Unique Toys Ordin O-02 Alberich - Pictorial Review

Sorry for the delay of this review as I know the 3rd component is on his way to retails as we speak. Hope you enjoy the review of UT Ordin O-02 Alberich (Not-Rippersnapper).

Taking Sharknado to another level
Pic Credit : TFWiki

Just like the rest of the Terrocons, Rippersnapper first appeared during G1 episode Grimlock's New Brain, with his fellow teammates under the order of Galvatron to retrieve the anti-electrons. In IDW Generation 1 Continuity, Rippersnapper was a big fan of Sixshot during the war. The Terrorcons were taken hostage by the Reapers with intend to lure Sixshot out.

G1 Rippersnapper
Pic Credit : TFWiki

Review of Unique Toys Ordin O-01 Troll (Not-Blot) can be found here.

In Package

Box : Front View

Alberich comes in quite a small box, just like Troll. The artwork used on the front is really nicely done, reminding of IDW circa 2007/2008.

Box : Back View

Unique Toys Ordin O-01 Troll - Pictorial Review

This review is courtesy of 1Toy.

Not every time a company can surprised the fans. After their debut release Warlord (Not-Predaking), Unique Toys released quite a few figures that showed significant improvement product after product. Most notable personally from me would be Mania King, their own rendition of G1 Galvatron. When people thought they are through with combiners, Unique Toys releases pictures of their version of G1 Abominus, dubbed Ordin and Troll, their Not-Blot.

Blot and the rest of the Terrocons made their debut during G1 Episode Grimlock's New Brain, assaulting the Autobots as they arrive at Unicron's head led by Grimlock to stop Galvatron from harvesting more anti-electrons.

Unique Toys A01 Soundmixer - Pictorial Review

This review is sponsored by X2OToys

Less than a month ago, I watched a youtube clip by TheFineBros, Kids React to Walkmans (Portable Cassette Players) which made me feel old...really old..

Based on the clip, I kind of understand why Hasbro still haven't (maybe wouldn't) produce this iconic character (not in the version that fans want at least) in the CHURGs line.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

DJ in da house. Fans of G1 will never forget Blaster, the most happening bot out there. He is loud. He is energetic. He is closest to the earth cultures than any of his comrades. In a long rivalry with Decepticon Communications Officer, Soundwave, Blaster was joined by a cassette army to help him settling the scores with Soundwave and his minion.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Unlike most important G1 characters, Blaster never really have an appropriate toy aside from the G1 version (and Reissues, etc) while his arch enemy, Soundwave received several updates with the most recent a Masterpiece treatment (both Hasbro and Takara version).

With the volume of 3rd Party companies nowadays, it surprised me that no one ever release Blaster until this year, by Unique Toys (and next, Mega Steel).

Unique Toys G-02 Sharkies - Pictorial Review

One of the things that I love about 3rd party releases is that most of them are random! Yes, there's a pattern where they focus more on releasing combiners (not to mention, the Headmasters and the Wreckers) but aside from that, fans mostly are surprised with their offering. And the fact that they are producing some obscure characters for the fans is most welcomed. Wonder how long would it take for Hasbro to release a PROPER Reflector?

After the release of the first 4 figures from their War Lord Beasticons set, Unique Toys, the successor of CHMS, decided to take a detour and release an obscure character (which previously was teased by iGear) from the famous 1986's Transformers The Movie, the Sharticons, dubbed UT-G02 Sharkies.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Made their debut in 1986, Sharkticons are a group of shark-like (well, land-cyber-shark, if you will) soldiers for the Quintessons. Although, despite their name, I myself see more piranha in them rather than sharks. From the picture above, your first impression might not be too far off. The Sharkticons are basically fierce killing machine with almost zero intelligence. And they are big and round. In short, aside from their numbers and also giant razor-sharp teeth paired with those empty eyes, they are just walking potatoes.

The Sharkticons served as the executors for the Quintessons, killing any being sentenced by their masters. However, when it's Kup and Hot Rod's turn, the Sharkticons failed their mission. Making things worst, the Dinobots came to the duo's rescue and by Grimlock's order, turned against their master simply due to their nature of obeying the strongest one.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Despite the name, Sharkticons were released under the Gnaw which kind of confused me. I can understand that maybe Hasbro wanted a character name for the toys instead of using 'Sharkticons' in general but I can't seem to find any reference to the name Gnaw until Dreamwave's 2003 Cold War comics, giving back story to Gnaw as one of the Sharkticons, who became attached to a young Autobots, Wheelie.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Unique Toys Maniaking - Pictorial Review

It seems like forever since I've last done a review as I was busy at the office and also been involved with Malaysia's Transformers 30th Anniversary Expo early February. Thanks to a dear friend who's kind enough to lend me the figure that I'm about to review next. First, a little back story.

