Planet X Pluto - Megatron

The High Moon games were what rekindled my interest in Transformers. I love the design of the characters and was disappointed that the official figures, except for two or three, are all on the smaller side. Thankfully, Planet X came to the rescue with their Dinobots and have spread into the other characters. Pluto is their latest offering. Not surprisingly, I love this figure.

Hovertank mode is not hateful. There are a lot of gaps in the form, but the overall shape is very interesting. Spikes and sharp edges adorn the vehicle. I'm surprised by how well he actually holds together. The small handful of tabs keeps almost everything tightly positioned. With his knee spikes and feet folded out, he reminds me of a Zerg Guardian. Unfortunately, his cannon does not articulate. His head is clearly visible in the undercarriage.

Transformation to robot mode is not difficult since you are essentially unfolding him. However, going back to vehicle mode is not fun. I kept knocking off the spikes on his back and his feet assembly have no real clear places to peg to. Not surprisingly, his cannon requires a bit of parts-forming, but is integral in holding the tank mode together.

He has a very striking presence. The metallic purple paint applications and purple translucent plastic look absolutely stunning. He has the same bulky torso as Neptune and Vulcun and is covered in spikes. His face could stand to look a bit fiercer, but otherwise is great. I don't like how his chest is a bit flappy though. Also, his feet are a fiddly, kind of like how Vulcun's were.

His head is on a ball joint. He has a decent range of motion, but nothing great. His shoulders are on ratcheted swivels and double hinges. Despite his shoulder spikes, he can raise his arms up and out parallel to the ground. He swivels at his biceps, wrist, waists, and thighs. His elbows are single-jointed and ratcheted. He can only curl to 90 degrees. His thumbs are fixed. The rest of his fingers are single-pinned and articulate as a single unit. His waist swivel requires you to move his crotch plate out of the way first. His hips are on ratcheted universals. He can perform both front and side splits to rival Van Damme. His knees are double-jointed and ratcheted, but he can only curl his legs about 90 degrees. His feet are on hinged ball joints while his toes and heel spurs are on their own hinges.

His accessories include his fusion cannon, a sword, a bunch of spiky bits, and a some screw hole covers. His fusion canon is quite large and nicely detailed. It can peg to either arm. Like his fusion cannon, his sword is also large. It is covered in line work, but no paint. He holds it very securely, but it is a bear to force into his grasp. As usual, the self-assembly bits are a pain to push into place. They fill out his back with spikes and cover screw holes in his shoulders, back, and thighs.

Pluto will stand on my Planet X shelf. Despite a couple of flaws, my enjoyment of this figure is not dampened in the slightest. I do not regret putting my official War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron figures into storage and am content to wait on Planet X to fill out my shelf.

Masterpiece Sunstreaker

Sunstreaker is one of my favorite Transformers. It may be easier to list which ones are not my favorite. Although I’ve enjoyed Badcube Sunsurge, I never truly felt satisfied with him on my Masterpiece shelf. Masterpiece Sunstreaker is a near perfect rendition to satisfy my compulsive collection disorder.

Vehicle mode looks wonderful. The panel lines are kept to a minimum and actually make sense in context of the car. As expected, he's mostly yellow, but there are also surprising touches here and there. The door handles are painted, as are the taillights under his distinctive rear panels. Not surprisingly, he looks great next to Masterpiece Sideswipe. His headlights, hood, and doors can open. Unfortunately, there are no engine details and obviously no seats. His rear cannon can flip out if you move his spoilers out of the way. His distinctive rear section can be flipped around so that he more closely resembles the Sideswipe Lamborghini mode. Even the rear panels that cover his tail lights rotate away. The undercarriage is very clean and he rolls like a champ on plastic tires.

Despite having a similar vehicle mode to Sideswipe, Sunstreaker has a completely different transformation. It is involved, but not complex or fiddly. Everything moved easily. His backpack compresses reasonably well. His chest is a faux roof, but it's worth it to keep his chest in proper proportion. I’m not a fan of the slider mechanism for his head nor of the various transparent plastic hinges. Going back to vehicle mode was not difficult.

In robot mode, Sunstreaker scales properly with Sideswipe and looks all sorts of awesome. He has more panel lines than Ironhide and his kibble cleans up nicely. His face sculpt is quite good and definitely reminds me of the character. I particularly like how his feet is properly proportioned to his legs. His black panels help to break up the large swaths of yellow.

His head is on a ball joint that is also on a hinged panel. He has a very wide range of motion for his head. He may be the first Transformer that can look down his own shirt, if that's what they wore. His shoulders are on hinges and swivels. He also has very generous butterfly joints. He can raise his arms out and up parallel to the ground. He swivels at his biceps, wrists, waist and thighs. His elbows are double-jointed and allow him to perform full curls. His wrists are hinged. His thumbs articulate separately from the rest of his fingers. He has an ab crunch. His hips are on universal joints with ratchets in the forward-to-back axis. He can perform forward and side splits that would make Van Damme proud. His ratcheted and singled-jointed knees allow him to curl his legs a bit past 90 degrees. His ankles are on rockers and tilts.

