by Shadowstream » Wed Dec 15, 2010 1:59 pm
- Weapon: No Weapon
Well I just got my Henkei KO Thundercracker and Skywarp today and I thought it might be worth sharing my initial thoughts on them. Now I do plan on doing full reviews at a later date in video format to compare all the seeker molds I've collected over time, but for right now just a few things I'd like to go over quickly.
~Skywarp~
After hearing numerous claims about the 2 or maybe 3 different versions of the KO molds we've had recently, I was rather dubious about how Skywarp might turn out given that he's a version 1. Well he's not too bad, but he's far from perfect. He has 2 rather noticeable problems I can pick up in either mode; His cockpit section doesn't fit together very well at one end, thus it protrudes out in vehicle mode and has trouble fitting in his chest cavity in robot mode. I'm not completely sure why this is, but I'm thinking this might be fixable with a little work... assuming I can get the piece unscrewed since it looks like the screw head was ground away. The less noticeable thing is that his right side main wing isn't aligned quite correctly. When I got him the wings came separate in the bag he was in and I had to plug the little pegs into the holes on the wing hinges, which sacred me a bit at first, but after getting the right one on I found it didn't quite nestle into place in vehicle mode and it didn't fold up quite flush in robot mode either. It would seem the peg on that side is just off center ever so slightly, but in honesty it works well enough since a few of my other seekers wings slip down a bit in robot mode anyway. One more thing I could say would be about his launchers. Firstly, only the left one really launches and even then it's a bit temperamental. The right one is a bit tight and doesn't really want to fire it's missile no matter which one I put in there, but as often as I have my seekers using their missile launchers it's not that big of a deal... though they also have problems fitting in either mode. That being they're too tight in vehicle mode and too loose in robot mode. More modding to do there I guess.
Ultimately though, I can't say he's too bad. Plastic quality is pretty much on par with official seekers and his shade of purple is brilliant... which sadly is the base reason I got him in the first place, since the Classics version I had wasn't the most eye catching in terms of his purple-ness.
~Thundercracker~
Upon getting Universe Starscream I took my old classic version and painted him into a custom Thundercracker like a few others collectors I know of. While I am still fairly happy with it(especially the shade of blue I used) I wasn't really thinking it was quite as display worthy as a real thing would be. So the Henkei KO looked like a pretty good deal, since it not only looked better than a painted custom version, it would also look more uniform alongside Universe Starscream given the stripe pattern on the wings... which is the other reason I got Skywarp, to have a more uniform set of seekers for display. Oddly enough I ended up with the CHMS version, which was recently claimed to be the superior of the KO molds, and I can't disagree with that. However there is one thing that hit me right away that may turn buyers off. The eyes are not indented or recessed into the helmet at all, they're just painted on! This is pretty bad since the wrong lighting conditions on his face can make it look like he has no eyes at all for one. Secondly there is more than significant risk that the eyes would overspray onto the rest of his face and there would be no defining line to tell you where it's supposed to stop. I got lucky, but if this is indicative of all CHMS seekers I would caution collectors about this problem. Apart from that I can find a few other minor faults here and there, but nothing worth noting outside of what may be just hit and miss problems on any given figure.
In closing, these KOs are okay as stand ins in your collection, but do remember that they are knock offs and thus may not always be quite up to scratch comparatively. Ultimately I think it's just a hit and miss kind of thing, so while one person might get off alright with their seekers others may not.
MightyMagnus78 wrote:Nothing Hasbro does surprises me anymore, their ineptitude is legendary!
Burn wrote:Shadowstream wrote:It's quite clear they dun dropped the ball, but did they have to drop it so far and so hard?
It's FunPub. It's their specialty.
I'm a killjoy, and proud of it!
don't take that to mean I'm a killjoy just because I can be, though...
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