Review #3: Reflector (PE-11 Scouting Force X)
Previously I reviewed Classics Voyager Class Optimus Prime, which featured a signifigant third party upgrade in the form of the Fansproject G3 Trailer. In this case, we are looking at a figure that is completely a third party product, officially known as the "PE-11 Scouting Force X," a homage to the G1 character(s) known as Reflector.
A note, first, about third party products. I don't condone bootlegging a toy. If some company is going to take an official Hasbro or Takara product and just copy it, perhaps making a few minor changes, doing a recolour, or changing the figure's scale... well, I'm not a huge fan of that and generally won't want it in my collection. (Although, in the interests of full disclosure, I did make an exception to the "doing a recolour" bit, but we'll get to that when, someday, I do my Classics Seekers mega review.) Taking an existing official product, however, and releasing third party accessories to augment it I am fine with. Also fine with me is when there is a character very unlikely to have an official version made and a third party company steps up, designs a completely original figure to represent that character, and releases it.
This is an example of a completely original figure from a third party company.
In past reviews, I've avoided including photos of past versions of a character. It was a bit tempting, I suppose, to do something like photograph Classics Prime standing next to G1 Prime. But while in the text I am not afraid to mention when something is nicely evoking the past, in the photos I wanted the viewer to be able to judge a figure for what it is, not what is is trying to be or what it is not. In this case, however, I think it might be nice to show you the original Reflector so that you know what Perfect Effect (the company that produced this toy) was trying to go for and you can see how well they may have done so.
A note, first, about third party products. I don't condone bootlegging a toy. If some company is going to take an official Hasbro or Takara product and just copy it, perhaps making a few minor changes, doing a recolour, or changing the figure's scale... well, I'm not a huge fan of that and generally won't want it in my collection. (Although, in the interests of full disclosure, I did make an exception to the "doing a recolour" bit, but we'll get to that when, someday, I do my Classics Seekers mega review.) Taking an existing official product, however, and releasing third party accessories to augment it I am fine with. Also fine with me is when there is a character very unlikely to have an official version made and a third party company steps up, designs a completely original figure to represent that character, and releases it.
This is an example of a completely original figure from a third party company.
In past reviews, I've avoided including photos of past versions of a character. It was a bit tempting, I suppose, to do something like photograph Classics Prime standing next to G1 Prime. But while in the text I am not afraid to mention when something is nicely evoking the past, in the photos I wanted the viewer to be able to judge a figure for what it is, not what is is trying to be or what it is not. In this case, however, I think it might be nice to show you the original Reflector so that you know what Perfect Effect (the company that produced this toy) was trying to go for and you can see how well they may have done so.
Reflector had two somewhat different looks in the G1 days. This isn't as aparent in his (their?) camera mode. But when transforming, Reflector splits into three seperate robots. In the cartoon series, they all looked pretty much identical except that the one that formed the middle of the camera had a shutter in his chest. The toy, however, gave each robot a seperate colour and distinctive look.
The red robot on the left was Spectro. The purple and green one in the middle (from which the animation model seems most based) was Viewfinder. Finally, the blue one on the right was Spyglass. So, how does Perfect Effect's attempt to modernize the design look? Unlike my past reviews, I think we shall look at the robot modes first. |
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These figures definitely seem to take more of their inspiration from the animation models. These guys almost look like they could have stepped out of the show, and I tried my best to emulate the poses in the above picture from the show to emphasise that.
There is a nod to the original toys as well, however. If you look at their wrists, you will see a band of colour that corresponds to the colour schemes of the original toys, with red, green, and blue. The figures feature a lot of posability which is especially impressive once you factor in how tiny these guys are. Heck, my first impression when I took their box in my hands after it arrived in the mail yesterday was, "My god, this is tiny!" |
More on size later, however. Back to posability, they are chock full of ball joints. Almost every joint is a ball joint, the shoulders, the elbows, the hips, the knees, and the neck. The waist is just a swivle, but that is all that is needed there. Likewise, the ankles swivle to allow for wider stances with flat feet. The only joint one might have asked for that isn't here is a wrist joint. However, given these figure's diminuitive size that would likely have been difficult to pull off, and as stated it is already rather impressive how much posability actually was included, so I shan't complain.
There is an impressive amount of detail to these guys, again once you consider how tiny they are. Most of the detail is molded and / or painted on the figure, but the faction symbols and any of the chrome detail come courtsey of a sticker set from Reprolabels.
Of course, these are the figures without any of their accessories. What might there be for accessories with these figures? Oh, it might come with a few...
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It's an accessory explosion! Viewfinder gets shoulderpads that are a nice nod to the original toy, as well as arm shields and two big guns. Spectro gets a shield, two shoulder-mounted missle batteries, and a sniper rifle made up from a gun identical to Viewfinder's with an added scope and barrel extension. Finally, Spyglass has a backpack of some sort and a huge gatling gun. In addition, all three have knives, and holders for the knives that attach to the back of each figure.
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Care should be taken with the accessories, given their small size. And when it comes to any of the pieces that are hand held, if my figure is any indication of the norm, you might find that the hands have quite a tight grip. I've only had the figure since yesterday, so it is a little early to say for sure if anything may be in danger of breaking, but I would still recomend being very careful putting things into or taking things out of their hands, especially Spectro's shield. The plastic used for this toy (including all of the accessories) does feel like a good and sturdy quality, but these are tiny and expensive, so better to err on the side of caution.
