Review: FansProject Assaulter

I have a love/hate relationship with FansProject (FP). They make incredibly high quality toys, with big chunks of metal, but they also make their not-Transformers stupidly complicated to change from one mode to the other. The not-Insecticons I can just about manage, the trailers take a bit of fiddling about with the pieces before I can get them to fit, but to get not-Springer into all his 3 modes it's instructions every time.

Assaulter is the latest release from FP. Whereas Steelcore, the previous release in the Warbot line, was an all-new character, Assaulter follows the Defender mould and is honestlynotatallbasedonanexisitingHasbrocharacter. In this case, Broadside.

I'd never heard of Broadside before Assaulter was announced - or so I thought. Turns out he's one of the Wreckers and thus I probably had read about him in Transformers comics, but I'd never taken much notice of him. Since I have zero nostalgic tie to him, I can openly declare that his 80s toy was pretty terrible - turning from robot to aircraft carrier to an apparently aircraft carrier-sized plane. Ah, mass-shifting, it lets you get away with anything.

So how does Assaulter fare?

Review: Warbot Defender

£79.99 from Kapow Toys

Before I get into the review, I must point out that this is definitely not Springer, leader of the Wreckers and star of Transformers: The Movie. He definitely isn't an updated version of the triple-changer robot released by Hasbro back in the 80s.

Definitely not.

I mean, yes, he does share the same colour scheme and, okay, so he does change into 3 different modes which are a little similar-looking. But, look, he's called 'Warbot Defender' which is completely different to 'Springer' and he is completely bare of any Autobot logos.

...Unless you use the Reprolabels sticker sheet.

Review: City Commander TFX-01

Let's be clear before we start this review: hardly anyone is going to want this. It's an add-on kit for a Transformer sold only in Woolworths in the UK, which now fetches a fair amount of money on ebay. Let's also be clear: those people who do own the Woolworths exclusive, who don't already down TFX-01, are unlikely ever to do so. Not unless you're willing to put down a sizeable amount of money for the privilege.

So really the point of doing this review is in question. Why bother reviewing something you either already own or will never be able to own? Well... I dunno. I pretty much just thought it was cool and wanted to show it off.

Hasbro, bless its cotton socks, tries its best, but at times the toys it produces are lacking a little. There has, therefore, arisen a number of Transformers 'fan' companies which have decided to attempt to fix these lacks. A lot of the time these Lackers are repaints of previously released toys, which Hasbro has done in a different colour to try and get people to buy an exact copy of something they already own.

Take Ultra Magnus, for example. In the 80s Magnus was made up of an Optimus Prime painted white, with a new trailer which gave him some snazzy armour. The armour made Magnus look completely different to Prime in this case, however ever since whenever an Optimus Prime toy has been released, it's been quickly followed by a white version and named Ultra Magnus.

99% of the time this white repaint has come without a trailer/armour.

This was true of the repaint of the Classics/Universe/Generations/Whatever (the name keeps changing) Optimus Prime. The white Magnus was released as a twin pack with Skywarp (also a repaint) solely in Woolworths in the UK. It didn't look great, and I only really bought it because I wanted Skywarp and it was 50% off.

FansProject, one of the 'fan' companies I mentioned earlier, decided enough was enough. It was time to take this white Prime and make him into a proper Magnus.

Brilliant!