Earlier this month, Transformers : Age of Extinction (AOE) Teaser Trailer was released depicting some interesting cast with appearance of Transformers' iconic character, Galvatron.

Screenshot from AOE Teaser Trailer, showing Galvatron
Pic Credit : TFW2005

Not a newcomer, Galvatron is a character that almost all TF fans have heard of, be it from Transformers Generation 1, Armada, Energon, Cybertron or any other media (comics, etc). Let us explore Galvatron throught Generation 1 continuity.

Pic Credit : Web

After the fierce battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron in Transformers : The Movie (1986) that left most children then crying their eyes out (I still cringe everytime I watch the death fight), Optimus Prime died (for the first time, not the last) and Megatron suffered the most fatal blow ever, leaving him half dead and was evacuated from the battle by Soundwave.

Not long after, Megatron was betrayed (not the first time) by Starscream and was left in space to rust alongside with few others. There, the unfortunate few met Unicron which offer Megatron a new, stronger body in exchange for total obedience. Hence, Galvatron was born. Throughout Transformers history, Galvatron made frequent appearance as either an upgrade of Megatron or a separate entity.

G1 Galvatron (the non-accurate-color version)
Pic Credit : Web

As a CHURGs collector, I was pleased when Hasbro announced the release of Universe Galvatron back in 2008. Yet, the fact that he was only a Deluxe-sized figure was a small issue; compared to the nightmare of the figure design.

Universe Galvatron
Pic Credit : Web

Since then, there's a lot of news hinting that 'this' or 'that' company will be releasing their own Galvatron but only in 2013, Unique Toys showed their prototype and Maniaking was released in January 2014.

Preda-What?

I feel compelled to post this as never had I have as much doubt on choosing which version should I buy. For official figures, I just follow my CHURG-mold-only rule, simple as that.

Even for 3rd Party releases, I usually made my decision whenenver the product was revealed albeit a few impulse buy like PE Motobot for instance, sold my iGear Delicate Warrior for her. Deciding on TFC Hercules, TFC Uranos, Toyworld Hardbone and Brainwave, all of them were simple choices. But now, there are 3 companies that set to release 3 entirely different Not-Predaking

1 - Unique Toys War Lord

War Lord was never in my consideration. The fact that the individual bots are too small and they looked more like a custom of G1 toys (which they initially were) as opposed to a 'REAL' 3rd Party release

2 - MMC Feral Rex

 This guy is awesome! Had a chance of reviewing R-03 Bovis before and I must say, the quality is superb! The plastics are solid and the joints are tight. All the individual bots look great though not a fan of Not-Razorclaw.

3 - TFC Project Ares

Found the picture today, combining Nemean (Not-Razorclaw) with prototype limbs. There are much to be tweeked as these are only for test shots but i really like them, aesthetic wise. Saw a review of Nemean, clearly showed that the joints and plastics are getting better on him compared to Uranos and Hercules.

I've been back and forth on which is my 'ultimate' Predaking. After weighing a lot of factors like design, quality and price, I will opt with TFC Project Ares.

However, I'll make sure to do MMC Feral Rex review as I already started with Bovis and maybe one day, Unique Toys War Lord

The Not-Combiners

It's a cruel time for Transformers collectors, it really is. Generations 3.0 has given us a promising debut with the releases of awesome characters especially Titan Class Metroplex. However, one thing that still lacking, the Combiners, where up until now, there's still no news of HasTak taking the wheel on this and delivering fair combiners to the fans. And so, we turn to 3rd Party companies. After the succesfull release of many ie Fansproject Crossfires, Maketoys Giant, TFC Hercules and Uranos, more combiners are shoved to us ie Maketoys Not-Computron, MMC Feral Rex (Not-Predaking), another from TFC yet to be named and of course, Fansproject Not-Menasor as apart of the Causality line.

Take note that there's 2 scale of combiners, one being the TFC's scale where we have Uranos, Hercules and MMC's Feral Rex. The other one being Fansproject Crossfires (Not-Bruticus and Not-Superion), Maketoys Giant and Not-Computron, etc. I choose the larger ones being that for combiners, I opt to the biggest scale available.

Reference, not accurately scaled
Pic Credit : Web

*Wishing for more combiners in TFC's scale*