Prime Spotlight presents:
DX9Toys War in Pocket X-03 Medilance and X-04 Plague
Bottom Line (**** stars- <out of a possible 5>)
By Stygian360
Introduction:
I love mini transforming figures. It’s just really fun to see what various companies can do with intricate transformations at this scale. I definitely prefer the larger scale figures more- or more appropriately the scale which is most accurate in capturing the likeness and personality of the character- but small transforming toys can be just as fun as their larger cousins. That admission out of the way, I was very excited to see how these two turned out. When grey prototype pictures of their Ironhide and Blurr homages first showed up I was interested, but once I had the set in-hand I graduated to positively elated. Their transformations were fun, not overly complex, and could be fiddled with easily during a phone meeting at work or simply to pass a few minutes while admiring the detail of the paint and basking in the enjoyment of actually owning a mini Ironhide. Okay, enough of my gushing and pontification. You want to know if these figures are worth the money. So, do they deliver? Let’s find out.
Articulation:
One of the strengths of these sets is the sheer volume of articulation that they possess for the size. Hasbro, grab a pencil and paper and take notes because DX9 is taking you to school. They have head rotation via a ball-joint, shoulders full range of motion, hips full range of motion and even ankle tilts. One of the things that figures at this scale from other companies often suffer from is being brittle. Sure you can move a joint, but it’s typically through chattering teeth as you worry the neck ball joint will snap, hands will twist off joints, etc. That is absolutely not the case with these figures. Both Medilance and Plague are solid as a rock and will stand up to multiple movements and transforming play. My one concern with Plague is the wing covers which form the top of his ‘shell’ in alt mode. The left side appears to be slightly bent at the swing joint. Thankfully it doesn’t impair transformation, but it’s there and it worries me for future use. To be fair I inherited this review set from a friend, so it could have been bent before I received him, but those wings may be something to keep an eye on. But if you’re careful in opening and closing them during transformation you should be fine.
Paint:
What’s here seems passable, but isn’t amazing. In fact in a few places I can already see the paint wearing off. Whether this is due to poor application at the factory, the type of paint used, the type of plastic used, etc., I really do not know. Regardless, the effect is paint which seems lacking and I hope on future releases DX9 gets this under tighter control. The one concern I have with Medilance are his very visible Red Cross badges, which show up rather oddly as side panels in vehicle mode. What works in one mode does not necessarily in the other, and I wish DX9 had worked out a better solution with this feature.
Transformation:
Uncomplicated, elegant and useful are the three words I’d used to describe this set. Both transformations can be done without instructions and with zero danger of harming the figures, but at this scale this is to be anticipated. The one thing I enjoy particularly with Plague is the hiding of his thighs (covered by his wing plates), hands (tucked back behind his head) and head. The head even includes a bit of an ‘automorph’ feature, where bringing the chest down tucks the head going into ‘con tower’ mode for vehicle configuration. Very cool! And Medilance is all manner of fun; with his tuck away guns and how elegantly he forms an ambulance from a rather bulky robot.
Bottom Line:
In the end this is a really fun set! I am pretty hooked and highly recommend picking these up. The rumor is that there are future plans for both Cyclonus and Galvatron homages (prototype pictures have shown up online), but the mind boggles as to where they may go next and who they may include as part of this mini army. You could in theory have a more than decent representation of factions from both sides eventually and what collector would turn that down. I say keep them coming!
