Dave's TF Legacy Rant: Motormaster/Menasor

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Transformers Legacy Rant: Commander Class

Motormaster (Truck/Battle Station/Skeletal Menasor)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Motormaster

Okay, so a long-time thing for "3P" toys has been finding ways to be
slavishly show-accurate even when the animation design was kinda stupid or
outright impossible. Maybe adding thirty steps to get the waist tucked in a
little more tightly, or a pile of kibble only used in one mode. One
relatively recent trend for the "Scramble City" combiners (the ones where you
could put any limb on any torso in any position) is to follow the animation
model of basically "giant robot with vehicles stuck to the limbs." There's
no real transformation for the vehicles, other than what's needed to attach
to a limb that has a joint. We've seen that already with Dragstrip, whose
combiner mode is just "split in two, so part goes on the upper arm and part
on the forearm."
And that's how Menasor works now. You don't need any other Stunticons
to get a giant robot, the other four are just decoration.


CAPSULE

$85-90 price point, if you can get it through non-scalper channels.

Motormaster: A decent tractor-trailer that turns into a robot with a
battle station. The Menasor mode is basically complete in function, all the
Stunticons do is form decoration, which is kinda cheaty. On the low end of
recommended.


RANTS

Packaging: Well, at least for Commanders the whole windowless box thing
is not new. Like Kingdom Rodimus Prime, the box is 13" (33cm) by 11"
(27.5cm), but it's wider than it is tall, with vehicle mode featured on the
front. It's 4" (10cm) deep. Because the impressionistic color splatter art
makes it hard to judge depth or boundaries of scenery, it looks like the
other four Stunticons are R/C sized next to him, rather than being far below
or behind as he drives along an elevated (and rather narrow) roadway. The
left side has art of Menasor shooting something in the foreground, the top
has a render of the vehicle mode, the right side has the usual group shot
seen on other Decepticons in Legacy. The usual legalese is on the bottom.
On the back, the upper left is dominated by a render of skeletal
Menasor, with some callouts showing how Dragstrip and "Wild Rider" attach to
right and left boot respectively. Upper right is the vehicle mode, lower
right is Motormaster in robot mode manning the battle station made from his
trailer. The lower right shows how just the cab turns into Motormaster.
Yeah, to get the Sunbow Menasor, they basically had to abandon
Motormaster being the entire truck, now he's just the cab.
There's no QR code on the box or on the instructions. I also checked
all the box flaps, looked around for loose paper with a code, etc. And you
can't just browse the entries on Hasbro's site, it's code or nothing. (The
HasbroPulse store listing for Motormaster claims there's a code.)
The inside tray is cleverly folded up corrugated cardboard with a single
piece that can be just lifted away to reveal the truck. It rattled around
very little inside, despite the lack of any ties. However, there are reports
that the trailer wheel struts to suffer damage in shipping.
The instructions only show how to attach Dragstrip and Wild Rider, with
no mention of the as-of-August-2022-unrevealed other two. Presumably they
attach the same way as their opposite side counterparts, or their own
instruction sheets will clarify things.


DECEPTICON: MOTORMASTER
Assortment: F2987
Altmodes: Menasor Skeleton, Tractor-Trailer, Battle Station
Transformation Difficulty: 45 steps (vehicle to Menasor), 23 steps (trailer
to battle station), 23 steps (cab to robot)
Previous Name Use: Motormaster - G1, Gen:CW. Menasor - G1, Classics,
Titanium, Gen:CW
Previous Mold Use: None
Function:
Special Unit:
Origin Universe:
Signature Weapon:

STR XX INT XX SPD XX FRB XX

I'll leave the missing info blank for now, maybe we'll get a QR code as
part of a livestream or something later. However, since they usually go with
G1 as a guide, Function is probably Stunticon Leader (Motormaster) or Super
Warrior (Menasor), Special Unit is Stunticons, Origin Universe is G1,
Signature Weapon is either Cyclone Gun or Ionizer Sword (they usually just
pick one), STR 10, INT 3, SPD 2, FRB 9.
Note, Classics Menasor is really a Motormaster redeco of an Optimus
Prime toy, but they lost the Motormaster name for a while, as evidenced by
the "Motormouth" Optimus redeco from 2012.

