So, i bought this guy, and he arrived 2 days ago.
brand is hei manba, and it is the TLK voyager mold, oversized to leader class.
With the price of the hasbro ones being almost 50$ at retail in my country, i cannot bring myself to buy that. So when i see this version for roughly 20$, i choose to pick this up instead.
he feels lighter compared to wei jiang product, but the overall plastic quality feels nice and solid, and can handle rough play.
Vehicle mode:
main difference from the hasbro version here is that the back part of the truck, as well as the smokestacks are now silver instead of light grey, missing autobot symbols, and missing western star logo. Other than that, exact same copy.
All the tabs are nice and tight, resulting in clean looking truck.
The hood is diecast.
Weapon:
the shield is pretty much the same, except the blue used here is darker. The sword is where it really shines. Instead of orange, the sword now has a silver color with red hilt. Looks really good there.
Transformation:
Exactly the same as the original. Some of the hinges are loose, so when you transform him, it tends to flop around. Thankfully, all the tabs are nice and tight, so once all the tabs are tabbed properly, the end result is nice and solid.
Robot mode:
the robot mode is where the difference is more apparent. It has additional paint apps that improve the toy. The pectoral now has a flame deco, and there are gold lining on the chest, lower legs, and biceps, as well as red detail on the feet.
The pectoral is diecast.
all the joints are not super tight, but they are tight enough to hold poses just fine, therefore no complaint here.
Unfortunately, out of the box, the sword handle cannot go all the way on the hand, resulting in somewhat awkward grip, as seen on the photo. Therefore, after that pic was taken, i sanded the hole, and now the sword can slide all the way just fine.
overall, very satisfied with this toy. For 20$, this is a very good deal for me. If you need a leader class optimus without backpack, or just find the price of the voyager too expensive, pick this guy up, he is worth every penny.
