Perfect Effect Warden AKA IDW Fort Max

[bumblemusprime]

I have him. Yeahhhhhh. And eh. Both.

The Good: To start with, this guy looks amazing. He has one of those metallic paint jobs Hasbro uses for promo shots, but it's actually real. He has numerous metal components. With the tank treads on his back, he's an amazing Fort Max. He also looks imposing as the full battle tank, and the scout tank is a really cool extra feature. I don't have the reissue Fort Max, but the head mode is pretty cool. The tank treads are rubber. No exposed screws, few metal bolts. Insane articulation even on the little Headmaster. You can make little cockpits on the battle tanker and scout tank for the Headmaster. This guy RULES the shelf. Although he's Generations-sized, I haven't seen this level of detail, use of die-cast and accessories outside of Masterpiece.

The Huh: He looks better than most of my Lost Light display. So much better that next to Battle In Space Cyclonus, he actually looks out of place. (Until we get a good Voyager class Cyclonus or a third party in the mode of Maniaking, Cyc will be the wart of Lost Light toys.) He's also a bit different aesthetically than Hasbro figures. He's blocky and chunky and, well, Lego-ish in his design. Somewhat like the blocky Fansproject look on City Commander and Protector, but with a lot more detail. He also sizes about with City Commander, so I'm glad that we are getting leg add-ons (also, he doesn't have the normal leg guns, which are coming in the add-ons) because he's supposed to be a bit taller. Between Generations and other common third-parties, he looks different.

The Bad: Okay, in this case there's a few unique things that are bugging me. Maybe it's just me, but I want my transformers to transform... JUST TRANSFORM. Not come apart into thirteen, count em thirteen, separate pieces that are then reassembled into the alt mode, which is what's going on here. It's more of a Lego set than a Transformer. Ilove his super mode with the tank on his back, love his super battle tank mode (although I would have liked the gun to swivel). Going between the two is like building the Titanic. The headmaster figure pops off, the main figure folds in half, and then you have to remove the back piece, pull ONE TEENY CRUCIAL TAB off the tank and attach it to the back piece, tab a good five tiny tabs in the tank into the figure, and then reattach the head figure, attach the gun using two tabs on the smaller missile launchers, and then, the greatest nightmare of all... get five separate tabs into the non-locking folded-up feet to create a front cockpit for the Headmaster. That was a nightmare of multiple hours, sweating, and frustration.

The instructions are also wrong on several points. They say that his big rail gun clicks in, when the only real way to attach it is with smaller tabs from his missile launchers, and the point that supposedly clicks in just sits in a hole. They seem to think that the heels of the feet can fold up in a different way than they actually do.

Finally, the kid factor is the real problem for me. All of my toys, even the collector's specials, have to survive some time with the four-year-old, unless I want to keep them shut away in a box from five minutes after opening. Maniaking survived admirably, and City Commander and Protector have mostly survived once I glued a layer of plastic to the contact points.

This guy has way too many loose pieces for that. In order to kid-proof him, I first have to take the little forearms off the headmaster figure, since they practically fall off when you touch them. Then I have to remove missile launchers, and if I'm feeling dangerous, I leave the back piece in place. I can't even transform him into the battle tank with the kid, although I can give the kid the scout tank also to play with.

He should have been four basic components: 1) Headmaster figure 2) Main figure 3) tank 4) gun. The main figure should have transformed into an independent battle station that could then be folded up and attached to the tank. I'm torn on whether or not I will keep him or whether I'd like to recoup my 150$ (or more once he appreciates in value).

TL;DR: He looks great on the shelf, almost too good next to cheaper Generations figures, but is a nightmare of detachable pieces.

[bumblemusprime]

Edit: He gets a lot cooler if you glue a 1 millimeter by 7 millimeter piece of clear plastic onto the top side of his hexagonal chest cavity. This holds the rail gun in and allow you to swivel the gun around, even allows for a kind of unofficial heavy artillery/antiaircraft gun mode. I used a tacky glue that isn't all that strong rather than using Superglue which could discolor the plastic. Clear plastic is totally not even noticeable.