Packaging: No ties, just truck mode held in by folded and taped
cardboard. Note, the back of box renders show an extra joint in the ankles
that was removed at some point, either for drop test reasons or cost-
cutting. The toes cannot point down, just up.

Vehicle Mode: A black-cab, gray-trailer "sleeper cabover" tractor-
trailer as in G1, if a little short compared to its other dimensions.
The cab is mostly black with purple windows and some white bits that
look a little out of place but are a result of the white arms of the robot
mode from the G1 cartoon. The back end is really spindly, with a big gap
down the center because it's really just the four-wheel chunk on thin struts
with the robot arms pegged to the chunk. It's hard to get the arms in
properly (and at least one will probably not be proper right out of the box),
but once they're in properly they're VERY hard to get back out.
5.5" (14cm) long, about half of that is the cab part. Most of the
plastic is black, the exceptions being some shoulder roots tucked under the
rear of the cab. There's also white paint on the robot forearms, which
sticks out pretty badly where the arms are pegged under the rear half.
There's very faintly metallic purple paint on the main windows, the upper
tier of windows, the tech greebles on the roof, the fuel tanks molded into
the robot forearms, and some not-outlined (and therefore hard to see)
Decepticon symbols on the sides of the cab near the back. The grille and
front bumper are dark silver, while the wheel hubs are regular silver. The
headache rack is actually the robot chest and pelvis, with some gray and
purple paint.
It rolls okay on the six wheels. The trailer hitch is a 5mm socket, and
there's a 3mm socket right behind it (envisioning having it pull a tiny
trailer). There's two 3mm studs in back, so you can use Fire Blasts for jet
thrusts or something, but they're really there for stabilizing parts of the
Menasor torso mode.
The trailer is mostly a gray box and is kinda short for the size of the
cab, but that sort of thing happens a lot in Transformers. On its own it's
7.5" (19cm) long with Menasor's chest and some kibble poking out the front
like a refrigration unit. It's mostly silvery light gray plastic, with a few
purple bits (including part of the rifle) visible, some white joints in back,
black wheels, and white plastic for the hitch connection peg and the rather
bad kickstand (it's very hard to get out, and collapses very easily).
There's an interrupted purple stripe along each side, and a purple Decepticon
symbol printed on each side neat the front upper corner. As with the cab,
the wheel hubs are painted silver. There's a big silver and purple
Decepticon symbol on the front, since that's Menasor's chestplate.
The rear wheels are on panels that fold outwards, sometimes when you
don't want them to. There's no 5mm sockets on the outside, and in addition
to the hitch peg there's four 5mm pegs on top at the outside edges of the
rear third. There's no useful panels to open up, but you can pull off the
front third to access the stored sword without dismantling anything else. To
get the rifle, though, you need to take apart the roof some.
All together, it's 10.75" (27cm) long, and while the peg can be a bit
stiff, it does articulate.

Transformation of Cab to Robot: The forwards direction to get to robot
is fairly intuitive, despite the large number of cab panels that end up
folding into parts of the boots. It can be a little hard to see where the
slots are for tabs when you're putting a black tab into a black slot, but
once in place they're quite firm. Before you fold out the fists, you may
notice that there's 3mm sockets on the wrist stumps. While these can be used
for giving the robot tool-hands, they're intended to go on those two 3mm
studs on the back of the tractor. The front wheels fold under the feet,
which is nice in some ways, but does cause some issues.
You should probably pay closer attention than I did when first
transforming it, though, because getting back to vehicle mode is a
significant hassle. One tricky point is that the robot head does not store,
it just sort of hangs between the robot arms and forms the lowest clearance
of cab mode, I spent a lot of time trying to hide it better. Also, getting
the front wheels to fold back out is difficult on mine, the joint is really
stiff.

