Thoughtful toys: Transformers Construct Bots REVISITED

So some time has passed since I had posted my Construct Bots article, and there is an update to the line. Also since then the previous line has gone on clearance and showed up in places like TJmaxx, Marshalls, and Ross. In other words you can still find lots of the original kits for very affordable prices. If you want more details on those kits you can check out my review here. On note of the old style of kits you can see the Target Exclusive Predaking below. He has a lot of nice armor parts and the dragon necks make for good arms. I used two sets here to give him two dragon hands. The armor bits are more unique vs what we had gotten before and he is a great addition.

With release of the newest Transformers AOE film a new line inspired from the film has come out. I grabbed Lockdown when they first came out. I was excited at first. There are some nice new armor bits. The characters now also come with dinos that turn into armor and provide more parts. As stand alone figures, they are an improvement. They have new core parts that make them more like action figures than before.

Here you can see Predaking and Lockdown without armor. You can see they are now very different. While the new design is more solid, and looks better it has lost much of the versatility of the original line. For the purpose I use them for as show in the previous article, they don't provide as useful a tool.

The thing they do bring though is much better heads. The heads serve to be better generic mecha heads when coming up with your own designs. They are not as kiddish as the head designs before. There are also some nice armor bits that might work in the larger kit concept designs, though they attach in a different way.

Unless you are just into the new designs, I say these might make decent head and armor additions once they start going down on clearance. Below you can see a hasbro stock photo of dinobot Slug. Most of the heads for the dinobots have this sort of look and I think they are more useful in making new designs vs the old heads, but you will have a harder time making some of the other bits fit in your larger builds.

Nori X BMO custom figure

I have finally gotten back around to doing customs. I am planning a whole slew of Nori inspired custom toys. This first used the McDonald's Happy Meal BMO toy. If you are not familiar with BMO, he is a character from the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time. The button colors were inspired by the N64 controller.

Check out the pics below of the custom and stay tuned for more project from me in the near future. Thanks for checking us out.

I'm a kaiju, so in a way I am a "digital monster."

 

I heard you like consoles, so we got your console playin' consoles.

Going to have a snack with Mr BMO.

Is it Mr Man? We'll I ain't afraid of no ghosts.

Thoughtful toys: Transformers Construct Bots

Previous articles had been on discontinued or hard to get construction toys, but now I present you with a toy still on the market, and quite affordable comparatively. To further compete with the Lego toy lines Hasbro made a counterpart to Bionicle. This also does something the Kreo line could not do—transform. At least without having to disassemble the whole thing then rebuild it into its alternate mode. When these first came out, had no interest in them, for similar reasons I never got into bionicle. The bots were too skeletal and seemed unfinished. Well since they had been out a while, and they had to make room for new figures in this line, stores started clearing them out. Stack that with printable manufacture coupons and you can get these for quite the deal. I got a couple sets at first just because its wasn't an expensive gamble.
Once I got my hands on them and got to fiddle around some I saw more potential in them. Of course to get them most out of them you need at least a few to build them up. They are one line of toy I feel having doubles makes them more worth while.
I messed with them the first day I got them, but then realized I had to do a part count of everything I bought after that. An Ironhide set was missing a single part, and my starscream head was not painted right. After calling hasbro, they sent me those parts out after a few weeks. It would had been sooner, but they claim they were all on back order. In total I had bought eleven sets of these figures. All on sale of course, and luckily none of the others were missing anything. Many parts are shared among the different kits, just in different colors. It seems the heads, and chest pieces are the most unique pieces among the kits besides their hue. I have a feeling due to hasbro liking repaints we will see many more colors of the same parts that already exist to make new bots they can sell. Out of the sets I got, I picked up; 2x Optimus prime vs Megatron sets, 3x Bumblebee, 1x Ironhide, Starscream, Soundwave, and Wheeljack.

Multiple of an set allows for a much more bulked up bot.

 

Besides the head design, and most of the parts being yellow, the bumblebee kit has some of the best parts.

