First off, who the heck is Renderform?
Renderform is an operation that is run by one person, Seibertron.com's
Venksta. Whether you know it or not, you've seen his work. He's done some stunning pieces of artwork that have been featured on some 3rd party sets such as BTSToy's Classics Prime Trailer. There probably isn't an upcoming 3rd party set that he doesn't know something about, but he's not divulging that inforation.
He's recently taken his artwork to a new level, making resin molds and casting parts and pieces for some iconic figures.
Renderform features several in-progress images, such as weapons for Classics/Henkei Optimus Prime and Megatron, and a set that would turn Universe Blaseter into something slightly more desirable. Make no mistake though; he's got some neat stuff coming out, but he's a one-man operation; which means that sets will be very limited compared to stuff put out by the likes of FansProject and Impossible Toys.
Now that we've gotten the introductions out of the way, let's take a looksee at the kit itself. RF-002 is a kit that is meant to give Universe Skyfall a new head similar to G2 Skyjack. It also comes with some new weapons to beef up his firepower both in plane and robot mode. The kit is resin-based, not plastic so it has a slight rubbery feeling to it, but overall it feels very sturdy. Please note that any picture I could take would not be of good quality, thus I shall use the promo pictures from Renderform to spice this review up.
Contents: RF-002 contains two black rifles (or one or none depending on the set you want to buy), a new head which comes in two parts, and 2 visor colours; one is yellow that homages G2 Skyjack quite well and the other is a deep red colour, which adds a very sinister visage to Skyfall. If you are lucky enough, Venksta might have included an extra rifle, molded from clear red plastic. This weapon is of Lucky Draw rarity, so if you get one; cherish it.
Packaging: Venksta is a wonderful artist, however it is very pricy to get your art put on a box, for then you would have to put a plastic insert into the box that would hold all the items snugly and securely. All of that costs money, which is not a luxury a one-man operation has. Thus the packaging is a simple cardboard sleeve taped shut at the end. The items are all inside, further contained in a plastic sleeve. The head and visors are rolled up in bubblewrap to protect them. Everything is very snug and quite secure. There should be no damage caused by shipping unless your postal carrier is feeling nostalgic of the World Cup.
The Weapons: The kit comes with 2 long rifles. These rifles fit very smoothly into and out of Skyfall's hands. They also can attach into the hand-holes left visible in the jet mode so that Skyfall has side-mounted cannons. This method of attachment is very loose, at least it is on mine. One would have better results folding the hands out and attaching the rifles into the exposed fists, but it would lose some of the sleekness of the altmode. The guns have a hefty feel to them, and it's oddly satisfying holding a weapon of this size that doesn't fire a projectile. Its length is about the same as Skyfall's original weapon. As the kit is made of resin, there is a mold line that runs all around the weapon, however it's only really visible if you were to look at it in proper light, and even then it's not that bad at all. There are some very well-casted detailling, for examble the stock of the gun is seperated from the rest. The scope is probably my favourite part, but I've always had a soft spot for hunting rifles and sniper rifles. They just look cool. That isn't to say there aren't flaws. I was Lucky enough to get one of the red rifled, and I can tell that there was a small error in the resin casting aroun the stock of it, causing a shallow inverted bubble. It's noticible, but only if I care to look for it. It's a small imperfetion that I have no problems with whatsoever.
The Head: Someone once said that the face makes the man. I don't know if that's true or not, but it certainly makes the robot. The assembly process is very easy; remove screw, remove head, attach visor, attach head, insert same screw into new head. I'm not a mechanical genius by any stretch of the imagination, but if I can do it, then so can you. After looking at the yellow vs the red visor on the robot, I decided to use the red one. It's much darker and leaves a more sinister appearance. The back of the head is solid, so no ambiant light can illuminate the face; so if your collection room is darker, perhaps the yellow may be a better choice. In the end of course it's your choice. The head looks cool with detailing that shows some stubby antenne on the side and a nice crest and fine detailing around the "mouth" for lacok of a better term. Being resin however it's not a perfect fit. I had some initial trouble in getting everything to line up just right, and there's still a little seperation, but it's hidden behind an antenna, so it's fine. It also doesn't turn as smoothly as the previous head. It's a little loose to turn the 60 degrees around the front, and then tightens up if you want him to look over either shoulder. Possibly assembly error, possible molding error, I can't say 100% either way. The head looks nice, but I get the feeling that if I turn it too far either way, it may break. I also get the feeling that it may be the first thing to go should Skyfall take a spill. But it is resin, so it really should be left for display as much as possible. Overall the character change is very noticable and in my oppinion, this is quite an improvemnt.
The Other Thing: I've been asked not to talk about this until people start receiving it en-masse. But it is pretty neat.
Overall: It's simple and a very effective upgrade. It brings new life to a character that many collectors bought, admired, and then put on a shelf in the back. Is it perfect? certainly not. I'm sure if I looked over everything very closely I could find further miniscule flaws, but that can be done with any transformer that Hasbro and TomyTakara put out too, so that's moot. My final recommendation is that this is a very cool set, and should be purchased if you display your collection. If you play with it on a constant basis though, don't get it as I feel the head will not survive too much attention.
I think Venksta is going to do very well with this enterprise, he's going after small things that are his own design, and not large characters or obvious upgrades. He's going after a niche market of collectors and I get the feeling he doesn't want to get too popular, regardless of how cool we may think his designs are. That said everyone who wants that little extra flash in their collection should
check out his site now.
Now to figure out who to give that red rifle too...
