Since Transformers partly come from the Japanese Diaclone line, the Diaclone reboot featuring a new Masterpiece-style Dia-Battles was followed by many Transformers fans. Seibertron's own Cobotron has gotten himself a copy and offers a pictorial review below which gives the best idea yet on what to expect from this set and the myriad of ways you can play with its modular system.
Take it away Cobotron:
I'm huge fan of what I recently learned is called Takara SF Land. This is a collectors term that encompasses the rich history of all the science fiction toys Takara has designed over the last 40 plus years. The turn of the century was an awesome era of re-issues, and reboots from Takara. The reboots included Henshin Cyborg, Microman, and we could even consider Car Robots(RID) a reboot, as it was Transformers return to Earth based vehicle alt modes. It was a great time to be a TSF Land fan.
Well the ol' boys at Takara are at the reboot biz again, and they haven't missed a beat.
Diaclone Dia-Battles V2 is a fresh breath of old air. This figure captures everything that was great about the original Diaclone toys, but in a seriously updated Masterpiece level package. What we now refer to as "parts forming" had it's origins back in the Microman line. Modular vehicles that could be combined to form bigger ones, or even robots to some extent. They stepped it up a notch with the Diaclone line. By re-adjusting the scale to be smaller they could take that same modularity, but focus more on the detail of the combined forms.
This new Dia-Battles does that to a T, but with all the bells, whistles, grace, and style, We've come to expect in the modern engineering, sculpting, and articulation from our contemporary robot toys. Dia-Battles V2 is the ultimate parts former, and the bar has been raised.
Let's have a look.
The three main vehicle components that make up Dia-Battles.
Battles-01
Battles-02
Battles-03
Let's make a robot!
Hello you handsome devil.
The robot mode is absolutely fantastic! The articulation is top notch, and the connectors are amazingly well engineered, as some even double as articulation points. His pose-ability and balance are off the charts. Indeed making him a Masterpiece of a new kind.
Scout mission!
Just to note, this motorbike only came with the original release of this figure. It will not be included in any subsequent release or production run.
Road Viper
The small ship is called Bullet Fighter.
But WAIT! There's more modes!
Scramble Mode
Manual Mode
Both these modes can be achieved by transforming directly from robot mode.
More modular modes.
Battles Triser
This beautiful star cruiser leaves no unused parts.
Crawler
Hopper
Glide
This mode is one of my favorites. What? You need a flying-monkey-dragonman mode with Gatling gun fingers? Sure! We can do that.
Last, but certainly not least.
Fortress
And of course what would Diaclone be without the pilots?
Dia-Nauts
These guys are amazing. For mini-figures an inch tall, they are articulated to the nines. They're rocking ball socket shoulders and hips, elbows and knees, and even have an ab crunch!
This initial release of the toy is a limited edition, and includes a fourth Dia-Naut.
PARTY!
Meet and greet.
One last shot just to give a sense of the scale of Dia-Battles.
