Impressed that you were bold enough to trick it out with the Toyhax set. On the one hand, I want to...on the other hand, ehhhhhh...maybe?? Probably gonna have to get another Long Haul, the hips on mine seem to be starting to fail in combined mode (Devy's got a bit of a lean that wasn't there before, and the hips DO seem ever so slightly loose). Vehicle mode Hook is actually my second favorite of this set, the top dogg being Scrapper. Those struts on Hook's vehicle mode are exactly why. Meanwhile, the Combiner forearms on Scavenger and Bonecrusher make for cool little jetwing packs in robot mode...but they also make them a bit back heavy. But robot mode, though? Scrapper all day erryday!! Though Scavenger - or maybe Pimpinger - is a close second. "Which he can barely hold" Ohhh, they ALL suck at holding their guns. And I refuse to believe that Devastator can hold Hook's crane arm like a big metal bat...he sucks at holding his gun, too, how he gon' hold a plank that don't even tab into his hand!? The instructions have you slingin' Scavenger's shovel arm off to the side like he a wannabe pimp anyway...it's like he got a hairstyle similar to Peter & Egon in The Real Ghostbusters. Funny thing is that everybody's heads are all boxy like they're a bunch of Soundwave wannabes. Sizewise, you could say it's like six ol' skool Leaders that make more of a "Titan" than them quarter-assed "Voyagers" of Combiner Wars/Unite Warriors Devastator. They're like CW/UW/TR/PotP/LG Leader class peeps: they have the size and maybe the scale to hang with MP, but they don't have the aesthetics of MP. (My PotP Optimus WAS my MP-Adjacent Optimus until I got the MP44 KO, my TR Soundwave would've filled in for Year of the Goat Soundwave but he started to junk out on me just as fast and ain't got many Tape Minions anyway, etc.) Oh: my Jinbao set also included the upgrade kit - the first one that's an OSKO of the Generation Toy upgrade kit which ironically Jinbao previously swore they were never gonna do...wonder what made'em backtrack and do it. So there's bigass IDW style drills, thigh extensions that only add an inch of height, some new parts that go into Long Haul's crotch assembly (it was preinstalled with mine, the original parts nowhere to be found), and a decent G1 style head that can't transform (so it's not for vehicle or indimavidual robot mode display). Redemption arc?? Nah, this here's the culmination, the end result. Check it: • First was the OSKO of MMC's Feral Rex and later Nero Rex (again: Nero is cool, but a black and PURPLE Predaking is deadass WRONG!!); it's around the time the Nero OSKO came out that they also did the upgrade kit...but they never fixed the woefully disproportionate robot heads. Now, in 2022 or 2023, they did a reissue box set that omits Catilla and has like 80% of the upgrade kit stuff preinstalled, only inexplicably and inexcusably missing the new robot mode hands with wrist swivels. Plastic quality ain't great, and it's heavily simplified compared to the MMC...though not like an undersized KO that recently came out was. Me personally, I like it more than Hasbruh's quarter-assed PotP Predaking...that thing should've never been greenlit in that state and that design. • Next was the OSKO of Generation Toy/Warbotron Bruticus. This was the redemption arc, the entire journey. Vastly superior to Predaking, but the plastic quality of Blastoff and especially Vortex was still pretty iffy at best. Otherwise, oh, they nailed it. Granted, there were still a couple of things that were simplified...but it was absosmurfinlutely a much better effort. • Then came Gravity Builder. I know these are supposed to be somewhat of a fit with Masterpiece, but hawt diggity DAYUM, the combined mode looks badass with probably errythang!! MP? Looks badass. MPM? Looks even more badass. Mainline? Oh, chef's kiss, this hits ALL the spots in ways that the Cool Become Brave undersized KO of CW Devastator could only DREAM OF, and that actually does look good with the likes of the ol' skool War for/Fall of Cybertron Deluxe class peeps, but...nah, Jinbao's Builder.D does a better job at it (because Voyagers and Leaders exist). Similarly, their Into the Sky - renamed Beast King in the reissue set - works just as perfectly with mainline; I have a pic that I posted in one of the TFW forums (and I think I posted it in your Discord at least once) that has Beast King in the back with Kingdom Galvatron, Kingdom Cyclonus, SS86-10 Sweep as Targetmaster Scourge, Siege 35th Anniversary Soundblaster, and TR Scourge as Sweep in front of him (though I think I also have an older variant of that pic with RtS Cyclonus instead of Kingdom). If that ain't a straight up gangsta Season 3/The★Headmasters lineup...idkwtf is. Yeah, I need Jinbao to do a OSKO of Unique Toys Ordin (Abominus) set...
Where did you buy him from and about how much did you pay? I've seen prices all over the place and I have no idea what I should be paying for something like this but I really want to pick this up and maybe the upgrade kit too.
It's been a couple years so I don't remember the specifics but I'm pretty sure I got mine through AliExpress for around $150 (+ about $30 for reprolabels a little while later).
