DSC_9083
After years of third party entries, Hasbro finally threw its hat into the ring and created a combiner mode for the beloved Dinobots and named it Volcanicus. Released as part of the Power of the Primes line, like with the other releases, most people could immediately see that this set needed help to look awesome.
Two third party companies decided to play ball. Perfect Effects (PE) release their upgrade in two parts. One focusing on the hands and feet of the combined Volcanicus, the other being the, for lack of better terms, the body kit to made the torso look more impressive along with some additional weaponry for the individual bots and the combined mode.
Then Transform Dreamwave (TDW) came along and made things a bit more complicated. Their Volcanicus kit came in one box, providing upgrades to the everything that PE did in their sets (including hands and feet that separated into gear for the individual bots), as well as providing thigh pieces for Volcanicus, G1 inspired weapons for the Dinobots, and if you preordered the kit within a certain period of time, you also got all black versions of the weapons that come with the kit, all for a price that was less than the PE sets would have costed you.
And thus, TDW became a competitor in the upgrade market.
Now, I received my kit last summer, but stupidly didn't actually open the thing and inspect, and as a result I only recently noticed that I ended up with duplicate parts that unfortunately have a distinct left and right.
Let that be a lesson, boys and girls.
Overall, the TDW set does look better than the PE set. The hands and feet have gold accents rather than red, and the feet just look more.. primal, for lack of better words. Neither kit does anything for the somewhat spindly arms and offer very similar upgrades to the chest area, but as mentioned, TDW was the only one that includes upgrades to the thighs of Volcanicus.
QC, on the other hand, is somewhat weak, with the biggest issues being, as mentioned in another blurb of mine, tolerances on the pegs to connect the feet and hands to the bots, and the hinges that hold the feet together. Not that you're going to get too many dynamic poses out of your newly pimped out bot, given how weak the Hasbro combiner joints are... I swear, it's almost like they never considered that people might want to pose their combined bots.
I guess if nothing else, these kits show that that with a bit more "oomph", these releases from Hasbro and Takara can be very visually impressive. You'd think that with companies being able to make a business model out of selling upgrades to your figures, that you'd make your own kits that are official, have the level of QC one associates with your product, and introduce a new revenue stream... but hey, that's logic talking and we don't use that kind of language around here at 12:35 am.
It will be interesting to see what TDW cooks up in the future, as PE has kits that aren't combiner specific - in fact, they've actually gone ahead and made their own figures, though I don't actually have any of them to be able to provide useful commentary on.
DSC_9083
After years of third party entries, Hasbro finally threw its hat into the ring and created a combiner mode for the beloved Dinobots and named it Volcanicus. Released as part of the Power of the Primes line, like with the other releases, most people could immediately see that this set needed help to look awesome.
Two third party companies decided to play ball. Perfect Effects (PE) release their upgrade in two parts. One focusing on the hands and feet of the combined Volcanicus, the other being the, for lack of better terms, the body kit to made the torso look more impressive along with some additional weaponry for the individual bots and the combined mode.
Then Transform Dreamwave (TDW) came along and made things a bit more complicated. Their Volcanicus kit came in one box, providing upgrades to the everything that PE did in their sets (including hands and feet that separated into gear for the individual bots), as well as providing thigh pieces for Volcanicus, G1 inspired weapons for the Dinobots, and if you preordered the kit within a certain period of time, you also got all black versions of the weapons that come with the kit, all for a price that was less than the PE sets would have costed you.
And thus, TDW became a competitor in the upgrade market.
Now, I received my kit last summer, but stupidly didn't actually open the thing and inspect, and as a result I only recently noticed that I ended up with duplicate parts that unfortunately have a distinct left and right.
Let that be a lesson, boys and girls.
Overall, the TDW set does look better than the PE set. The hands and feet have gold accents rather than red, and the feet just look more.. primal, for lack of better words. Neither kit does anything for the somewhat spindly arms and offer very similar upgrades to the chest area, but as mentioned, TDW was the only one that includes upgrades to the thighs of Volcanicus.
QC, on the other hand, is somewhat weak, with the biggest issues being, as mentioned in another blurb of mine, tolerances on the pegs to connect the feet and hands to the bots, and the hinges that hold the feet together. Not that you're going to get too many dynamic poses out of your newly pimped out bot, given how weak the Hasbro combiner joints are... I swear, it's almost like they never considered that people might want to pose their combined bots.
I guess if nothing else, these kits show that that with a bit more "oomph", these releases from Hasbro and Takara can be very visually impressive. You'd think that with companies being able to make a business model out of selling upgrades to your figures, that you'd make your own kits that are official, have the level of QC one associates with your product, and introduce a new revenue stream... but hey, that's logic talking and we don't use that kind of language around here at 12:35 am.
It will be interesting to see what TDW cooks up in the future, as PE has kits that aren't combiner specific - in fact, they've actually gone ahead and made their own figures, though I don't actually have any of them to be able to provide useful commentary on.