Review #31: Impossible Toys
Transforming Exosuit Spike & Daniel
Hello, everybody!
Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but I did warn ya! With my impending move, and with work being busy lately, not a lot of time is left for writing reviews, I fear.
I will admit that I have also been spending a bit of time building an entire other website. "What's this?" you say. "Deceiver! That sounds like it takes a lot of time, time you could have spent writing reviews! What travesty is this? I demand my money back!"
A few things in response to that. First... you haven't paid me any money, so no. Just no.
Secondly... I'm not building a whole new website. Rather, it is a website that I used to have that was hosted by Tripod that a month or two ago, without warning and without opportunity for appeal, Tripod made go poof for unspecified "terms of service violations." This was a website that had existed, in relatively the same state, for well over a decade. It contained nothing adult or illicit, just some fan fiction of questionable quality.
I've had good luck with Weebly since January when I started this website, so I decided to make a go at rebuilding my now lost other website there. So really, what I have been doing doesn't involve much in the way of creative output at this point. I have a lot of restoring of existing stories before I get to where new stuff is needed. And taking stuff that exists and putting it online is less time consuming and less of an effort then taking photographs and writing material for a new review. And the somewhat mindless work of it is more relaxing after a day's work, I suppose.
Not to say I don't enjoy writing these reviews, mind you! But it is a different sort of activity. And I did, even if it is going to be a shorter one, try to get at least one more review to you for June.
But before I move on, I suppose I should finish my shameless plug... If you're interested, go check out my new(ish) other website:
Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but I did warn ya! With my impending move, and with work being busy lately, not a lot of time is left for writing reviews, I fear.
I will admit that I have also been spending a bit of time building an entire other website. "What's this?" you say. "Deceiver! That sounds like it takes a lot of time, time you could have spent writing reviews! What travesty is this? I demand my money back!"
A few things in response to that. First... you haven't paid me any money, so no. Just no.
Secondly... I'm not building a whole new website. Rather, it is a website that I used to have that was hosted by Tripod that a month or two ago, without warning and without opportunity for appeal, Tripod made go poof for unspecified "terms of service violations." This was a website that had existed, in relatively the same state, for well over a decade. It contained nothing adult or illicit, just some fan fiction of questionable quality.
I've had good luck with Weebly since January when I started this website, so I decided to make a go at rebuilding my now lost other website there. So really, what I have been doing doesn't involve much in the way of creative output at this point. I have a lot of restoring of existing stories before I get to where new stuff is needed. And taking stuff that exists and putting it online is less time consuming and less of an effort then taking photographs and writing material for a new review. And the somewhat mindless work of it is more relaxing after a day's work, I suppose.
Not to say I don't enjoy writing these reviews, mind you! But it is a different sort of activity. And I did, even if it is going to be a shorter one, try to get at least one more review to you for June.
But before I move on, I suppose I should finish my shameless plug... If you're interested, go check out my new(ish) other website:
But now, onto the review!
I'd previously reviewed a third party item from a company called Impossible Toys, of little G1 scale figures of the human characters of Sparkplug Witwicky and his son, Spike. Well, when the 1986 film came out, in fiction years had passed, and Spike had grown up and now had his own son, fan favorite character, Daniel. (cough) Fan known of character, Daniel. And again, Impossible Toys has seen fit to give us some humans to go with our robots.
I'd previously reviewed a third party item from a company called Impossible Toys, of little G1 scale figures of the human characters of Sparkplug Witwicky and his son, Spike. Well, when the 1986 film came out, in fiction years had passed, and Spike had grown up and now had his own son, fan favorite character, Daniel. (cough) Fan known of character, Daniel. And again, Impossible Toys has seen fit to give us some humans to go with our robots.
In the far flung future of 2005, the human characters had exosuits to help them survive in the various hostile environments they might find themselves in. And, because it was apparently no longer enough to have giant robots who transform, apparently the humans needed suits that transformed, as well. These two figures represent Spike and Daniel wearing these suits.
