Dave's Combiner Wars Rant: Motormaster

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Combiner Wars Rant - Voyager Wave 2

Motormaster (Optimus Prime very extensive retool)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/VMotormaster

Yeah, that's it. Reships round out the case assortment. According to
an interview Ben Yee did with Hasbro, the original plan was to have all of
the Aerialbots come out in wave 1 with Superion, and then all the Stunticons
in wave 2 with Motormaster, but some production issues made them swap
Dragstrip (who was ready) for Air Raid (who wasn't).

http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/VCOptimus - Original mold

CAPSULE

$25 price point

Motormaster: Original mold was recommended. This is slightly better and
at least is connected to a G1 combiner. Mildly recommended if you already
have Optimus Prime, but if not, and you don't want to get both, get this
one.


RANT

Packaging: Same as Optimus Prime. The box back does not show a
frankenbiner, instead having all five Stunticons forming Menasor.

DECEPTICON: MOTORMASTER
Altmode: Truck
Transformation Difficulty: 10 steps (odd, given that Optimus was 9)
Previous Name Use: G1 (several homages came out as Motorbreath)
Previous Mold Use: Gen
Function: Stunticon Commander
Motto: "These wheels are made for crushing."

MOTORMASTER punishes enemies and allies alike with the brute force of a
tyrant, breeding fear and hatred in all who encouter him, even his STUNTICON
teammates.

Packaging: The combined sword is held in by just the blister shape. The
robot is held in by 8 sock ties. The card art is different from the box art
(which has both Motormaster on the front and Menasor on the left side).
The instructions slightly mistransform the truck mode, with the
aerodynamic bit on top flipped forward rather than back. The instructions
give no guidance for weapon storage.

Note: This is one of the more extensive retools out there, to the point
that I'm not going to try to fit it into my usual redeco template for
review. The engineering and maybe half the total mass are the same as
Optimus Prime, but there's otherwise so many changes it's functionally a
different toy.

Robot Mode: Well, everything from the waist down is identical to Optimus
Prime, but the use of paint helps to differentiate them. Above the waist,
almost everything is different. The spine section (with the smokestacks) is
the same, if mostly hidden. Unfortunately, this part includes the combiner
chest pegs, which continue to be tapered and too loose in many cases. The
fists and the inner struts of the elbow and shoulder joints are the same.
Similarly, the shoulder roots and the collar panel that holds the head are
the same...mostly stuff that doesn't call attention to itself on either toy.
All of the surface parts are new, and the shoulders even have extra hinged
pieces for the truck roof. The head is G1 Motormaster's blockhead (animated
design, mostly), and the rest is inspired by the G1 toy and animated model,
but paint budgeting does make it drift away from model a bit (the Takara-Tomy
versions of the Stunticons have more show-accurate paint, but that's a bit of
a double-edged sword, especially on Dragstrip).
7.5" (19cm) tall in mostly medium gray and black with some bits of
silver and purple. The pelvis, thighs, toes, wheels, inside-boot panels,
elbow joints, shoulder joints, backpack, head, and buttplate are black
plastic. The rest, including the trapezoidal block around the head, is made
of medium gray plastic with a faint metallic sheen. The weapons and the
grilles on the front of the biceps are painted silver, some window details on
the backpack are painted more of a gunmetal. The face is painted light gray
with the eyes left unpainted black (and his expression looks like he just
smelled Blot or something). The chest is painted gloss black with gloss
purple in the sternum. There's also gloss purple details on the shoulders,
ribcage, backpack, kneecaps and upper shins. The use of paint on the boot
fronts helps make them look different from Optimus's. A purple and silver
Decepticon symbol is printed on the "ascot" part of the chest. The
headlights on the elbows are painted gold, and the front windows on the backs
of the shoulders are painted metallic light purple.
Articulation and connectivity are identical to Optimus Prime's.
Instead of two guns that combine into a big gun, Motormaster has a rifle
and a sword that combine to make a bigger sword. The rifle is 3.25" (8.5cm)
long with the same notched peg for a grip that other cominber guns have.
Despite the fact it turns into a hilt, it still looks acceptably like a rifle
on its own. The regular sword is 4" (10cm) long with a simple 5mm peg shaft
and a blade that evokes the Master Sword in the way it appears to be made of
elongated hexagons hammered together. The small sword hilt goes into the
back of the rifle and has a preferred orientation that holds it all firmly
together. The combined sword uses the rifle barrel as a hilt and is 6.25"
(16cm) long. Annoyingly, they seem to have sized this hilt for unpainted
plastic, it requires excessive force to fit into Motormaster's fist. It fits
snugly in Dragstrip's combiner mode fist, though. And Motormaster can hold
it pretty well as a Qualta blade.

Transformation: Identical to Optimus Prime, both for vehicle more and
combiner mode. Well, two tweaks...the panels on top of the shoulders fold
back to cover the roof, and there's slots in the combiner pelvis armor that
snap onto tabs on the back of the cab. Sort of. If you get everything
aligned.

Vehicle Mode: A somewhat more rounded semitractor than Optimus Prime,
reminiscent of the vehicle mode for Galvatron in Age of Extinction.
6.25" (16.5cm) long and mostly gray. The sides of the black backpack
are painted gunmetal in a marginally successful attempt to blend with the
gray plastic. There's gloss purple wedge-stripes on the sides. A tiny part
of the side windows are painted metallic light purple, but most of the area
is unpainted, so they really would have been better off not bothering, and
using the paint budget better elsewhere.
To store the weapons in vehicle mode, clip the small sword to the side
of the rifle (there's a long thin tab on each side of the rifle, and slots of
the same size in the core of the blade) and insert the rifle into one of the
three notched peg holes on the rear. The photo on the box back shows this,
but it's not terribly clear.

Combiner Mode: Functionally identical to Ultra Prime, but with loads of
changed details. The new Menasor head is black with gray plastic horns that
can be folded down for storage. The face is painted silver with red eyes.
There's a purple patch on the center of the pelvis plate (the plate and the
strut that holds it are new molds). And just as the truck mode is
reminiscent of Age of Extinction Galvatron, the center chest when you open up
the panels has design elements similar to AoE Galvatron's.

Menasor: I'll come back and review this once I have all of the
Stunticons. The legs share the same aesthetic and functional problems as
Ultra Prime, however, and I definitely recommend pulling the pelvis plate
down to at least make it look better proportioned.

Overall: Has pretty much all the same strengths and weaknesses as
Optimus Prime, but with a weapon that better fits the hands, and a tie to an
actual G1 combiner. If you don't feel like buying both versions, get this
one.


Dave Van Domelen, has reached Review Stack Zero for the first time in a
while.