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Thursday, February 23, 2017

Fans Toys Sovereign - Galvatron

I suppose it was bound to happen at some point. I've had difficult transformations before - panels not aligning, tabs and pegs not staying together, even broken pieces - but I've always managed to complete the steps, however imperfectly. Until now. Fans Toys Sovereign is a great-looking representation of Galvatron . . . in bot mode.

I have no opinion on what he looks like in cannon mode because I couldn't complete his transformation.

It was somewhat of a hassle lining up his fingers, thumbs, and the swivels of his arms with the armatures of his tank treads. You have to fold his fingers flat against his palm and line his thumbs up along side his pointing fingers rather than along his palms. His arms are on sliding hinge pieces that require an act of faith to separate from the shoulder pylons. Even then, I couldn't get them to tab in completely to his flank. This is when I tried to open his chest and failed. It refused to open, even with a soft spludger. I even tried to force it with a screw driver. I stopped after a few tries because it was not worth the risk of scratching the paint. I was already starting to mar the little opening at the top.

He is covered in a beautiful metallic purple paint. Metallic gun metal also highlights some of his lighter gray areas. Some of the white paint gets a little sloppy in places. I'm crossing my fingers Takara will release a repaint of Shockwave in this type of paint application. Smart use of red transparent plastic serves to highlight his abs and knees. This is a heavy figure with Die-cast throughout the body, legs, and feet. The head and face sculpt are absolutely wonderful. Unfortunately, the tank treads are on the back of his arms instead of a backpack like on Tyrant.

His head is on a hinge and swivel. He can look up a good amount, but not down very much. His shoulders are on ratcheted swivels and hinges that let him raise his arms out and up to 90 degrees. His thumbs are on ball joints with additional articulation at the second knuckles. The rest of his fingers are single pinned and articulate individually. They also articulate at the second and third knuckles. He swivels at his biceps, forearms, wrists, waist, and thighs. His wrists are also on hinges. His waist swivel is ratcheted. He has double-jointed elbows that can do a full curl. His ratcheted, single-jointed knees can get to 90 degrees. His hips are on universal joints with ratchets along the transverse axis. He can't quite get to a full side splits and his front splits is somewhat lacking. His feet are on rockers and tilts with additional toe tilts and swivels. The treads on the back of his arms are prone to flapping about when you manipulate his arms and his cannon also tends to fall off.

His accessories include two copies of his fusion cannon, a blast effect, a matrix, alternate face sculpts for himself and Tesla, and a display stand. One fusion cannon is solid and the other is transparent orange. Both have hinged panels that allow the ends to transform between mounting in cannon mode and in robot mode. The blast effect is very large and too heavy for the ratchets in his arms. It separates into six pieces. The matrix has some heft to it. It has nice gold and silver chrome with a blue inset. The chain on my came with a broken link, but I was able to fix it with some pliers. It is a tad on the small side. He can't grip the handles with all his fingers. The alternate face sculpt has an angry look. Tesla's alternate face has less duck lips. The display stand is clear and is used for robot mode where it grips his crotch.

I'll be displaying Sovereign on my Masterpiece shelf for now. DX9 Tyrant is on my not-quite-Masterpiece shelf of DX9 figures. Sovereign is great-looking in bot mode. It's a pity I couldn't finish the transformation, but I still have Tyrant if I need a cannon for scene recreations.