To the right is what the suits looked like in fiction: |
Pictures from TFWiki.com.
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And to the left, we see father and son in toy form.
To be honest, these are sort of underwhelming. The material they are made out of doesn't quite feel like plastic. Some sort of resin, perhaps? Whatever it is, they feel strange in hand. Not quite sure how to describe it. I've never felt like I was going to break them. Yet they feel somehow indescribably low quality in hand. Articulation is somewhat lacking. Even though they are a much larger scale, for all practical purposes they don't have much more articulation then the Sparkplug and Spike set: Their arms can rotate at the shoulder, and their legs can bend forward at the hips. The knees can be bent, but since the bend there is backwards, it isn't good for any reasonable purpose. |
The joint at the shoulder is somewhat unique in my Transformers (or related third party product) experience in that they are actually screws. So spinning the arm around excessively in one direction or the other will have the added side effect of causing the blue cylinder between the arm and the body to either contract or expand. And, of course, an exceeding amount of spinning in the expansion direction will cause the arm to fall off. If this happens, it is a simple matter to just screw the arm back in.
The clear domes over their heads are removable.
The design looks good, and the details seem sharp. But it has a slight, unprofessional feeling offness about it. This is best exemplified by the legs, which seem to be ever so very slightly different lengths. This doesn't hamper so much in humanoid mode, as it is so slight that you more feel it then see it when standing them. But it is there.
The clear domes over their heads are removable.
The design looks good, and the details seem sharp. But it has a slight, unprofessional feeling offness about it. This is best exemplified by the legs, which seem to be ever so very slightly different lengths. This doesn't hamper so much in humanoid mode, as it is so slight that you more feel it then see it when standing them. But it is there.
As seen above, in the show these suits could transform. These toys can, too. Sort of...
This doesn't resemble the in-show vehicle mode so much, I fear. More it resembles an exosuit that has been bent in half and compressed a bit. Granted, the vehicle mode seen in the show looks like it would have needed a rather complex bit of engineering to accomplish, and these are somewhat simple figures. I guess that "Impossible Toys" didn't want to live up to their name. In any event, while these figures look rather show accurate as humanoids, as vehicles... not so much. To the point that one almost wonders if the transformation was an afterthought in the design process.
The above discussed leg issue comes more into play in this mode, where it seems that if you completely fold each leg all of the way (as one would think you should) you could end up with a very slightly lopsided vehicle. So rather, it is best to adjust things slightly until they seem to be as they should.
When I first got them, the joints on the feet for transformation were very tight, to the point I worried I may break them! After a few uses of the joint, they loosened up nicely and bend just fine now. But that is something new buyers of these figures may wish to be careful of. Another thing that doesn't move as they should are the wheels on these figures. They are very tight, and do not spin well.
The above discussed leg issue comes more into play in this mode, where it seems that if you completely fold each leg all of the way (as one would think you should) you could end up with a very slightly lopsided vehicle. So rather, it is best to adjust things slightly until they seem to be as they should.
When I first got them, the joints on the feet for transformation were very tight, to the point I worried I may break them! After a few uses of the joint, they loosened up nicely and bend just fine now. But that is something new buyers of these figures may wish to be careful of. Another thing that doesn't move as they should are the wheels on these figures. They are very tight, and do not spin well.
Size comparison time! Maxwell Smart returns on his DVD case, and Spike & Daniel are joined by their robot buddies, Bumblebee and Wheelie. And, for ha has, the G1 scale Sparkplug & Spike are in the photo as well. My, but Spike has grown!
So are these figures worth getting? Well, if you're looking for something to just look good standing there with your movie / season 3 collection, sure, why not? If you're looking for a toy to play with... no. Just no. The construction feels a bit off, articulation is lacking on joints that feel weird, and the transformation of the suits, while I may not have expected something perfect to the impossible one presented in fiction, is so simplistic as to almost be a joke. Review added 30 June 2012 by Yotsyta. Please comment! |