The Energon Pub

I originally posted this review in the discussion thread for the figure, but am posting it here in the review forum as well.
This review will be split into two posts because of the 10 file limit. Post 1 covers robot mode and leg transformation, 2 will be alt mode and accessories.
Throughout the review I will be calling him X-guy, because "Ultimate X-panse" is just bad, but I haven't thought of anything I like better.

First up is a size comparison with his 'pretool' ss jetfire, and ss86 grimlock. He is taller than both, but only because of jetfire's hunched posture.

X-guy's biggest strength is definitely his robot mode articulation. His arms have 360 wrist swivel, 90 elbow bend, 360 bicep swivel, ~95 in/out shoulder pivot, 360 shoulder rotation, and a ball joint used for transformation that gives ~5 front/back butterfly and 90 upwards stretch. This last one especially allows him to do the hardest letter of YMCA for action figures.

His legs have '360' ratcheting hip rotation with ~95 of front/back clearance between back kibble and belt, his thighs have '180' of in/out pivot on a ratchet joint, but only 100 of clearance before hitting belt. 360 thigh swivel, double jointed knees, both ratcheted, with a collective 90 of front back due to leg shape/knee kibble, 5 past neutral in either direction ankle rocker, with an extra ~2 from the thruster being on an extra ball joint for altmode posing. Transformation joint lets him tap his toe impatiently. No photos here due to how straight forward it is.

Neck has full 360* so long as head's up/down hinge is all the way down or visor is over eyes, otherwise visor antenna lock onto kibble behind the head, locking into place. Up/down has ~10 clearance, eking out an extra ~2 with visor down. Visor rests at slightly below neutral when deployed, allowing him to 'look' down.

This brings us to the torso. Waist has 30 clearance either way before leg hits back kibble. Ab crunch(!) has 10 forward clearance before chestplate hits belt, and left/right spine rocker pin(!) has ~2 clearance at best either direction, but this goes up to ~7-10 when ab crunched forward. It is also loose, at least on my copy, and flops some, although the lack of clearance in neutral posture keeps it from being too annoying. The really impressive thing about both these joints is that they are completely gratuitous; they aren't used in transformation, only for robot articulation. Here are pics showing them off, with the chestplate transformed out of the way.


Most of the figure's transformation complexity is from the leg transformation, with a really clever double turnaround on the leg panels. However, the firmness with which they tab in can make it difficult to untab them to transform in either direction. You will also probably need to sacrifice a small child to get the various ratchets lined up perfectly to get things to play nice the first few times you transform it.




A note for transforming back into robot mode: there is a tab in the inside of the tailfin inherited from jetfire. It is important for clearance reasons that it tabs into its slot, shown here.

As stated above, altmode and blast effects in post 2.[/quote]

This post will focus on the altmode, especially in comparison to SS Jetfire, who he shares surprisingly few parts with, almost all of them from the central fuselage panels. I can't attest as to the altmode's accuracy, having not seen the X-Men cartoon in question, but it does compare rather favorably with Jetfire as a more cartoony, stylized take on the iconic SR-71 silhouette.

X-guy is slightly shorter than Jetfire in length, due to the blunter nose. You can also see nearly every shared part, almost all of them part of the kibble backpack. There's the fuselage tail, the central fuselage and it's two 'wings', the shoulder wings, the vertical tailfins and the chunk of fuselage between the wings and the nose. Not seen is the connector that lets the central fuselage fold over the tail panel.

He's noticeably less hefty than Jetfire in hand, owing to having significantly less robot undercarriage. Not having a giant bobblehead, hunchback, and digitigrade legs will do that. This results in a much cleaner undercarriage, both from below and the side.



Probably the biggest real weak point of the figure is the side wings. The friction pegs holding them on aren't as good as they need to be. They wobble in place when touched, and pop off very easily when pressure is put against them. Fortunately, this same flaw means they are easy to reattach. Again, this might be a qc thing on my copy, but that remains to be seen.

Now for the accessories. He comes with 5 accessories: two pink blast effects compatible with 5mm ports (but not 3mm pegs like wfc blasts) resembling psyonic copies of Psylocke's psiblade and Wolverine's claws respectively, two plastic slugs of Wolverine and Sabretooth, and a small piece resembling Psylocke's 'psionic butterfly' aura. I didn't bother photographing anything other than the blast effects, because there isn't anything the stock photos don't show that's worth/easily photographable. The figurines are flexible enough that I suspect they are molded from the same pink flexplastic as the blast effects. but given that they are literally completely coated in paint, this is unverifiable without doing irreversible damage. Sabretooth can stand on his own. Wolverine cannot. Despite resembling the aura that surrounds Psylocke's face, the small plastic piece is too small to do the same for X-guy, and is only good as a belt for the slugs, as seen in stock photos. I also did not bother photographing the packaging or instructions.

The blast effects are meant to tab in to 5mm ports on the back of each hand. His hands themselves are not sculpted in a way that lets him hold weapons. Due to the pliable plastic used, the effects are uncooperative in being pegged in anywhere. Also of note is the correct orientation of the arm panels, mistransformed in stock photos.

There is storage for the two blast effects in both modes. In altmode, there are two 5mm ports in the armpits where the instructions tell you to put them. There are also 2 5mm holes on each foot, allowing for these or wfc effects to be used as thruster fire. (not shown) There are also 3mm holes on the side of each effect, allowing them to peg onto the 3mm posts on the landing gear at his waist.


All in all, a fairly large and fairly respectable leader class figure, with above and beyond articulation, marred by qc issues and an awkward name. If you were able to get him at discount for standard leader price or below as I was, it is definitely worthwhile. Whether it is worth the 30% Collaborative markup is up to personal preference.