Review #RX-5: "Classics" Style Mixmaster
(TFC Toys Mad Blender)
TFC Hercules part 5 of 8
Hi, everybody! Yotsuya here. Wow, July was a busy month here at Yotsuya's Reviews, eh? Well, now that I've established that I'm back, I'll probably ease up on the pace a little. (As evidenced, I am sure, by the fact that it is already a bit into August and this is the first update. I needed a break after that July! Whew!) But I shan't be going away again any time soon! I'll be back in the near future with my own first review of the month. But for now, here is the next installment in Rated X's series of guest reviews.
As usual, I'll be back at the end with a few brief thoughts of my own. But for now, I shall turn things over to the esteemed Rated X:
As usual, I'll be back at the end with a few brief thoughts of my own. But for now, I shall turn things over to the esteemed Rated X:
TFC Mad Blender (presented here with Reprolabels and CrazyDevy's purple barrel) is a fair modern representation of G1 Mixmaster. I say “fair” because it is missing a key feature that made G1 Mixmaster unique. But that will be discussed when I talk about the robot mode.
Getting back to alt mode, this is a voyager sized figure. Like the rest of his teammates. The cement mixer mode is nice in general. It has wheels that allow it to roll. The barrel spins like a real cement mixer unlike the Maketoys version of Mixmaster which has the barrel is attached to the truck. For this review I have the CrazyDevy purple barrel attached. You basically have to unscrew the green skin pieces off of the inside barrel pieces and reattach the purple barrel pieces. That’s a lot of screwing. Sorry, no pictures of Mad Blender with the green barrel here. But I did include a picture of the green skin pieces for reference on what you get stock. |
The CrazyDevy purple barrel was one of the more successful items they produced. It sold out and is impossible to find for sale through online retailers. A search on e-bay only revealed one for sale so it is hard to find as of July 2014 when I wrote this review.
Getting back to the cement mixer mode, I would like to point out that the cab can tilt to the side when it turns right or left like a real truck. This is actually due to the foot pivot for the combiner mode. However, I don’t believe most cement mixers actually do this because their cabs are attached to the fuselage of the bed of the truck. Its still a cool feature though.
But one issue I have with the cab itself is the side windows. The shape of them is just plain ugly. The side windows are too small and the post that connects them to the front window is incredibly fat. This would be a huge blind spot if someone were to actually drive a truck with windows like that. But it just looks plain ugly to me. I don’t know what TFC was thinking. They could have molded the panel differently to look more like a real truck cab’s windows would look. It wouldn’t have changed the transformation any. And the purple Reprolabels window stickers that cover the stock grey windows make it stick out even more.
But one issue I have with the cab itself is the side windows. The shape of them is just plain ugly. The side windows are too small and the post that connects them to the front window is incredibly fat. This would be a huge blind spot if someone were to actually drive a truck with windows like that. But it just looks plain ugly to me. I don’t know what TFC was thinking. They could have molded the panel differently to look more like a real truck cab’s windows would look. It wouldn’t have changed the transformation any. And the purple Reprolabels window stickers that cover the stock grey windows make it stick out even more.
Other than that flaw, the cement mixer mode is pretty cool. In real life, it would be a lot smaller than the rest of his teammates. But I’m not a fan of different sized robots in one team, so I’m cool with this. A little mass shifting never hurt anybody. It’s one of the enigmas of the G1 cartoon that was not meant to be nitpicked. Just call it weird alien technology and let it go. It was meant to be iconic, not factual.
Mad Blender not only comes with two guns, but also includes the handles used to make the giant rifles wielded by Hercules. He also comes with the center piece of Hercules' chest shield. That’s a lot of pieces. Part storage junkies, fear not…TFC has you covered ! The chest shield piece can be stored neatly on the back of the truck and sort of resembles where the cement might be released from the barrel. The rifle handles can be clipped on the sides of the chest shield and the two guns clip onto those. It actually looks pretty cool since it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb like most parts storage modes on 3rd party figures.
Mad Blender not only comes with two guns, but also includes the handles used to make the giant rifles wielded by Hercules. He also comes with the center piece of Hercules' chest shield. That’s a lot of pieces. Part storage junkies, fear not…TFC has you covered ! The chest shield piece can be stored neatly on the back of the truck and sort of resembles where the cement might be released from the barrel. The rifle handles can be clipped on the sides of the chest shield and the two guns clip onto those. It actually looks pretty cool since it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb like most parts storage modes on 3rd party figures.