I do feel I must note a small problem with the Reprolabels set. The shields that go onto Viewfinder's arms will scrape against the stickers there, causing damage to them. Not Perfect Effect's fault in the design of the toy, obviously, as Reprolabels would have designed their stickers after the toy was designed. I will say that with my sticker order, I received two copies of the sheet that these stickers came from. If this was a happy mistake, or if Reprolabels did this intentionally as they are aware of this issue and anyone who orders this set can expect the same treatment, I could not say.
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In any event, if you want the Reprolabels and you plan to always keep your Viewfinder with his arm shields on, that should hide the problem. And the arms are completely hidden in the alternate mode, so it should not cause concern there. And finally, if this will bother you and if the extra sticker sheet thingy was an accidental bonus for me that you won't get replicated, you can still make up to four extra copies of this sticker by cutting away and using the strips left behind on the sheet between where these stickers were when you peel them off.
My overall opinion of the figure in this mode is very positive. Three tiny but very nice looking and posable robots with more accessories than you can shake a stick at, but not such an overwhelming number of accessories that they cannot all be used at once. It does feel sturdy in the hands, but given the small size and complexety here, probably not a good toy for children. With uncareful play it could likely break, and the number of very small parts could lead to something being lost easialy, or worse it could be a choking hazard for some especially uncareful and foolish child. No not a child's toy, but an excellent adult collectable.
Of course, we've still only covered half of the thing here. It is an (unofficial) Transformer, after all. So it still has another whole mode to look at! So let us turn this thing into a camera, shall we?
My overall opinion of the figure in this mode is very positive. Three tiny but very nice looking and posable robots with more accessories than you can shake a stick at, but not such an overwhelming number of accessories that they cannot all be used at once. It does feel sturdy in the hands, but given the small size and complexety here, probably not a good toy for children. With uncareful play it could likely break, and the number of very small parts could lead to something being lost easialy, or worse it could be a choking hazard for some especially uncareful and foolish child. No not a child's toy, but an excellent adult collectable.
Of course, we've still only covered half of the thing here. It is an (unofficial) Transformer, after all. So it still has another whole mode to look at! So let us turn this thing into a camera, shall we?
One thing those not familiar with this figure may think would be, "All those accessories can't possibly all incorporate into the alt mode, can they?" Yes, they can.
Spyglass's backpack becomes most of the lense. A dagger (and it's holster) attaches one each to Viewfinder's arm shields, and those form the sides of the lense. Inside the lense you store all three guns. Inside Spectro's shield you store his gun's scope and barrel extension, as well as the third dagger and holster. This becomes the base of the camera. Spyglass's gatling gun splits in half, the front becoming a tripod and the back combining with Spectro's missle pods to form the flash. Finally, Viewfinder's shoulder pads snap together to form the top of the camera's center portion, much like what they do on the G1 figure. (Except in that case not as seperate pieces.) |
So, time to transform these guys!
Take the three robots, fold their arms and legs behind themselves and attach them together with Viewfinder in the middle facing forward and Spectro and Spyglass on either side facing backwards and you get...! Well, you get three robots attached together. Hmm. I suppose it is a good thing they are side-to-side, so we can avoid any bad robot Human Centipede jokes. |
Time, I think, to start attaching all of the accessores. The large shield clips to the bottom and the tripod plugs into it. I will admit attaching the shield to the bottom is a bit fiddily on mine, not sure if this would be common to all or just an issue with mine. Once it is on, though, it seems fine. The lense goes onto the obvious place on the front, the flash onto Spyglass's head, and the camera top fits over Viewfinder's head. (Spectro's head is left exposed, but this was also the case on the G1 toy and you are supposed to pretend it is the shutter button.) Do all this, and you yourself have a camera.
And a nice looking camera it is. The Reprolabels help this mode especially, giving it a nice shiny lense, although if you don't wish for the extra expense of getting them you'll at least find some nice silver paint there. Reflector looks great in this mode from almost any angle, the only week point being looking at it from behind. From that angle, it does get a tad obvious that it is just three robots stuck together with a bunch of stuff attached, but even there it isn't a terribly unasthetic thing. |
Now you may recall my mentioning once or twice that this figure was small. Petite. Tiny, even. How tiny? Any smaller, and he'd almost be a perfect scale for Masterpiese figures to use. Heck, if not for the fact that that poor bastard Megatron can't bend his arms towards one another, it almost works! Now, say cheese so Megatron can destroy you all! Mwa ha ha ha!
Finally, for those who may not have a Masterpiece Megatron to compare with, here's that DVD case from my Classics Optimus review popping up again to provide some sense of scale. |
So, if the tiny size doesn't bother you and if you have no plans to give it to any children, this is a great figure for the adult collectable, and a great addition to any Classics collection. Also, unlike the figures in my first two reviews which were both close to six years past their release date, this figure is still new enough that you can still find it new without too much trouble. Of course, it is a third party release. So we're not talking about stopping by your neighborhood Toys R Us here. Your best bet is online. And also, third party products are not usually known for their affordability. So even new, expect to pay at least around $90.00 for this.
Still, if you can afford this guy, I would certainly recomend him.
Review added 6 January 2012 by Yotsuya. Please comment!
Still, if you can afford this guy, I would certainly recomend him.
Review added 6 January 2012 by Yotsuya. Please comment!
Sorry to tack something onto an already completed review, folks... but given their previously talked about diminuitive, miniscular, Lilliputian size I had a sudden inspiration to take a few more photos of Reflector's robots amongst some other figures of similar scale. Thus, here they are with a bunch of other Legends class figures (and a Micromaster combiner). Enjoy!
Addendum added 7 January 2012 by Yotsuya.