Dave's Knockoff Rant: Bootleg Ravage USB drive
Dave Van Domelen
Transformer Shaped USB 2.0 Flash/Jump Drive Keychain
Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/USB2
This is a bootleg reproduction of the Ravage/Tigatron USB drives,
reviewed here: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/USB1
CAPSULE
Transformer Shaped USB: For a bootleg, the quality's not too bad,
although there's some simplifications and distortions. Still, given the low
price, it's definitely worth getting as a novelty, if nothing else. $11.84
at DealExtreme (free shipping). They have 4GB for $16.79 and 8GB for $27.25,
but I don't recommend wasting money on larger drives, for reasons gone into
below.
RANT
Purchased from: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.33904
The photos on the site are pretty honest, a lot more honest than
Hasbro's official product photos, but I'll stick to my usual level of detail
in case the photos go away in the future.
Packaging: While there may be a nicer display version for places where
this is available in stores, I got it in a bubblewrap mailer. The toy itself
is in a metal tin with display window...but the window's covered by a thin
piece of foam, oops. If you put the top foam sheet under the USB, the box
doesn't quite want to stay closed, but if you remove it entirely the USB may
rattle around a bit. If you don't mind a little off-centered-ness, you can
roll up the top sheet and stick it next to the USB drive. Then the box will
stay closed and the USB won't rattle.
The tin is 9cm (3.5") tall, 6.3cm (2.5") wide and 1.7cm (0.75") thick.
A clear plastic window 5.2cm (2") tall and 4cm (1.5") wide is in the lid,
closer to the top than to the middle. A holofoil sticker with the drive's
size (2GB in my case) is below the window. While not exactly a travel
sleeve, it's small enough to easily go in your pocket and the USB won't be
damaged. This is one place where the bootleg outdoes the original, as the
original includes no way to safely transport it.
While the product description at DealExtreme calls it a keychain, it
does not actually include a keychain loop. "Keychain drive" has more or less
come to mean portable, rather than actually having a keychain connection. I
suppose you could thread something through one of the front shoulder holes,
though.
Dimensions: Bigger is bootleggier! In USB mode, it's 77mm (3") long
with the plug retracted, 33mm (1.3") wide and 13mm (0.5") thick. As a
jaguar, it measures 14cm (5.5") from snout to tail tip.
Articulation: Almost the same as the original, but more limited and
missing a joint in the neck. Details below.
Colors: Mostly made of matte black plastic. The forelegs and the two
middle segments of the hindlegs are a slightly off-white plastic. All the
plastic feels like pretty good quality, especially for a bootleg. The eyes
(well, the eyebrows, see below) are painted red, and there's a blue
movie-style Decepticon symbol on the back. A sticker proclaiming the memory
size ends up between the rear legs in beast mode, leading to all sorts of
innuendo potential. Especially if you bought the 8GB model.
Function: There's no software included on this, it's just a standard USB
drive. It's probably possible to copy the software over from a real one, but
the sheer size of it makes it rather clumsy to leave in a machine. If you
want to copy the desktop program onto another drive, you're better off just
putting it on a cheap small USB drive. I had to take several devices out of
my USB hub to make enough room to plug this toy in and verify it was blank,
for instance.
In short, it's just too big to be a practical jumpdrive. So get the 2GB
version for the novelty, maybe load it up with Transformers soundtrack MP3s
or something, but don't waste money getting the 4GB or 8GB versions.
Comparisons to the original: At first glance, it looks bizarrely
distorted and smoothed out. And at closer look, both impressions are quite
true.
USB: 18% longer, 18% wider and 8% thicker. It's about as stable as the
real thing, at least right out of the box...can't say if the joints might get
looser faster. But while the original is kinda big for a USB device, it can
still sit next to other plugs in most USB hubs. As noted above, this crosses
that line.
Jaguar Overall: 27% longer but still only 18% wider, so this is a
Longcat version of Ravage. Long Ravage is Long.
Head: only about 5% longer, but the snout is wider and there's no fangs.
There's no "face fuzz" detail on the sides, the eyes are surface dots rather
than sunken details, there's only one "block" for the nose rather than a
nasal ridge leading back to the eyes. To be fair, the top of the head has
the same general detail as on the real toy, but it's flattened down by about
a third. The eyes are painted on the eyebrows, since the real eyes are too
narrow to get a cheap factory-app paintbrush into. This has the effect of
moving his eyes foreward a few millimeters, making the head look more wrong
than it actually is. The jaw lacks detail on the underside, giving him a
weaker jawline. On the plus side, at least the jaw still opens, a feature a
knockoff would normally omit. The teeth on the upper and lower jaws have
been replaced by a triangular ridge running across where the teeth should
be...the result looks like teeth in profile, but otherwise looks like he's
gumming his prey.