The robot mode is definitely the weakest of all six team members in my personal opinion because it is the most far off from the both the G1 cartoon and the vintage G1 toy.
Earlier I mentioned that Mad Blender was missing a key feature that made G1 Mixmaster unique. I am talking about Mixmaster’s signature “hood” with dual cannons above his head. Madblender has no hood. He does have a box behind his head that vaguely homage the hood, but not very well. You have the option of raising the barrel clip over the “box” and attaching the center piece of Hercules chest shield on top above his head. The chest shield has the two dual cannons like the original G1 Mixmaster, but they are pushed so far back it does not resemble a “hood” even remotely. Also in order to do this, you must detach the cement barrel from his back. This sacrifices one key feature to give you the other. For me, a perfect homage to Mixmaster should have both the hood with dual cannons and the cement barrel on his back like G1. Sadly, with Mad Blender you can only have one or the other and neither are perfect. When you attach the barrel to his back, it has the green piece sticking out the bottom of the barrel since it detaches from the truck to break apart and form his kibble weapons. But it looks pretty good, so I choose to have the barrel on his back and forget about the dual cannons since the “hood” sucks anyways. |
Mad Blender’s shoulders have the most annoying kibble that forms the two rear wheels of the truck in alt mode. The instructions and box art depict the kibble pointing straight up in the air. I think this looks really stupid. I point them to the back giving him a more G1 look, hiding the kibble somewhat from the front view of the robot.
As with all the individual robot heads in this set, Mad Blender has nice red light piping. However with the box behind his head, the light piping can only function when the head is turned to the side.
The figure is pretty well articulated. The head is not on a ball joint, but it can rotate 360 degrees. The shoulder joints can move up to the side. The upper arm has swivel. The elbow joints can bend, but there is wrist swivel. The figure also has waist swivel. The waist also moves side to side due to the foot pivot for combiner mode. The legs are connected by ratchet joints at the hips. They can move forward, backwards and sideways. There have been no reports about stripping gears in the hips like there was with Heavy Labor. I guess TFC addressed this issue and made improvements so it would never happen again. The knees can bend. The feet flip out but have no articulation. The bumper of the truck cab flips out to become small heel spurs for stability when posing. And he needs every bit of it if you choose to display Mad Blender with the cement barrel on his back.
As with all the individual robot heads in this set, Mad Blender has nice red light piping. However with the box behind his head, the light piping can only function when the head is turned to the side.
The figure is pretty well articulated. The head is not on a ball joint, but it can rotate 360 degrees. The shoulder joints can move up to the side. The upper arm has swivel. The elbow joints can bend, but there is wrist swivel. The figure also has waist swivel. The waist also moves side to side due to the foot pivot for combiner mode. The legs are connected by ratchet joints at the hips. They can move forward, backwards and sideways. There have been no reports about stripping gears in the hips like there was with Heavy Labor. I guess TFC addressed this issue and made improvements so it would never happen again. The knees can bend. The feet flip out but have no articulation. The bumper of the truck cab flips out to become small heel spurs for stability when posing. And he needs every bit of it if you choose to display Mad Blender with the cement barrel on his back.
Obviously, this was not TFC’s intention. They went through a lot of trouble to make the barrel break apart into nine different pieces to become weird cannon missile launcher things. They attach to Mad Blender’s arms and lower legs. I think it looks really ridiculous. But believe it or not there are people out there who actually like this sort of thing. The axis of the barrel that allows it to spin becomes a really weird long rifle. As with all the Hercules figures, Mad Blender comes with a small purple gun which combines with the other members guns to form Hercules gun. A translucent red version of the same gun is also included which combines with the other members red guns to form a 2nd gun for Hercules. The handles for Hercules guns can be clipped on to the sides of the box behind Mad Blender’s head. Then you can peg his guns into the handles pointing forward for extra firepower. And if that isn’t enough, don’t forget to peg in Hercules center chest piece on top of the barrel clip on the box behind Mad Blender’s head. This gives him two more guns. Now that you have all this crap attached to the figure, you have just created a super kibble monster that can only be rivaled by Fansproject Diesel or Maketoys Battle Tanker.
