TFC Toys Wild Hunter - Blacker

Although I love the idea of combiners, I find them a pain to assemble. Their joints invariably weaken over time even if they weren't a floppy mess to start with. TFC Toys Wild Hunter is the final piece to their Trinity Force. While I love the way Trinity Force looks, only time will tell if I will break him down to his component figures like I have done with most of my other combiners.

His dune buggy mode is surprisingly large. I like the general shape of the vehicle. The view from the front, sides, and top look wonderful. The back, not so much. The transparent plastic and metallic highlights break up the solid reds and blacks. Unfortunately, the silver metallic paint of his spoiler and the orange paint of his headlights were chipped and scratched right out of the box. I like the springs on his shock absorbers and front grill. Although they are real springs, it's too bad they are just decorative. I was surprised to see that he dwarfs the Masterpiece cars and almost rivals MP-10 in size. The cockpit canopy does open to reveal a spot for the Transtector to sit in, but the fit is really tight. Like the previous figures, it's also a pain to open. The undercarriage is fairly clean. He rolls beautifully on four large rubber tires.

Transformation is a fair bit involved. There were a handful of spots where I had to flex plastic to make parts move past one another. Tabbing the chest to the neck plate was annoyingly fiddly because the neck plate kept wanting to swivel away. I'm not sure that I formed his backpack quite correctly. It seems like it should tab down, but it just sits loosely with the wheels providing a bit of friction to keep it in place. Transforming back to vehicle mode is not that difficult.

His robot mode looks alright. He ties in very well to Red Knight and Raging Bull. The metallic silver paint and transparent accents again are needed to break up all that red. He is a bit top heavy, but his heel spurs keep him from toppling. His forearms are large and kibbly. The spoilers on his shins don’t have a specific stopping point, which messes with my OCD.

His head is on a ball joint. Like the others, the Transtector gimmick is not implemented as well as on Masterpiece Star Saber. The face plate locks the head into place, removing all articulation. The ball joint socket on the alternate head doesn't sit quite right, resulting in him always looking slightly upward. His shoulders are on ratcheted swivels and hinges. He can raise his arms out and to the sides parallel to the ground. He swivels at his biceps, wrists, crotch, thighs, and shins. His elbows are single-jointed and can only curl halfway. His thumbs are fixed. The rest of his fingers are single-pinned and articulate as a single unit. His hips are on ratcheted universals. He can perform full front and side splits. His knees are double-jointed and ratcheted and can perform full curls. His toes are on hinged ball joints. Depending on how you transform the back of his legs, he can have heel spurs.

Not unexpectedly, transformation to combined mode is a pain. While Wild Hunter himself is not too difficult to transform, Raging Bull and Red Knight basically require returning them to their vehicle modes. This means dealing once again with that dreaded ball-jointed armature of their doors. In the end, I cheated and removed those things to complete the transformation. I also don’t like how the back of his arms just sit loosely and are prone to swiveling open. Happily, Red Knight is unaffected by the broken piece of his hood.

Not surprisingly, combined mode is very striking. I was worried that being only comprised of three robots we would end up with Fall of Cybertron Bruticus proportions. Fortunately, that is not the case. He is shorter than I would have hoped if he is meant to take on Hades.  Without the large expanses of red, the line work and paint details on his body really shine through.

His head is on a ball joint, but it has a very limited range of motion. His shoulders are on ratcheted swivels and hinges; they were previously his knee joints and shin swivels. He can raise his arms up and out parallel to the ground. His wings get in the way of raising his arms in front of him though. He has ratcheted, single-jointed elbows. He swivels at his biceps, wrists, waist, thighs, and knees. All his fingers are on large ball joints. His thumbs have one knuckle while the rest of his fingers have two each. His hips are on ratcheted swivels and hinges; they were previously his shoulder joints. He technically has knee joints, but I find them hard to manipulate without popping apart the parts of the cars or his thighs. His feet are on solid (for now) ball joints.

His accessories include another Transtector, an alternate head, a pair of rifles, a sword, a pair of hands, an alternate combiner face, and some screw covers. The Transtector is just as minuscule as the previous ones. At least, he has the benefit of not carrying a face on his back. The alternate head restores neck articulation. Since I will most likely be displaying the entire set in combined mode, it doesn't really matter which one I have on there. Of note, the Transtectors for all three cannot stay in the bodies. The rifles don't look all that convincing and don't sit well in his hands. As feet, they function well. The combined sword is nearly as tall as he is. He can put on a scowling expression with the alternate face. The screw cover bits go on his abs in combined mode.

I’ll probably display Trinity Force next to Masterpiece Star Saber (once I dig him out of my garage). It’s too soon tell how the joints will hold up over time, but since he doesn’t have the added weight of two more figures, I’m holding out hope. I like these voyager sized figures from TFC Toys and hope they continue to bring us more.