Chest: 70% longer, and fused to the head. Loss of joints is pretty
common in knockoffs, of course. The molded details are about the same, if
proportionally smaller, but the collarbone details are missing. The action
on sliding the USB plug in and out is designed the same (press in and slide),
but it's a little balkier.
Abdomen/front flanks: This is the roughly U-shaped piece that the chest
swivels around in. It's about 45% longer, vastly simplified and missing the
rear spine detail that stops the USB plug from swinging up. This is in part
because the front jointing is put together differently and that blocking
piece would get in the way of the head. On the real deal, the chest swings
around on a hinge at the neck position. In fact, the neck joint uses the
same swivels. The front hips are connected to the chest but not to the flank
fork, and their joint is behind the chest swivel. But on the bootleg, the
front legs are connected to the flank fork and the chest swivel is behind
that joint. As a result, a larger percentage of the chest/head piece must be
able to fit into the back during transformation, and the section is much
emptier in beast mode. Extending the USB plug won't lock it in place, but it
does at least fill most of the hole. Removing most of the actual material
also took most of the detail, but the nicely detailed panel lines of the
original are also just replaced by three grooves that widen towards the front
in "parallel" (to abuse the mathematical term).
Front Legs: About 20% longer in total, but the paws are a bit more
lengthened than that. The details are similar, including the gap a the top
of the shoulder, but they're just changed enough to avoid charges of mold-
copying. Unlike the real thing, however, the joints are connected by
screws. The real thing uses unremovable rivets. On the plus side, that
means this can be more easily disassembled for customizing. None of the
joints bends quite as far as on the real thing, meaning the toy can't *quite*
make it into some of the sneakier or pouncier poses the real thing can
manage. This may be fixable with some judicious cutting, though.
Rear Legs: Also 20% longer, so at least the legs are in proportion with
each other, if not with the body. The hip piece is a significantly different
shape, in part to accomodate the fact that the beast head has to get between
them in USB mode. Like the forelegs, they're held together with screws and
lack a few crucial degrees of range on the joints. The inner thighs do not
have a notch to trap the USB plug, because the plug no longer comes anywhere
near the pelvis.
Tail: Only about 8% longer than on the original, it comes across as
feeling a little stubby, especially attached to the stretch limo torso. The
molding looks like they took the original's tail and then attached it
backwards, so the thicker end is at the base. Once again, the attachment is
a screw rather than a rivet, and the tail can't flatten down all the way.
Kitbashing Thoughts: The very simplest mod you can make is to remove the
eye paint and repaint the eyes in their proper slots. This will make the
head look a lot better. The next thing is to shave a little bit off from the
various joints to improve the range of motion, but you need to be careful to
avoid removing so much that it's obvious. As an advanced project, consider
chroming the off-white plastic.
The fundamentally messed up proportions of Long Ravage can't really be
fixed short of a complete rebuild, though, so it's not really worth a whole
lot of effort. Get it as a novelty, fix the eyes and a few joints, and leave
it at that.
Now, if they had a white version, I might get that to make a Shattered
Glass Long Ravage....
Dave Van Domelen, was just going to take some measurement comparisons at
the office today, and ended up writing the whole review.
TigerMegatron
a Shattered Glass Long Ravage...."
Ebay has a whole bunch of White KO USB Tigertron's
http://cgi.ebay.com/2G-2GB-Transformers-Ravage-USB-Flash-Drive-Disk-White-/270571574484?cmd=ViewItem&pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item3eff5294d4
BTW,Thanks for the KO usb ravage review. I think i'm just going to
wait till that USA in stores version arrives.
Uriel Ventris
I wonder if it's the proportions, but it just looks like a Ravage
stuck in a nightmare realm illustrated by Tom McFarlane.
Dave Van Domelen
TigerMegatron <TigerM...@aol.com> wrote:
>DVD Wrote: "Now, if they had a white version, I might get that to make
>a Shattered Glass Long Ravage...."
>
>Ebay has a whole bunch of White KO USB Tigertron's
>http://cgi.ebay.com/2G-2GB-Transformers-Ravage-USB-Flash-Drive-Disk-White-/270571574484?cmd=ViewItem&pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item3eff5294d4
Hm, thanks. A bit more paint, at least. But I spent some time
modifying my black one tonight, and my enthusiasm for a SG Ravage version has
waned. :) The mods aren't as trivial as I'd hoped.
