Fans Toys Koot - Kup

Kup was one of my favorite characters from The Movie. I loved the idea of a grizzled old war hero who had to suffer the inanities of a younger generation. While Toyworld Crank did nothing for me as a display piece nor as a playable figure, Fans Toys Koot looks great on my shelf.

As some sort of futuristic truck, Koot looks fine. It hits all the right notes to represent the source material. It definitely reminds me of the old toy I used to have. Unfortunately, he doesn't roll very well. Perhaps I made a mistake somewhere in transformation because his crotch scrapes the ground.

Transformation to robot mode is fairly easy, but transforming to vehicle mode is not very enjoyable. I felt like I had to flex pieces past each other and was afraid of breaking something. Simultaneously lining up tabs and ports across multiple pieces is a frustrating experience.

Now this is how I remember Kup to look like. Unlike Crank, Koot has the right colors. His face is suitably stern. I especially like the translucent orange and metallic silver highlights. His backpack folds up, if not entirely cleanly, no worse than Masterpiece Hot Rod. My only nitpicky complaint is that there is no good spot for a sticker symbol.

His head is on a ball joint. He can look up but not down. On my copy, when pushed down, his head always pops back to the neutral position. His shoulders are on hinges and ratcheted swivels. He can raise his arms up and out a bit past 90 degrees. He swivels at his biceps, wrists, waist, and thighs. His double-jointed elbows can almost perform full curls. His thumbs are fixed. The rest of his fingers are single-pinned and articulate as one unit. It's disappointing to see that Phoenix's finger articulation was a one-off. His hips are on universal joints with ratchets for the front-to-back swivel. He can perform a full side splits, but not a front splits because there is only one click in the reverse direction. He has double-jointed knees that can also almost perform full curls. He has ankle tilts and his toes are on hinges.

His accessories include a rifle, a Targetmaster, an alternate face, some cigars, and transparent windshields. His rifle is colored plastic with simple line work. It fits well in his hands using a Masterpiece-styled tab. The handle is hinged so that the rifle can function as a mounted gun in the bed of the truck. The alternate face is for him to chomp on cigars of which we get two that are black plastic. All the alternate pieces will probably stay in the box since I don't want to mess with unscrewing the head and am happy with the painted windshields.

Unfortunately, my Targetmaster came with two right legs so I can't turn him into a rifle. 

Koot will go on my Fans Toys shelf and double as my Masterpiece Kup. Fans Toys continues to satisfy my itch for Masterpiece stand-ins. I'm hoping that they bring back the Phoenix's finger articulation, but still look forward to their Arcee and Hot Rod.