayed near the end of The Last Stand of The Wreckers, giving them faces with rough expressions. Looked closely, both of them actually shared the same mold which the only differences are the head, the 2 parts on both side of their head and their back portion

Side View

One thing that you might noticed is that the length of their arms. I doubt it's due to the transformation rather Mech Ideas personal choice (in which enhance the articulation ranges)

Back View

Articulations

Articulations wise, they are more than average. Ball-jointed head, front-and-backward, outward motions on the shoulders, double jointed elbows, swivel joint on the wrist, swivel on the waist, ankle joints etc.

I was surprised however to learn that the knee joints are a bit limited which restrict their movement and posebility a bit. It doesn't change the fact that these are remarkable figure with wide range of articulations. And not to mention, stability
 

Size comparison

Size Comparison with Neo-Wreckers

Before we end this, Geminus came with an extra head which design originated from the last part of The Last Stand of The Wreckers

During their suicide mission, Twintwist was heavily wounded and captured by Decepticons Stalker along with Springer and Impactor, thus began the end to the Jumpstarters. Twintwist was tortured and ravaged by Stalker who focused his work on Twintwist's face causing the him to pass out from the pain.

Pic Credit : Web

The anguish continued and sharing a spark connection, Topspin shared every bits of pain experienced by his brother. To stop his brother suffering, he performed a double-edge maneuver, offering his spark to bypass Aequitas' suicide lock which simultaneously took both of his and his brother life, sharing the last words of "Wreck and Rule"

And for that, Mech Ideas gives us (it was said only for preorders through several online shops) a damaged version of Geminus' head

Well....not the best extra...

Wreck and Rule

More Wreckers, please!