>BTW,Thanks for the KO usb ravage review. I think i'm just going to
>wait till that USA in stores version arrives.
Probably for the best. The real thing is just so much nicer, even
leaving aside the software.
Dave Van Domelen, has started chroming KO Ravage's legs.
Shin Hibiki
> Dave Van Domelen, has started chroming KO Ravage's legs.
Could you post some info as to how you go about chroming
something? (Assuming it's more than just using chrome-colored paint,
which just isn't quite the same.)
- Shin Hibiki
Dave Van Domelen
It's pretty simple, actually. There's a product called AlClad Chrome,
which you can get through hobby shops or online. Do a black gloss undercoat,
then one or two layers of the chrome. It's rather watery, so you can't do
fine details with it, but if you just want to coat a single piece fully it's
not a problem.
http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/KOravage1.JPG
http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/KOravage2.JPG
The black gloss turns out to be vital. The chrome is actually more of a
semi-clear wash, so the black gloss backing makes it shiny. In early
experimentation, I compared just throwing many layers onto matte black versus
one layer on gloss black, and the gloss black version was really impressive.
Dave Van Domelen, not as impressed by AlClad Copper. The Jade looks
nifty, but can't think of a use for it.
Onslaught Six
wrote:
> It looks... much worse than the original.
>
> I wonder if it's the proportions, but it just looks like a Ravage
> stuck in a nightmare realm illustrated by Tom McFarlane.
You mean Todd McFarlane. Apparently Tom McFarlane was an early
football player.
Uriel Ventris
Oh, sorry. Yes, I meant the Spawn guy. The one who specializes in
terribly gory, disturbing and completely action-less action figures.
Onslaught Six
wrote:
> Oh, sorry. Yes, I meant the Spawn guy. The one who specializes in
> terribly gory, disturbing and completely action-less action figures.
To be fair, I don't even know how much he has to do with the actual
figures. And he did some pretty important stuff back in the day. Some
still say his Spidey run has yet to have anything better after.
(Though afterward we got stuff like the Clone Saga and Mephisto
erasing Peter Parker's marriage, so...)
Uriel Ventris
> To be fair, I don't even know how much he has to do with the actual
> figures. And he did some pretty important stuff back in the day. Some
> still say his Spidey run has yet to have anything better after.
> (Though afterward we got stuff like the Clone Saga and Mephisto
> erasing Peter Parker's marriage, so...)
Ah, the reboot / retcon problems. At least Hasbro tried to fix it with
their multiverse nonsense (with very minor canon crossovers, as in
Dreamwave Armada), unlike DC ("Let's have /another/ Crisis so that we
can trot out all the characters that haven't been selling, and mix
them up with previous versions of characters while winking at the
fans!") or Marvel ("Tony Stark was in the Korean War but is still in
his twenties because he was cloned from his time-travelling teenage
self when his present self was dying of a degenerative disease, but
then got cured and sent back in time again even younger when Phoenix
re-wrote time to turn the Korean War into the Afghan War...").
Thunder Magnificent!
> "Tony Stark was in the Korean War but is still in
> his twenties because he was cloned from his time-travelling teenage
> self when his present self was dying of a degenerative disease, but
> then got cured and sent back in time again even younger when Phoenix
> re-wrote time to turn the Korean War into the Afghan War...").
WTF?! :) Is this for real or are you just poking fun? If it's the
former then they've really screwed things up since I last read Iron
Man... (of course, they really have done stuff like that with the X-
titles to the point I have no idea what's going on anymore).
t.k.
Uriel Ventris
Only about half. I've never been able to keep up with the mainstream
comics (because of how they cross-over and so on), but I seem to
remember something about Tony Stark having been brought back by
Franklin Reed because he died or something or other, and stuff of this
sort seems to happen all the time. Didn't they bring Colossus back
too? Absolutely terrible, after how sad his death had been.
Shin Hibiki
>It's rather watery, so you can't do
>fine details with it, but if you just want to coat a single piece fully it's
>not a problem.
I'm still kicking this thing around. In reading about the
chrome product on the company's webpage, it indicates that it's
intended to be used with an airbrush. Is that how you're doing it?
- Shin Hibiki
Dave Van Domelen
Nope, paintbrush. I do not own an airbrush.
Dave Van Domelen, unless you count the footpump set from the first
movie's merchandising line.