His accessories include two rifles, two alternate faces, an alien mask, Chip and his wheelchair, and a pair of replacement sideview mirrors. His weapons have some line work, but don't feature any paint applications. Unfortunately, they use Masterpiece-styled tabs. His small gun stays in place more securely than his rifle, which always falls out on me. The rifle can holster by pegging onto his back in robot mode and roof in vehicle mode. The pistol can store inside either leg in robot mode and between his arms in vehicle mode. He also comes with a happy and shocked face. Swapping faces is very simple; no tools are required. The alien mask fits well enough on his head and looks pretty good. Chip is a basic figure that I will probably just leave in the box. His wheelchair is just gray plastic. The wheels don't even work. I suppose the extra sideview mirrors are in case of breakage. They don't look any different than what is already on the figure.

Sunstreaker will obviously go on my Masterpiece shelf. Although I still love Sunsurge, the official figure doesn't have that height disparity with Sideswipe, who is due for a revamp. Sunstreaker only underscores how Sideswipe's mold is more suited for Red Alert. Each release from Takara just makes me more excited for the next piece in the line.

Mastermind Creations Aero Alpha - Wing

Ever since my first purchase of Azalea and Hexatron, I look forward to each Mastermind Creations release. Their Reformatted line is one of my favorite shelves in my collection. Although not flawless, Aero Alpha is a solid addition to an impressive group of bots.

Vehicle mode is interesting, if not my favorite spaceship or hover car. I suppose if these type of vehicles were real, I wouldn't mind owning something that looked like this. Unusual for a Mastermind Creation figure, the line work is kept at a minimum. The cockpit opens, but there are no cockpit details to be found. He has three deployable landing skids. The front one is hard to fold out because it is recessed between his thighs. His head is clearly visible in the undercarriage.

Transformation back and forth is really straight forward. I did not like having to detach the cockpit by leveraging the clear transparent joint of the canopy. Otherwise, everything moved smoothly and both modes stay together very well.

Robot mode reveals the line work that I like so much about Mastermind Creations figures. The three main colors work very well in giving him a striking appearance. His giant shoulder pads give a very distinctive shape. He has a very anime/Gundam look to him. The canopy hanging between his legs really mars his silhouette though. I wished it folded against his back.

His head is on a ball joint that provides a decent amount of articulation. His shoulders are on hinged ball joints. This affords him some butterfly action. Despite his giant shoulder pads, he can raise his arms out and upwards to near 90 degrees. I would keep an eye on the wings of his head though. He swivels at the biceps, wrists, waist, and thighs. With his waist articulation, be mindful of his long sword if it is holstered in his back. He has double-jointed elbows that let him perform near full curls. His thumbs are fixed while the rest of his fingers are single-pinned. His pointing fingers articulate separately from the rest. His hips are on universal joints. He can perform a full front and side splits. Be mindful of his holstered sword as well as his hip holsters. His knees are double-jointed and can also perform near full curls. His ankles are on ball joints as well as his toes. His sword holsters are on hinged ball joints.

His accessories include three swords and an alternate head. The longest of the swords splits apart for storage in vehicle mode. The shorter swords are broader. All three are single edged blades with metallic silver paint. The handles have some line work and fit well into his hands. All three swords can store in the undercarriage of the hovercraft. The blades have to face inward because of the shape of the tabs. The alternate head is all white with some yellow colored cheek vents.

Aero Alpha will go on my Reformatted shelf. I absolutely love Mastermind Creations figures and this one does not disappoint. I have no idea who most of these guys are supposed to be, but I still can't wait for more.

JuJiang JJ-02 Jet Commander, is now in-stock!

JuJiang JJ-02 Jet Commander

We just received our stock for Ju Jiang JJ-02 Jet Commander combiner. Orders are currently being processed. Get yours by following the links. Shop Smart with The Chosen Prime!

Planet X PX-15 Pluto Photo Gallery

Planet X PX-15 Pluto Photo Gallery

Check out our Photo Gallery for Planet X PX-15 Pluto. To order yours, just follow the links. Shop Smart with The Chosen Prime!

Planet X PX-15 Pluto, is now in-stock!

Planet X PX-15 Pluto

We just got our stock for Planet X PX-15 Pluto. Pre-orders are currently being processed. Get yours by following the links. Shop Smart with The Chosen Prime!

Unique Toys Peru Kill - Lockdown

I enjoy the Michael Bay movies for their loud and bombastic action scenes, but I was never that enamored with the design of any of the characters. Unique Toys Peru Kill grabbed my interest from the first colorless test shots. The figure does not disappoint.

Vehicle mode is absolutely stunning. Panel lines mar the form, but that is to be expected. It doesn't deter much from the aesthetics. I wish all Transformer figures have metallic paint. It really conveys a high-end feel. Transparent headlights and taillights are nice accents. I especially like the brake pad details on each tire. Despite some visible robot parts, his undercarriage is fairly clean. He rolls very well on rubber tires. His rifle can peg onto the back.