Another neat aspect of these is that they fit the pegs of transformer figures. This means you can make all sorts of weapons, and armor, etc... for your robots. They also serve as a base for making customs. You can use these as the frame to build more finished looking bits over to create nice upgrades for your bots as well as long as your willing to sacrifice some parts. By using this mock up, on FOC Optimus I see an idea I may try and tackle later with a 3d printer.

This armored up FOC Optimus was inspired by another
creation I saw on the TFW2005 boards. 

 On a note of how easy they are to build with, I would put them right between Assemble Borg, and Mugenbine. They would be a lot more versital if they designed some better connecting parts. Sadly, I think the engineers never intended on these going beyond the scope of a single action figure with swapped accessories. That is where having many sets comes into play. Like the Mugenbine, the more you have, the more parts you can use to get other things connected and expand the figure into something bigger and far different from what the basic form presented. The bigger you go, the more you can deviate from the silhouette of the intended bot and come up with something more original for the sake of concept design.

I kept the feet, but found I could use friction to use the
arms from Fanproject's Protector.

Below are some samples of my own creations with these construct bots. I found some interesting ways to combine the torso skeletons so that they served as a platform to build on for larger scale. I also tried to keep articulation in all the limbs. This sometimes made for some unstable bots. Especially in the hip area. These coated ball joints are quite strong, but can only take so much. Joints have to be created with supports from other parts that still allow movement. At this scale, playability is gone, but as a display piece or model, they work quite well.

You can stray away from autonomous robots and get into making military hardware.
This spider tank is heavily armed and ready to fight.

Battletech inspired mecha. I am a big fan of chicken legged robots,
and these parts allow you to pull it off.

My first attempt as a giant. The legs managed to hold him up with no extra support,
but it took a bit of adjusting to get him to stand right.

Still articulated. Clamping hands and shoulders with a whole range of movement.

Next I went with a design that had less bulk and could support all its parts better. I have always been a fan of multiple arms for robots, so I went with a Kali inspired robot. If only it was all blue and had a more feminine head.

My largest creation. It took more time trying to figure out additions for the joints to support it than actually building it. To give you a scale reference, he is bigger than Energon Omega. Or for you Gokin collectors, bigger than SOC Dancouga.

The shoulders are poseable using two joints, but require a latch system to hold the arm up once it is raised. It uses a double jointed elbow, though its limited in range. The three fingered claw is also articulated.

A view from the back. Most parts from all my kits were used to cover any gaps.

Multiple parts used to add stability to the feet. Also notice the parts to reenforce the knees. You can also see the parts I added to the hips that can be adjusted to keep his torso from toppling over. 

I think a few things could really improve on the line. A short peg that allows you to connect parts, and a long peg that could go through a few parts to connect them. Also the clips they currently use could use a version that had the opposing end turned 90 degrees. You would be able to build up the frame much easier to bulk up the design. I would had liked to seen better heads as well. I think you might find parts from other building toys like lego technic that might be used to make these even more versatile.
Even though there are some small issues with these, this is another good collection for the concept designers tool box that is affordable and expandable enough to come up with robots, vehicles and whatever else you can imagine. I think this is one worth hunting down while they are still around for fueling your imagination. You can check out other creations over on tfw2005 where others are showing off their creations.

Nori Takes Hong Kong

Here are some articles I did for Toysrevil on toy shopping in Hong Kong. Check them out for your quick hunt in toy heaven.