Robot Mode: Other than the wheel chunk on the back, overly ornate
kneepads, and a few other little bits of easily ignored (because they're
black) kibble, this is a close approximation of the G1 animation model, if
you assume that he was "gray as a standing for actually being black," because
this is mostly black with a few purple bits and then incongruous white arms.
Why did they go with white when the toy has arms that are the same gray as
the trailer? I dunno, a lot of the G1 color choices were kinda weird, and at
least this one seems to have been consistent (I'm looking at YOU, Pipes). He
has the classic trapezoidal block head, or if you look more closely a generic
helmet head hiding inside a trapezoidal block. This was another animation
decision, since the G1 toy just had a head as a raised detail in a recessed
part of a rectangular block. On the adorable side, they molded fake cab
halves for the feet, complete with fake little wheels. In short, they
managed to get pretty close to the G1 animation model, for good AND ill.
6.75" (17cm) tall in mostly black with white arms and some purple, gray,
and silver bits. In addition to the white shoulder roots visible in cab
mode, the biceps and fists are white plastic. Everything else is black.
Lots of white paint on the shoulders and tops and outer faces of the
forearms, although they wisely left tabs and slots unpainted. Medium gray
outlines the front of the head chunk, the torso, and the T-shaped pelvis.
There's some purple rectangles on the sternum, the roof greebles in purple
are now kneecaps, and the windshields and side windows of the fake cabs on
the feet are also purple. The fake bumpers and grilles are dark silver, and
a little bit of the actual grill is still visible on each shin. The face is
metallic light purple with...um, slightly darker metallic purple eyes? I
think they're the same purple as the windshields and stuff, but it's a faint
difference even under strong light. A purple Decepticon symbol is printed on
the front of the left shoulder.
The neck and waist are both smooth swivels, but the waist has a very
slight notch to let you know when you've got it properly centered. Universal
joint shoulders, bicep swivels, hinge elbows, swivel wrists. Universal joint
hips, upper thigh swivels, and technically double hinge soft-ratcheting knees
due to how the transformation works. The ankles have the usual side hinges,
plus the feet are on transformation swivels that let you swing them side to
side a bit. Additionally, the front part is hinged for Menasor mode
transformation, but it can let you sort of bend the toes a little for action
poses.
In addition to the 5mm and 3mm sockets of the trailer hitch being
accessible and usable in this mode, there's both 3mm and 5mm sockets in the
back of the pelvis. The 5mm pelvis socket is used to help secure the torso
mode to Menasor's chestplate and pelvis piece. However, other than the 5mm
sockets in the fists, that's it for standard connectors in this mode. The
transformation has the front wheels fold under the feet, and there's not
enough room left for a secure 5mm socket on the sole of the foot as a result.
The sword, which is normally stored in the trailer, is 5" (12.5cm) long
with a "wide 70s-style tie" shaped blade and a big crossguard. The blade
part is painted gunmetal. The hilt is a 5mm peg, but it ends in a 3mm stud
so a sufficiently stiff-jointed Core Class figure could wield it too. Or you
can put a Fire Blast there, for an energized pommel strike. It also has 5mm
sockets on either side of the crosspiece, for storage inside the truck mode
or atop one of the towers of the battlestation. There is no way to store it
on the robot, however, unless you have an adapter of some sort.

Transformation to Battle Station: The trailer separates into three big
chunks, which further separate into labeled parts A through E. Part D is the
rifle, which mounts atop the central tower of the station formed by the other
parts. Technically C and E are two pieces each, and each pair splits up and
connects symmetrically around the core formed by A and B. These really need
the instructions, because it's all pretty arbitrary visually but only made to
fit together one way. (Some fiddling around is possible, but not as solid.)
The front third pulls off cleanly and that holds A and B, plus the sword
sticking out the back. The top half of the rest comes off next, then splits
in two, with the cannon being freed up from between the parts. The B tower
sort of wraps around the torso A, but it's not too hard to free up and fold
into tower mode.
I was able to get it together properly from just the box render,
although I found several "almost correct but not as stable" forms along the
way, as I suspected would happen.