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Overall, Mad Blender is a cool figure, even if he is the weakest link of the team in my personal opinion. He is not that cartoon accurate in robot mode, but what can you do ? The lack of a proper hood and the ugly side windows are annoying to me. Maketoys nailed the hood perfectly on their version of Mixmaster. But the Maketoys version lacks a spinning cement barrel in alt mode and his robot mode towers over the rest of his teammates. So I guess both TFC and Maketoys versions of Mixmaster have their flaws aesthetically making it a draw in my opinion. As for scale, sure he’s bigger than most of your Hasbro figures, but you’re probably buying him and his team members to display as Hercules in combiner mode. With that being said, mass shifting was a big part of the G1 cartoon, and Hercules will scale with deluxe Hasbro figures nicely. I’m happy to have this guy in my collection.
Hello! Yotsuya, back again! For a refresher on my review of the Maketoys version of this character, you can click here.
So... Rated X seems to feel it is a draw between the two versions of this character. Myself... well, I don't think I can feel quite so charitable, I fear. This is the one Hercules figure he seems to have the most problems with, and frankly I agree with all of the issues he presented! On the other hand, he seemed to have two main negatives to say in relation to the Maketoys version, and my personal opinions don't agree nearly as much on those counts.
As far as height, yes, the Maketoys figure is the tallest of his fellows. But it is not as if he is freakishly tall. We're not talking like he looks as if he is a Leader Class figure standing next to Legends Class ones. Rather, he seems like he is on the taller end of one size class while many of his fellows tend towards the medium or shorter end of the same size class.
So... Rated X seems to feel it is a draw between the two versions of this character. Myself... well, I don't think I can feel quite so charitable, I fear. This is the one Hercules figure he seems to have the most problems with, and frankly I agree with all of the issues he presented! On the other hand, he seemed to have two main negatives to say in relation to the Maketoys version, and my personal opinions don't agree nearly as much on those counts.
As far as height, yes, the Maketoys figure is the tallest of his fellows. But it is not as if he is freakishly tall. We're not talking like he looks as if he is a Leader Class figure standing next to Legends Class ones. Rather, he seems like he is on the taller end of one size class while many of his fellows tend towards the medium or shorter end of the same size class.
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And then, of course, there is the matter of the mixing drum. I did state in my own review that I knew there were those out there (Rated X included, it seems) who were disappointed with the Maketoys version because it didn't spin. My counter argument to that, I suppose, is best expressed by copying and pasting a short segment of my own review, where I said, "what would a rotating barrel have given us? Two seconds of spinning it around while going, 'Wee!!!!'? Unlike other things like Hook's crane or the various characters with shovels, which could have potential for dynamic displays, a round barrel when placed in a display looks the same no matter how it is rotated." (Indeed, I shall now add to that to say that, with Reprolabels applied, the stationary mixing drum actually helps by keeping the faction symbol on it centered!)
So in the end, we have two different takes on Mixmaster, one of which is an excellent update to the G1 character and the other of which is an ugly mess of a figure who at best only gives hints of a resemblance to who he is supposed to be. I know I have said in the past that I don't mind some "Classics" style figures being a bit revisionist. (After all, if all "Classics" was going to be was figures that were carbon copies of G1, then we may as well have just gotten the G1 figures themselves!) But sometimes a figure takes such revision too far, which I firmly believe TFC Toys did with Mad Blender. |
Still, one more figure to go and then we still have the gestalt to look at! I shall try to remain keeping an open mind here!
In other news, only 11 days left to go for my hugely unsuccessful Kickstarter! Honestly, this is about what I expected. (A bit surprised, actually, that I even got a $1.00 pledge!) Anyone out there feel like proving me wrong?
Well, until next time, folks!
Review added 9 August 2014 by Rated X. (Prelude and post-script comments by Yotsuya.) Comments are welcomed!
Opinions in the body of the review and the photographs presented along with them are from Rated X. Used on this website with permission.
In other news, only 11 days left to go for my hugely unsuccessful Kickstarter! Honestly, this is about what I expected. (A bit surprised, actually, that I even got a $1.00 pledge!) Anyone out there feel like proving me wrong?
Well, until next time, folks!
Review added 9 August 2014 by Rated X. (Prelude and post-script comments by Yotsuya.) Comments are welcomed!
Opinions in the body of the review and the photographs presented along with them are from Rated X. Used on this website with permission.