Killer set, super excited that you picked it up too
Impressed that you were bold enough to trick it out with the Toyhax set. On the one hand, I want to...on the other hand, ehhhhhh...maybe?? Probably gonna have to get another Long Haul, the hips on mine seem to be starting to fail in combined mode (Devy's got a bit of a lean that wasn't there before, and the hips DO seem ever so slightly loose).
Vehicle mode Hook is actually my second favorite of this set, the top dogg being Scrapper. Those struts on Hook's vehicle mode are exactly why. Meanwhile, the Combiner forearms on Scavenger and Bonecrusher make for cool little jetwing packs in robot mode...but they also make them a bit back heavy. But robot mode, though? Scrapper all day erryday!! Though Scavenger - or maybe Pimpinger - is a close second.
"Which he can barely hold" Ohhh, they ALL suck at holding their guns. And I refuse to believe that Devastator can hold Hook's crane arm like a big metal bat...he sucks at holding his gun, too, how he gon' hold a plank that don't even tab into his hand!?
The instructions have you slingin' Scavenger's shovel arm off to the side like he a wannabe pimp anyway...it's like he got a hairstyle similar to Peter & Egon in The Real Ghostbusters. Funny thing is that everybody's heads are all boxy like they're a bunch of Soundwave wannabes.
Sizewise, you could say it's like six ol' skool Leaders that make more of a "Titan" than them quarter-assed "Voyagers" of Combiner Wars/Unite Warriors Devastator. They're like CW/UW/TR/PotP/LG Leader class peeps: they have the size and maybe the scale to hang with MP, but they don't have the aesthetics of MP. (My PotP Optimus WAS my MP-Adjacent Optimus until I got the MP44 KO, my TR Soundwave would've filled in for Year of the Goat Soundwave but he started to junk out on me just as fast and ain't got many Tape Minions anyway, etc.) Oh: my Jinbao set also included the upgrade kit - the first one that's an OSKO of the Generation Toy upgrade kit which ironically Jinbao previously swore they were never gonna do...wonder what made'em backtrack and do it. So there's bigass IDW style drills, thigh extensions that only add an inch of height, some new parts that go into Long Haul's crotch assembly (it was preinstalled with mine, the original parts nowhere to be found), and a decent G1 style head that can't transform (so it's not for vehicle or indimavidual robot mode display).
Redemption arc?? Nah, this here's the culmination, the end result. Check it:
• First was the OSKO of MMC's Feral Rex and later Nero Rex (again: Nero is cool, but a black and PURPLE Predaking is deadass WRONG!!); it's around the time the Nero OSKO came out that they also did the upgrade kit...but they never fixed the woefully disproportionate robot heads. Now, in 2022 or 2023, they did a reissue box set that omits Catilla and has like 80% of the upgrade kit stuff preinstalled, only inexplicably and inexcusably missing the new robot mode hands with wrist swivels. Plastic quality ain't great, and it's heavily simplified compared to the MMC...though not like an undersized KO that recently came out was. Me personally, I like it more than Hasbruh's quarter-assed PotP Predaking...that thing should've never been greenlit in that state and that design.
• Next was the OSKO of Generation Toy/Warbotron Bruticus. This was the redemption arc, the entire journey. Vastly superior to Predaking, but the plastic quality of Blastoff and especially Vortex was still pretty iffy at best. Otherwise, oh, they nailed it. Granted, there were still a couple of things that were simplified...but it was absosmurfinlutely a much better effort.
• Then came Gravity Builder. I know these are supposed to be somewhat of a fit with Masterpiece, but hawt diggity DAYUM, the combined mode looks badass with probably errythang!! MP? Looks badass. MPM? Looks even more badass. Mainline? Oh, chef's kiss, this hits ALL the spots in ways that the Cool Become Brave undersized KO of CW Devastator could only DREAM OF, and that actually does look good with the likes of the ol' skool War for/Fall of Cybertron Deluxe class peeps, but...nah, Jinbao's Builder.D does a better job at it (because Voyagers and Leaders exist). Similarly, their Into the Sky - renamed Beast King in the reissue set - works just as perfectly with mainline; I have a pic that I posted in one of the TFW forums (and I think I posted it in your Discord at least once) that has Beast King in the back with Kingdom Galvatron, Kingdom Cyclonus, SS86-10 Sweep as Targetmaster Scourge, Siege 35th Anniversary Soundblaster, and TR Scourge as Sweep in front of him (though I think I also have an older variant of that pic with RtS Cyclonus instead of Kingdom). If that ain't a straight up gangsta Season 3/The★Headmasters lineup...idkwtf is. Yeah, I need Jinbao to do a OSKO of Unique Toys Ordin (Abominus) set...
Lol, wtf
Where did you buy him from and about how much did you pay? I've seen prices all over the place and I have no idea what I should be paying for something like this but I really want to pick this up and maybe the upgrade kit too.
It's been a couple years so I don't remember the specifics but I'm pretty sure I got mine through AliExpress for around $150 (+ about $30 for reprolabels a little while later).
@RobsteinOne Thanks for the reply. Yeah I'm seeing for around that price on Aliexpress. Appreciate the info.
@@Dementcha You're welcome and good luck!