Review #14: Classics Huffer
(iGear MW-02 Rager)
I wasn't expecting to be quite as prolific this month. (As previously stated, I kind of was really pushing myself in January so that this website's first month could feature a lot of content to get it started.) But I would like to at least have a minimum of four reviews a month, and of course February has to be that silly shorter month! At least this year, we do get one extra day in it. Anyway, here is the final February review. I'd actually been working on another one, but I've kind of hit writers block on it so I've left it half written for now. With any luck that one will be one of March's reviews. So what will I review in it's place?
Let us take a look at another third party product, iGear's MW-02 Rager, clearly intended to be the G1 Minibot Huffer redesigned to a modern design asthetic. I've had this guy since early January, and have been itching to review him, but had hoped that Reprolabels might have a set of stickers coming for him Alas, nothing as of their February update, so I slapped a few faction symbols on him and called him done unless Reprolabels later comes out with something awesome for him.
Let us take a look at another third party product, iGear's MW-02 Rager, clearly intended to be the G1 Minibot Huffer redesigned to a modern design asthetic. I've had this guy since early January, and have been itching to review him, but had hoped that Reprolabels might have a set of stickers coming for him Alas, nothing as of their February update, so I slapped a few faction symbols on him and called him done unless Reprolabels later comes out with something awesome for him.
As previously established, while I like to try and let official toys stand on their own, when it comes to third party offerings I sometimes like to give you a look at what they are trying to portray. So before we look at iGear's creation, to the right you can see some pictures of both Huffer (in robot mode) from the G1 cartoon, and Huffer (in both modes) as his G1 toy. (Both pictures from that valuable Transformers resource, TFWiki.com.)
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Let's now look at iGear's version of Huffer, shall we? The vehicle mode... well, no doubt about it. Aside from a few minor differences (such as silver painted pipes rather then chromed, or the cone shaped protrusions on the top of the cab being left orange rather then painted black) this looks like a pretty good dead ringer for the G1 toy.
Plastic quality can always be a concern with third party products, but no worries here as the quality of the plastic seems very good. Holding this in your hand, you do not feel like it is going to fall apart on you. Paint applications are crisp with no noticable bleeding. This carries over into the robot mode. The faction symbol on the top of the cab is, of course, an extra Reprolabel I had lying around. |
If there is one mild disapointment with the vehicle mode, it is that this figure comes with two little (and very nice looking) guns, but they have no place to store on the vehicle mode. On a toy that is trying to update an older character to a modern toy asthetic this is unfortunate, but as mentioned it is only a mild disapointment. It would have been nice if they had somewhere to store on the vehicle, but it is by far not a deal breaker in my opinion for this toy.
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Robot mode!
This is a very nice looking Huffer. In this mode, iGear definitely looks like they have tried to capture the look of the character in the cartoon, and in a way that also seems like it would fit in nicely with Classics style toys. They've also, as mentioned, given him some guns, something that (as a Minicar) his original G1 toy lacked, and that official modern toys of a similar size (Legends class) often also lack. Something else this has over the original Huffer or modern Legends class figures is some excellent articulation. The head is on a ball joint, although unlike the usual where the ball joint is on a peg that rises from the body and plugs into the head, the opposite seems true here. There is a slight problem with the head articulation in that, with the head recessed into the space under the truck's cab, unless you have some tweezers or the world's most tiny fingers, good luck getting at it! The shoulders, elbows, and hips all offer excellent movement via ball joints. The waist has a swivel, and the knees can bend very well. |
Much like the one he sports for his vehicle mode, the faction symbol is an extra Reprolabel one I had kicking around. Also, the red and yellow line under his faction symbol was created using some Reprolabel scraps, being my attempt to emulate a sticker the G1 Huffer sported in a similar position.
Here's a size comparison with Huffer and Sailor Moon, joined by a few other assorted toys of a similar size class. (Yup, those are all Mini-bots you see in that photo. If Powerglide seems a bit tall, you're just imagining things.)
Anyway, this is a solid figure, still as of this writing easialy available, and (when you acount for the fact that third party figures are going to be more expensive then similarly sized official figures) for about $20, this guy won't be too painful a bite into your wallet. At that price and for this size, perhaps this wouldn't be best for a child's toy. But for an adult collector, this should be a welcome addition to a Classics style collection. Review by Yotsuya, added 29 February 2012. Please comment! |