Monday, December 31, 2018

Side-Tracked: Recent Haul of KOs (226 C) - 粤星 星变战神 统领官 擎天柱 Yue Xing MMP-10 MMP10 a.k.a. KO Wei Jiang 威将 MPP10 Optimus Prime

A simplified KO of the Wei Jiang MPP10 Optimus Prime, which is an oversized of the MP-10 Optimus Prime. Some (not all) simplifications I manage to spot include:
(1) robot head antenna cannot rotate
(2) smokestacks not extendable
(3) only hips have ratchet joints
(4) no cover for leg-wheels
(5) leg ventilation flap part is molded onto leg and not able to flipped in truck mode
(6) ankle tilts only 2 positions and can only be activated when slide away inwards
(7) feet sole has cavity
(8) plastic wheels with big rims
(9) light-up eyes and head crest

Overall a nice oversize MP-10 figure if one does not mind the simplifications.





Vehicle mode...


Robot Mode...


Eyes and head crest can light up! Very nice...


Comparison with BMB KO OS POTP Optimus Prime




Sunday, December 30, 2018

Side-Tracked: Recent Haul of KOs (226 B) - 酷变宝 战斗指挥官 KBB Ku Bian Bao - Combat Commander a.k.a. KO Generation Toys GT Mini Optimus Prime

This is the KBB version of the KO GT mini Optimus Prime, at a much affordable price. Very very nice figure, especially since I probable will not be getting the overpriced Hot Soldier version. Most joints are quite tight, and those looser ones should be able to be fixed with some super-glue.




Vehicle mode... Gun can be stored underneath the cabin...


Robot mode... Looks blocky but good...


Comparison with MFT Megatroun (Megatron)...


Comparison with BMB KO OS POTP Optimus Prime and Yue Xing MMP-10 (KO WJ MPP10)...




Side-Tracked: Recent Haul of KOs (226 A) - KO ( Downsized ??? ) Optimus Primal ( Transformers Beast Wars )

A very simplified KO of the original Ultra Class Optimus Primal from the Beast Wars series.... I think... This KO is about deluxe size, and the plastic used is quite towards the polypropylene "shampoo bottle" type but still hard. Not sure if this type of plastic can take super-glue, as I wanted to restore the robot chest plate and so some painting to the parts. I personally don't quite like organic-alternate-mode transformers, but this Optimus Primal seem to slowly grow on me... perhaps is the simple transformation which I prefer recently...


Sadly the weapons cannot be stored in gorilla mode, and the handle of the skull mace cannot be pulled out...


Gorilla mode... looks pretty good!


Even comes with the mutant head / mask feature!!!





Wednesday, December 26, 2018

KO G1 Transformers Decepticon Mini-cassettes : Beastbox Squawktalk - Restoration to Squawkbox

These are 2 old KO mini-cassettes that I gotten separately long time ago, which after some time then I realize they can be combined. However KO Squawktalk is missing the "combiner tabs" and somehow I just lazily use blu-tac to hold them for a long time... until recently as I was clearing my old stuff, I stumbled across them and somehow decided to restore the gestalt feature... Again, my laziness gotten the better of me and I end up using mini magnets to attach them... still, it ended up looking quite ok...

Added 4 mini magnets here... I used approx. diameter 6mm x 2mm thick magnets but smaller ones will be better...


Cassette mode...


Animal mode... Not sure if gorilla should have the small fists fold out or not...


Combine into Squawkbox !!!! The side view looks a bit weird due to the 2 "ear-flaps" that popped out too much... but since figures are mostly displayed by the front view, this should be no issue...