Transformation is pretty involved, but not stressful. Everything moved very smoothly. The sideview mirrors can stay in place as another set of toes or be removed and plugged onto the side of his arms. Going back to car mode was surprisingly not very aggravating.

I usually don't go for the aesthetics of the live-action movies, but Unique Toys really knocked this one out of the park. Robot mode is gorgeous. Even more metallic paint details are revealed. The line work is done very well. His face sculpt is almost as detailed as the official Movie Masterpiece figures and looks very good. His metallic blue eyes are strangely menacing. He has Die-cast in his butt flap and thighs.

His head is on a hinge and swivel. He can look up and down a good amount, but not much to the sides. His shoulders are on hinges and swivels. He can raise his arms out and up almost to 90 degrees. His double-jointed elbows can perform full curls. He swivels at just below his elbows, wrists, waist, and thighs. His wrists are also on hinges. His thumbs are on ball joints while the rest of his fingers are single-pinned and articulate as a single unit. He has two sets of knuckles on his fingers, except for his thumbs. His waist swivel is limited by his thigh and crotch sculpts. I would be cautious so as to not scratch his thighs. His hips are on ball joints that can't perform much of front or side splits. He has double-jointed knees that can also perform full curls. I'm not a huge fan of his knee engineering. Both the upper and lower parts of the knee joints can bend in the reverse direction. I don't think he had it in the movies, but you could give him chicken legs. His feet are on rockers and tilts.

His accessories include a battle mask, his face rifle, a claw, a Steeljaw, and the Seed. The battle mask swaps with his face very easily - no screws are involved. His extremely large rifle has the same metallic paint treatment and line detail as the main figure. It is very impressive. He can hold his rifle normally. His hands slip through the handles and wrap around it while a peg tabs into his forearm. Unfortunately, his elbow joints are not strong enough to hold it up. Of course, it can situate right over his head to give him that ridiculous but awesome rifle face. It seems to work better with the regular face than the battle mask. The Seed is done in a metallic silver with some line work. It is a decent accessory for some film related lore.

Steeljaw is not simply a static figure. His neck, hips, and paws are on ball joints. Each leg has a single joint. His jaw can open and close. He can hold Peru Kill's rifle for him.

Unique Toys Peru Kill will definitely go my Movie Masterpiece shelf/bucket. It is a very impressive figure that I was surprised by. I wasn't originally going to go for their Optimus Prime figure, but now I am.

Mastermind Creations R-33 Collisus, now up for pre-order!

Mastermind Creations R-33 Collisus

We now have MMC's R-33 Collisus up for pre-order! Set to be released in April 2018. Reserve yours today by following the links. Shop Smart with The Chosen Prime!

Transformers: Power of the Primes Wave 1 Leaders - Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime, now in-stock!

Transformers: Power of the Primes Wave 1 Leaders - Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime

We received our stock for Transformers: Power of the Primes Wave 1 Leaders - Optimus Prime / Orion Pax and Rodimus Prime / Hot Rod. Orders are being processed. Just follow the links to place your orders. Shop Smart with The Chosen Prime!

Storm Collectibles Mortal Kombat Reptile, is now in-stock!

Storm Collectibles Mortal Kombat Reptile

Here's Syzoth, or more commonly known as Mortal Kombat's Reptile. Get ready to fight! Use the links and order yours today! Thanks for choosing The Chosen Prime!

Storm Collectibles Street Fighter V - Chun-Li, is now in-stock!

Storm Collectibles Street Fighter V - Chun-Li

Get ready for "the strongest woman in the world." -  Here comes Street Fighter V Chun-Li from Storm Collectibles. Now in-stock are ready to ship. Orders are currently being processed. Just follow the links if you haven't ordered yours. Don't forget to take advantage of the Prime Directives to save more.

Storm Collectibles Street Fighter V - Akuma, is now in-stock!

Storm Collectibles Street Fighter V - Akuma

Just in today is Storm Collectibles Street Fighter V Akuma figure. Are you ready for the Dark Hadou? Order yours by following the links. Thank you for your continued support of The Chosen Prime!

Bandai Meisho Movie Realization Sohei Darth Maul "Star Wars" is now in-stock!

Bandai Meisho Movie Realization Sohei Darth Maul "Star Wars"

Just arrived, we have the Bandai Meisho Movie Realization Sohei Darth Maul, in-stock! Orders are being processed. Get yours by following the links. Shop Smart with The Chosen Prime!

DNA Design DS-02 Arashi, is now in-stock!

DNA Design DS-02 Arashi

We just received our stock for DNA Design DS-02 Arashi. Pre-orders are currently being processed. Get yours by following the links. Shop Smart with The Chosen Prime!

Transformers: Power of the Primes Wave 1 Leaders, now up for pre-order!

Transformers: Power of the Primes Wave 1 Leaders

We now have the pre-order up for Transformers: Power of the Primes Wave 1 Leaders - Optimus Prime / Orion Pax and Rodimus Prime / Hot Rod Set. Just follow the links to order yours. Happy New Year everybody! Thank you for your continued support of The Chosen Prime!