Battle Station: This is technically somewhat in keeping with G1 as well,
since the original G1 combiner cores all had base modes that could connect up
with either Metroplex or Trypticon. And, frankly, this toy does do a better
job of the base mode, not that it was a high bar to clear.
Well, it's pretty wide, with a central tower that mounts the cannon and
two side towers that mount...nothing, really. They have 5mm pegs on top and
no 5mm sockets on top, so you can't mount most weapons on top (a few can go
on sideways or something). There's a single 5mm socket on the outer face of
each tower top, more sideways weapons. There are plenty of 5mm sockets down
in the base level (three on each side pad of the tower, one each on the
connecting areas on the sides), for weapon storage or crew-served weapons if
you have Micromasters. The front of the tower has four forwards- facing 5mm
sockets from trailer-assembly. There's a short ramp at either end, but
unlike Legacy Metroplex, there's no ramp connectors of either recent type.
19.25" (49cm) wide, 9.25" (23.5cm) tall in the center with the cannon
mounted and its "screen" folded all the way up, 5.25" (13.5cm) tall on the
secondary towers, and 6.25" (16cm) from front to back.
Chunk A (center foundation) is mostly black plastic, with some light
silvery gray for the combiner port sockets. The central tower Chunk B is
mostly light gray plastic from the truck shell, getting some of the stripe
paint and some now upside-down Decepticon symbols. It also has the hitch peg
and kickstand piece which end up on top. Chunk C's two pieces form the side
towers, again mostly gray but with white combiner pegs on top (knee joints
for Menasor), and purple plastic toes/heels (see later). The ramps get the
rest of the side stripe paint. Chunk D is the cannon, which has purple
plastic for the barrels and a piece that I guess is supposed to be either a
display screen or a very small shield for the user, light gray core, and two
white handles that swing out, no paint. The E chunk splits in two and goes
through a lot of contortions to make the bit linking the core to the side
towers, mostly light gray plastic but with purple for the fists (hidden under
Chunk A) and the shoulder sockets (mostly painted over silver).
In addition to the 5mm sockets and pegs mentioned up top, there's a few
3mm posts used for other modes, but you can install impact Fire Blasts on
them if you have 'em.
Note, the side towers are only held on by a single 5mm peg each, so you
can't really pick up the whole thing at once to move it unless you're very
careful. The rest does hold together fairly solidly, though.
To be honest, this is a toy that will not spend much time overall in
anyone's collection in battlestation mode with Motormaster standing at it.
It's here to be Menasor, even if that means spending several months with
withered limbs as we wait for the other Stunticons to hit stores.

Transformation to Menasor: Chunk A becomes the chest, pelvis, and
thighs, and is about the same as it is in base mode, just rotate the waist.
Chunk B does not form part of Menasor, staying as a tower like in base mode,
so the rifle (chunk D) can be a tower-mounted weapon for Menasor to use. The
C chunks unfold into the skeletal boots (also about the same as in base
mode), and the E chunks become the skeletal arms with a fair amount of
folding (all of which is pretty easy to figure out, a lot of which are double
hinges that make the pieces longer and skinnier). You can't actually
assemble the whole thing without the cab, although you can get the legs onto
the torso front without the cab.
The cab basically becomes a brick with a head on top that plugs into
chunk A. I was sure I'd need to resort to the instructions here, but I
eventually got there with only a glance to confirm that the robot legs ended
up as sides of the torso. There's a lot of panel-flipping and messing with
that double knee joint that you need to do, though. I mean, after getting
one side done correctly, I had no idea how I'd managed it, and almost had to
start from scratch with the other leg.
The boots just snap on via a Combiner Wars/Power of the Primes connector
at the bottom of the Chunk A thighs, which is nice. The arms are a unique
connector type, though. Someone might try making an adapter, but that would
result in a short-armed Menasor, so it'd be more of a "can I do it?" thing
than something for which I expect much demand. Cars go on the BACKS of the
boots, as in the animation model, with purple buttons get get pushed when the
car goes into place, forcing some panels normally held by springs against the
insides of the skeleton to fold out and close the shins. Since the vehicle
modes are longer than the boots are tall, they need to bend at the back of
the hood so that the front chunk becomes a big heel.
Note, the connections for Stunticons on the arms are just different
enough that Dragstrip can only go on the right arm. Different shaped pegs on
the upper arms, different separation of pegs on the forearms. As near as I
can tell, though, the legs are identical in terms of connectors. Without a
Wild Rider, however, I can't really test that yet.