Monday, December 24, 2018

Side-Tracked: Recent Haul of KOs (225) - UIDAMAN UI-01 Army Leader a.k.a. KO New Age Toys Flipper a.k.a. Transformers G1 Bumblebee

Gotten this from Taobao thru' ezBuy at about SGD12... A very miniaturized figure but with transformation level identical to a modern day deluxe class... This weirdly name figure (and weird company name too) is a knockoff of the New Age Toys Flipper a.k.a. Transformers G1 Bumblebee... The yellow colour is actually a bit to the paler side in actual toy itself compared to the picture... As with most KOs, I had to tighten the major (ball-)joints with super-glue (detach joint, apply super-glue to ball, let dry, reattach), though the joints are not silly-loose in the first place, just my personal preference for tighter joints... Plastic quality is quite ok, not the brittle type, nice...





This KO includes the usual gun and also a jetpack that can be attached to the back of the figure... I think the jetpack is from the New Age Toys's Goldbug figure...


Robot mode... Looks cute and stumpy... very G1-ish... Very good joint articulations too...



Jetpack attached...


Gun attached... super tiny gun and because the fists are slanted, the gun is also held slanted, which looks a bit weird...


Mine came with mis-assembled parts, but luckily these parts are the same regardless of left or right sides, and they can detached and reattached easily... If you happen to buy this, you might like to check if your figure has these few parts correctly attached as in the picture...


And this KO company weirdly fills up the gun-storing cavity in car mode, and this causes the gun not to be able to be stored in gun mode. The next best solution is to store in between the thighs and held by friction only (sometimes may even need to gently squeeze the thighs closer)... as seen in the picture... not a very suitable place too... sigh... but no choice...


Comparison to the G1 Bumblebee (left) and Hot Soldiers Bumblebee (right)... overall a very nice figure... so good that I am thinking of whether to buy 1 to display in my office cubicle...






Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Stickers and Paint...

Edit: Painted the inner of the matrix gold to break the blue monotonous colour scheme... looks much better...


Painted the wheel rims of the KO Oversize POTP Optimus Prime to silver as they look way better with paint.. also put up Autobot logo stickers to give it a G1 trailer resemblance...


Close up of the Cab wheel rims painted... I used a silver paint pen...


Panels at back of arms are painted red... a bit thin coat, needs a 2nd coat...


Placed an Autobot logo sticker on the shoulder to have a G1 cartoon look...


For the PPT Ultra Magnus, I painted the supposedly blue parts with a paint pen. However, the blue paint pen is too light, hence I use a Daiso acrylic paint to paint over with a micro brush, which proved disastrous as the colour still don't match and the surface ends up rough.. anyway, gave up already... Also painted the bottom of the head antennas... and placed an Autobot logo sticker on his shoulder...


And for the car carrier truck mode, placed stickers on the cavities that I believed are designs for people to place Autobot (or Decepticon) logo stickers... Now looks a bit better...


For Vecma Studio Chromedome, I only placed a small Autobot logo sticker on his chest. I did not use a bigger one as I want to keep the proportion closer to the cartoon version...


Chromedome in robot mode...

Saturday, December 15, 2018

Side-Tracked: Recent Haul of KOs (224) Part 2 - 黑曼巴 Black Mamba BMB KO Oversized Power of the Primes POTP Optimus Prime 6002-8 Flame Robot

First time buying a Black Mamba 黑曼巴 product... This costs about SGD59, from Taobao... Just the shipping alone costs about SGD15... sigh... anyway, is a good figure, so still ok... BMB enlarged the POTP OP and made some good improvements over the original design, e.g. panels on arms are gone now, truck-container side is flat without protruding hinges, panels to cover up major hollow parts... etc ... not sure if the original hands can be opened but this BMB version can... Don't really like the die-cast feet on Orion Pax as it causes a heavier packpack in Optimus Prime mode... Realized the Optimus Prime feet ankle has to be pushed all the way back and locked in for the figure to be more stable. However, due to the oversizing, the plastic parts are too rigid to be flexed and flipped through. Hence I have to shave off (you can file off also) a little to allow the feet ankle to be able to push back and lock in place.





Robot mode...



Comparison with Jinbao Predaking...


The feet ankle parts that I trimmed in order to lock the feet ankle in...


Do not trim too much at once!!! Trial and error slowly...


The feet should look like this (from behind) when ankle is locked in properly...