Part 1
Part 2

And a bit when I visited him in Singapore.
Nori in Singapore

Thoughtful toys: Assemble Borg

Continuing with our series on construction toys, I wanted to keep on point for using toys for artistry and creative development. Not just making interesting things to display but toys that give us freedom to form them into creations from our imagination that might help with; character, vehicle, and especially robot design. This installment will focus on another hard to get Japanese set called Assemble Borg. When AB came out, I didn't have a lot of interest in them. I had collected much of the revoltech line due to the sculpting of Yamaguchi, who I praise in this Moribito review I did on CollectionDX. The joints actually didn't do much for me. The figures were so small, I think a friction joint would had been better as well as looked more integrated in the over all design. The sculpting and characters were the reason I collected them anyhow. AB had its own look. They were original designs. The AB series was definitely inspired aesthetically by the classic microman series and in spirit shares the creativity of some of their lines with combine-able parts. I did not grow up with Micro Man toys, so it took some time for the AB line to grow on me. It really wasn't until I saw them in person that I even considered buying them.
Assemble Borg is a spin off from the Kaiyodo Revoltech series. It started release in 2008 and shared the same joints as their main line. While these joints seemed a bit gimmicky, they actually were more functional in this specific line. I can't imagine these being a kids toy like the Machine Robo series I wrote about in the past. A lot more force, as well as precision is required to connect a bit of the pieces. If done wrong a slip can send the rigid peg across your hand and gouge you pretty bad. On top of being more difficult to work with, they are somewhat expensive, and not too easy to get since Kaiyodo did not export them from Japan. They often had to be obtained from third party. You can see more about other products they offer on their site: www.assembleborg.net. The line is divided between the hero characters and a more organic looking bad guys.
Building your own creations from there are where they really shine, and they are more flexible than the machine robo series in respect of ways they can be connected. On a trip to Japan I was able to find the Kaiyodo museum shop and pick up some of these. The cool thing about the Kaiyodo shop, which was quite the stair climb to the top of the building, was their "build your own" play pit. They had a large table covered in revoltech joints and parts from all their lines, and if one had time they could sit there and mess around with them. They even had some of their large creations on display. Another neat thing about their store was they gave me a raffle for my purchase which won me some money back. It was an interesting exchange considering the language barrier between me and the shop employees but it was a cool shop none the less.

All over the shop was custom AB creations. To give you an idea of scope, at the bottom is a regular AB figure, and the giant is made of a whole slew of parts. There is no way that can support itself, so notice the display stand below it.

I got the Panzer Puncher, which is a humanoid figure. I also got a Wilderness Crawler, and two Barrel Speeders. They no longer had the silver version of the speeder, so I got the black versions. I had preferred the silver since they would be easier to photograph though the black does look cool. Between all these there is a large variety of parts that are capable of being connected in many different ways. All the parts are full of molded detail as well as detailed paint. From my experience all the bits seem well built, though you can sometimes run across a spoiled revoltech joint. Sometimes they can be fixed, but often something snaps or the mechanism inside can fail. Getting used to their operation can make it easier to assemble, but these can still be somewhat tedious.

The Silver version of the Speeders I found at the Kaiyodo shop.

Panzer Puncher. I chose him, due to his aesthetics appealing more to me than many of the others.

Wilderness Crawler, which already has a lot of robotic components.

Below is a set of some of the creations I made with what bits I had. I wanted to show that some simple part swaps can make for some interesting character concepts, as well as some elaborate creations. Honestly, even with the few amount of sets I have, you can make all sorts of things. I do wish I had picked up more, though. Some of the newest designs are even more appealing, so I may grab a few of those for my collection.

Just a simple leg swap can create something that could boost the imagination. I can already see a character from a fighting game who can do a ram attack when switching modes.

What I liked about Panzer Puncher, was even with just the parts that came with him, there were all sorts of alternate modes.

Heavy gun style Colonial Marines.

Sure we had land speeders, but with those parts we can make some bad mamba jama space bike.

Why stop there. Give it claws and you got a whole new type of vehicle.

 

Robot creation is really fun, but the design of the joints can present challenges you have to work around. Since they peg in, they can rotate and because of that sometimes you have to change your design to support the weight of the creation.

Luckily AB figures come with a stand just like their revoltech line. There is no way this design could had stood on its own due to the joints. But, with the stand, I can be creative and get my sketch on paper.

 

 

 

Like I said, these joints combine with other revoltech parts. I have enough revoltech that I could post far more variations than I have time to make, but I grabbed a few obscure designs just to see if we could push out some unique creations with just those bits. Below are a mix of parts from Patlabor's Brocken, Zentraedi Battle Pod, and Getter 3.

The Assemble Borg line isn't for everyone. Its a great set for those who are patient to use to come up with different forms that could evolve into interesting concept designs. Especially since they have diversity of mechanical and organic looking parts. Just keep in mind, their higher price point, and the difficulty dealing with some of the joints. If that isn't an issue, then they are another great tool for the concept designer to have in their collection.