The Energon Pub

News Credits: 37 · by **Peaugh** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 4:06 pm

Got a super duper package in the mail today - Mastermind's Knight Morpher Airbourne Squad Awakening!

Video is up now!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMgHfP93oGI[/youtube]

For those few not in the know, the Knight Morpher line consists of brand new toys based on the Hearts of Steel miniseries, featuring our favorite characters with 19th century altmodes. The Decepticon seekers featured designs inspired by some of Da Vinci's flying vehicle concepts. The awakening version is an all black and grey preview version. It's a full-on production quality figure molded in colors that make it look like a grey prototype, and it's pretty awesome. The box includes the figure itself, a set of all three unique weapons used by Screecher (Starscream), Stormer (Thundercracker) and Warper (Skywarp).

Also included are the instructions, and a special sheet detailing various shrp points, as well as some fragile bits you'll want to make note of when transforming the figure.

The wings come packaged detached from the main robot, so once those are attached you've got what is already a pretty neat figure!

Size wise he's about the same mass of a voyager, but slightly shorter since a lot of that is in the wings. Here's a quick shot of him with KM-03 Cyclops.

And for a more common comparison, next to United/Generations Jazz:

Screecher has the chain guns, but as mentioned, he also comes with the weapons used by Stormer:

As well as the cannons for Warper:

So you can display him as the awakening version of any of the three main seekers. The hip armor is also detachable (be careful with this!) and can form a pair of scimitar-ish swords:

One of the neat things that both adds to the detail of the figure and some fun during transformation is the addition of some Mech Alive/Automorph features in the head/shoulders and legs:

Transformation is a lot of fun. Much like Cyclops, you're going to want to take your time the first few times through it as you figure out where everything goes. I popped the wings back off while doing the arms just to get a sense of how it all works and pegs together, but everything locks into place quite securely.

The way the hip armor flips up and attaches itself to the arms, including using the arm flap to lock in place is really elegant and helps integrate the parts together.

The legs fold up and around:

The resulting tri-level plane mode is really cool as well.

All in all, while it's definitely one to take your time with the first few times through, this is just another amazing piece to add to the Knight Morpher line. This grey prototype colored version is a limited edition exclusive (and already sold out), but I saw the fully painted versions of all three at TFcon and let me tell you, they look AMAZING. The shiny metallic plastics and paints on these guys just really seals the deal, and I'm looking forward to their release as well as the upcoming Terminus Hexatron figure. (Spoiler alert: HE IS HUGE!)

News Credits: 6 · by **BeastProwl** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 4:46 pm

More interesting up close than I thought he would be. Really fun looking. Any QC issues to worry about?

News Credits: 37 · by **Peaugh** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 5:04 pm

BeastProwl wrote:More interesting up close than I thought he would be. Really fun looking. Any QC issues to worry about?

Quality control seems fine, nothing I've noticed on mine yet. There are a few places you'll want to watch out for during transformation just due to some fragility in the design itself, but those are pretty clearly shown on the warning sheet I mentioned (and I've found while playing with it they're not super fragile or anything, just places to want to make sure to sue some care)

News Credits: 1235 · by **LOST Cybertronian** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:38 pm

Great pictoral review Peaugh, can't wait to get the painted version of all three. Also looking forward to the video.

News Credits: 3 · by **caked-up** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 10:12 pm

I have been dying to get a hold of Warper to replace my MP Skywarp (the hips and heels kill him), but I was hoping these KMC guys would be about the size of a leader/MP. Are they actually going to produce more than one size of these molds?