Intro:
This
is it Cybertronians, boys and girls, we’ve finally reached to the main event of
this series of Stunticons reviews. We have seen and reviewed each and every
single member of the Stunticons, i.e. Motormaster, Dragstrip, Dead End, Breakdown
and Offroad, as well as given you our verdicts; and now, we are finally going
to review the big guy himself – Menasor.
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| Stunticons - Robot Modes |
Fans
of the original G1 series will definitely remember the Stunticons – a group of
maniacal land-based Decepticons that frequently go head-to-head with the
Aerialbots. For ages, the Decepticons had conquered the skies, but time and
again, they have been repeatedly proven to be quite inferior on the road.
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| Stunticons - Vehicle Modes |
Hence,
Megatron finally decided that he must conquer the roads as well, and he did so
by creating his very own team of cars and truck.
The
Stunticons – led by the loud mouth Motormaster – are quite an unstable lot. The
other four members of the outfit, hated Motormaster so much, thus resulted in a
very unstable Menasor. They can’t seem to put their minds together; hence, they
cannot function cohesively together as a unit.
Menasor
has always been one of my favorite gestalts from the original G1 series (notwithstanding the Japanese G1, i.e. Victory, Masterforce etc). In fact, come
to think of it, Decepticons tend to have more exciting gestalt robots than the
Autobots do. i.e. Devastator, Bruticus, Menasor, Predaking and Abominus.
Anyways, since I couldn’t get my hands on the original Menasor, I guess this
would have to do – for now.
It
took me a while to finally get hold of the entire lineup, especially when
somebody at Hasbro had the “bright” idea of separating the Stunticons into
different waves and packed them up with the Aerialbots. I like to have my
stuffs in a complete set, just so you know.
Anyways,
I would like to give a shoutout to TeenCom, for reserving for me this wonderful
set, and especially for the discount given in conjunction of my birthday last
July. So yeah, thank you.
So…
enough with the yapping and let’s get on with the review!
Combined
Mode:
For
this combined mode, we will be referring to the official and standard combined mode.
Yes, there are a variety of way to combine them together, according to your
personal preference, but for the sake of this review, we go by the book.
Menasor
Anyway,
the process of combining them together to form Menasor, is simply satisfying.
Dead End
The
official combined mode for Menasor is to have Dragstrip and Dead End as the
hands, with Offroad and Breakdown forming the legs. The resulting robot looks
very massive, but unfortunately the same cannot be said of its weight and heft.
Menasor feels very light, although not as light as Fall of Cybertron Bruticus.
Dragstrip
Menasor
stands at slightly over 11-inches tall, which is way taller than FoC Bruticus.
Offroad
I
actually like how Menasor looks in general… from the front that is. He looks
well-proportioned, but with the hands being slightly longer than I would’ve
liked them to be.
Breakdown
However,
when you look at him from the side, that’s when things begin to falter. He
looks way too thin… way too skinny.
The
head sculpt looks menacing, and I do think that the horns look really wicked on
him.
Articulation-wise…
the head is on a hinged ball joint, which provide unlimited all around motion. The
shoulders are on ratcheted universal joints; the elbows bend thanks to the
Dragstrip and Dead End’s hips; the wrists rotate; the thumbs open and close; and
the other four fingers are molded together, thus moving in tandem.
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| Standing side-by-side with FoC Bruticus |
The
hips are on ball joint, which is literally Motormaster’s own hips; and finally the
hips are on ratcheting joints.
The
articulations are sufficient enough to enable him to do various exciting poses.
Menasor
wields a huge sword, which is formed by combining Motormaster’s sword and
blaster. The rest of the individual robot’s handheld weapons have no role to
play, and you can choose to attach them anywhere on the robot as a way to store
them.
Like
I said earlier, this mode is based on the official instruction given. If you
like to follow the old G1 method, you can flip Breakdown and Offroad around and
have their undercarriage facing the front, the choice is yours.
But
that’s not all, folks. Menasor also features the “Scramble City” gimmick, just
like FoC Bruticus.
Combined
Mode #2:
Well,
in Scramble City, you can literally swap the limbs to your heart’s content.
Breakdown
In
this case, you can have Dragstrip and Dead End as the legs; and Breakdown and
Offroad vice-versa.
Offroad
Articulations
are exactly as the official mode and the figure looks just as good.
Dragstrip
In
this mode, I like to have Menasor wields Breakdown’s sword, which kind of made
it look like a dagger now.
Dead End
In
terms of how Menasor looks sideways, he is still way too thin to my liking.
Anyway,
I really like that HasTak actually threw in in Scramble City gimmick into the
Combiner Wars line, as it really adds to the play value of this entire set.
Good
job.
Overall:
This
entire Combiner Wars series has been a longtime coming. Long have HasTak been
in the shadows of 3rd Parties companies in terms of combiner robots,
and some may say, they still do. HasTak somewhat tried to make a comeback via
the Powercore Combiners series, but in my opionion, that line failed miserably.
Combiner
Wars series, however, is a step in the right direction. In terms of heftiness,
Combiner Wars is still way off the mark from their 3rd Party
competitions, but what they lack; they made it up with affordability and
articulations.
This
Menasor gestalt robot is a very good effort from HasTak, and fans around the
world have been waiting for a Menasor figure for like, forever, and now, we
finally got it, and it was worth the wait.
Highly
recommended.
Final
verdict: 9.5/10.
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