by Evil Eye » Tue May 24, 2016 6:00 am
- Motto: "Don't be a goddamn coward."
- Weapon: Acid Spray Gun
Honestly, with HasTak in its current state, I'd prefer a return to Supreme class. I only own one Supreme class- Armada Unicron- and he's great. Metroplex would have been better as a Supreme class figure (which is one of the reasons that when I have the money and the space I'm getting Utopia instead). Now Fortress Maximus, in my opinion, needs to be a Titan class simply because his defining characteristic is being XBOX HUEG, but really the G1 figure works better than the Titan. It's bigger (despite being slightly shorter), has more play features, a better city mode, and on top of that if you're willing to splash out a bit more you can replace the default Cerebros with Perfect Effect's Warden. Sure he's not as poseable
but with a toy as ludicrously large as ol' Maxxy, super-dynamic poses are out of the question anyway.
That said, I actually wouldn't be so bothered by Titan Fort Max if his city mode didn't suck so much. As it is though, it looks pretty terrible. All they needed to do was redo the knees so his lower legs could stick up like city blocks- it still wouldn't have been as good as the original figure but it would have been something. Unfortunately, at this size any 3P upgrade to make him more impressive (which would necessitate completely replacing his legs) would be ludicrously expensive to the point where you might as well just track down an Encore Fort Max and Warden.
I feel like the Titan Class has been largely wasted opportunities so far. Metroplex was OK but really a bit TOO big and too simplistic (and also very oddly proportioned), Devastator was just too hollow and primitive for his size, and looked like a much smaller set of toys had been upscaled, and Fortress Maximus has inherited most of Metroplex's problems, compounded with the mold not really suiting him. Hopefully they'll get it right with Trypticon but I'm not holding my breath.
I think the biggest problem, really, is HasTak's obsession with volume. Rather than making the toy dense, solid and well-engineered they instead just see how much they can "spread out" the assigned amount of plastic, resulting in figures that are physically large but also very hollow and lacklustre. Devastator is the most egregious example, with practically every single part being hollowed out and the plastic being really really thin. Meanwhile the actual engineering is very simplistic, with very little in the way of play features or more complex articulation than hinges and balljoints. Poor Mixmaster's barrel doesn't even spin, and it's not even like it has to be static for any particular reason (ROTF Mixmaster's barrel became his arms and thus couldn't spin, Giant's barrel was static to fit flush against Mixmaster's back without compromising articulation, whilst Gravity Builder's take on Mixmaster made up for the static barrel by having it able to open and reveal twin cannons). CW Mixy though? It just hangs off his butt. It's just a static, hollow piece of plastic that increases the size of the figure without actually contributing to his play value or overall structural integrity.
So yeah. I'm sorry if this comes off like a rant, but I felt it needed to be said.
Ha ha Transformers go brrrrr
)