Menasor: Kinda skeletal without all the Stunticons attached, but they're
purely decoration. All the functionality (articulation, ability to hold
stuff, etc) are in this frame. He has the retro Super Robot horn type
antennae atop his head, closed fists (I expect there's already 3P kids with
articulated finters), and really long heel spurs that aren't really needed
since the real problem is a tendency to tip over forwards.
12.25" (31cm) tall, mostly black in the torso, gray in the limbs, and
purple on the hands and toes. The unique shoulder sockets that clip over
those bent-up robot toes (that's what the hinge was for) are actually purple
plastic, despite being painted over entirely in silver...must've been a case
of squeezing stuff into a standard sprue plate. The hip joints and ankle
joints are white plastic, the Menasor head is all black plastic, and
everything else is as described in previous forms. There's white paint on
much of the front facing of each skeletal arm (yay animation model). The
face is dark silver with red eyes, there's a purple on silver Decepticon
symbol on the center of the chest, and a long purple trapezoid painted on the
pelvis. It mostly relies on the other Stunticons for splashes of color.
The neck is a smooth swivel, and you can snap the horns back if you
prefer a more rakish look. The waist is also a smooth swivel. The shoulders
combine a ratcheting swivel with a ratcheting hinge that's located a couple
centimeters above the center of that swivel. The elbows are ratcheting
hinges and the wrists are ratcheting swivels. There's also some
transformation hinges in the arms that can be used to get a slightly better
range of motion (or to give clearance for the Stunticons to attach).
Ratcheting universal joint hips, smooth mid-thigh swivels, ratcheting hinge
knees, ratcheting side-tilt hinges on the ankles. The transformation joints
for deploying the feet are smooth but soft-snap into place (it's not enough
to prevent the figure from falling over if balance is off). The renders show
another joint in the ankles, but as noted earlier, there's no joint there
anymore.
On one hand, there's a lot of 5mm pegs and sockets on the limbs. On the
other, they're mainly for connecting the trailer together, and are not that
usefully located. The truck hitch chunk does end up on Menasor's back.
Because of the two handles, the rifle is held somewhat awkwardly in either
fist, and stows weirdly on the back. For a more centered connection, you can
use a forearm peg in the socket on the underside of the cannon, but only if
there isn't a Stunticon on that arm. The sword also doesn't really have a
storage spot, I suppose you could put it on the back of a boot, but only if
there isn't a Stunticon there either.
The tower doesn't really have any official role other than something for
Menasor to set his cannon on, but you can slide it over a car-less arm to
make for some sort of piledriver weapon or whatever. More usefully in
general, you can unfold it flat and attach it to the back as wings, because
Menasor can fly and this will make him fly better? Click on
http://www.dvandom.com/images/MenasorWings.JPG to see what I mean.

Overall: Menasor is basically a Titan that's sold separately (Commander
plus four Deluxes costs about the same as Metroplex), but is significantly
smaller than the recent Titan Class Predaking or Devastator. It does look
better and hold together better than Combiner Wars Menasor, but only be
cheating a LOT in the design and making the other Stunticons more decoration
than integral components. They're like giant Mini-Cons to power Menasor up.
Anyway, while an interesting novelty this time, I rather hope that Hasbro
doesn't continue to make this style of combiner.


Dave Van Domelen, now to find somewhere to display Menasor where it can
still be easily accessed each time another Stunticon drops.

[Zobovor]

On Monday, August 8, 2022 at 9:21:20 PM UTC-6, Dave Van Domelen wrote:

> Anyway, while an interesting novelty this time, I rather hope that Hasbro
> doesn't continue to make this style of combiner.

There's no reason to think they would do it again. It was done for Menasor because that's how he transforms in the cartoon. Motormaster transformed into Menasor all by himself, and the other four Stunticons clamped onto Menasor's existing arms and legs like magnets. No other team did it this way.


Zob (my Motormaster is arriving tomorrow, if all goes well)