MechFansToys 07 Galvontron review

​"Behold - Galvontron". Wait, that's not how it goes. 

Third parties are leaning ever closer to Hasbro's trademarked names without ever jabbing their flag right in the face, and Galvontron is comically close to the character it's intended to be - Galvatron. Mechfanstoys like to prove they don't discriminate when it comes to knocking off toys, this time pinching a fellow third parties figure in the form of DX9's Tyrant. But making it better.

Does better mean different enough to not feel shady? Read on to find out.

Wei Jiang Reaver - Oversized KO Toyworld Shinebug

Wei Jiang Reaver

As a crumpet eating Brit, China can sometimes look like a crazy lawless place. From the outside looking in it appears that everything there is a fake version of something that costs us an arm and a leg over here. Even the cars.

Third party manufactures, long a moral battle ground amongst much of the fandom, are no longer immune to this and face the same problems as Hasbro and Takara do from companies knocking off their toys. Case in point is today's article on Wei Jiang's Reaver. Beginning life as Shinebug, Toyworld produced him as an homage to G1 Goldbug who himself was the resurrected form of Bumblebee. I'm going cross eyed.

As someone who usually doesn't buy KO's this is an interesting one for me so I figured it was worth doing a mini review. Literally (ha, I keep making that joke).

To see the full article click the button below and continue past the jump

Transformers Masterpiece Ratbat KO Review

Takara pulled something of a fast one by releasing a Masterpiece Ratbat, and including a rather large Soundblaster accessory with it.

The price of Ratbat sky rocketed on the secondary market, even though in this day and age it was inevitable a 3rd party company would knock off the mold at some point given their prolificness with Masterpiece figures.

Normally I do not bother with KO's as it is always at the back of my mind that they are not legit, but I really wanted a Ratbat to go with Soundwave and his other tape minions.

This will only be a short review, mainly focusing on the issues affecting the knock off, where those pesky pirates just could not get it quite right.

Does this knock off do a good job?

Hit the button below to find out

*edit* I am not sure why the text formatting seems to have gone a bit mad?

Fansproject City Commander Armour KO Review

                                                         He really can't deal with that right now

A couple of years back, I picked up a Knock Off of the Fansproject City Commander Armour set. It was really cheap, and intrigued me enough to pick it up whereas usually I don't really bother with KO's.

The thing was, I did not have a Classics Ultra Magnus for it to go on, and as he was ridiculously expensive on the secondary market at the time, it meant I ended up picking up a KO of that figure too. Oh how that was a mistake, and it ended up ruining my enjoyment of the set, and meant it was pretty much shoved to the back of a shelf and never touched again.

See, the Ultra Magnus KO I had looked really nice in pictures, and it was very cheap - but the quality was awful. It came in truck mode, and the first than that happened, was lightly trying to fold one of the cab sections - it snapped clean off.

It was not like I was bending it, or forcing it - it was just too weak. Then attaching the armour to the Magnus figure, other problems started to present themselves. KO Magnus's back section doesn't sit quite right in robot mode, which meant the chest of the City Commander would not sit right over the top of it. The shoulder pieces on the KO are not tight anyway, but on a KO Magnus, they would just fall off. Its a shame, as I love that original Classics Voyager Prime mode, I don't think there has been a better Classics version yet.

It soured me to the whole set, even though it was my own fault, and I just sort of forgot about it.

Until this week, when out of the blue I managed to find a reasonably priced Official Classics Magnus on EBay which was promptly ordered.

The difference it makes to the KO armour is massive.

Hit "READ FULL REVIEW" below, to...well...do that, after the jump