Baidu user Mega has uploaded images of the gray prototype of X-Transbots MX Series Monolith (Masterpiece Scaled G1 Menasor) for your viewing pleasure.
We have a look of the combined form of X-Transbots Stunticons. This take on G1 Menasor is supposed to be 49 cm. tall, ideal to go with other official Masterpiece Decepticons. This images reveal a good range of poseability, including articulated hands, a gun and a big sword. The mold proportions are very cartoon-accurate (you can see two of the Stunticons hanging at the back of the legs). We are yet to see how the main body is formed, since we haven’t seen Grave-stone (Motormaster) prototype. Will it be similar to what DX9 is doing with their Atilla using Motormaster’s trailer transform in the main body? We know it’s hard to recreate Menasor’s G1 cartoon design, but it’s nice to have another great alternative on the market.
Check out the images after the jump and then sound off on the 2005 Boards!
Dodgy Dan
Nah, the colour mismatch would drive me mental and no mistake. Besides, I think I best put a stop to this wayward idea before I actually start seriously considering it. Tracking down the components seems like a nightmare just waiting to happen…
xKAINxCAINx
How’s the quality for the youth version of Wild Rider? Has it held up and good quality ? I don’t own any of the xtb stunticons, but Wild Rider looked pretty good to me (saw BBTS sale, thought maybe about picking one up next year)
I’ve seen people mention issues with Dragstrip, but wasn’t sure if there were a lot of issues for the other team members (mostly just curious about Wildrider)
bman29
I've mixed the toon version of the limbs minus the black G2 Dragstrip on the youth version of the trailer. It's a difference but in my head canon this is the Autobot version from the episode "Masquerade". If you use the faux car parts for the arms, it's not really that big of a deal to me. You do you though.
Primal Suit
And there's the fact that the Youth trailer is impossible to find
Dodgy Dan
Tish and fie, a thousand curses upon X-Transbots!
Yeah, I was just pondering how much cooler toy Menasor looks compared to the toon version, but the individual bots look nicer in their cartoon colours. Was hoping you could mix and match, but nope. I know you could probably get toy Dragstrip and Deadend then go with regular for the other three, but the mismatch would drive me mad even though it doesn't really matter. And then there's sourcing leggy-switchy-roundy kits because Menasor looks so much better with 'dem cars on display round the front and… Ah bollocks to it. Ta for the info, though.
Turingmachine1975
Yeah, the red on Dead End won’t match. Not sure about Drag Strip’s yellow.
blurr95
The cars are painted different between the toon and toy versions. It only makes a difference on the arms though, as the inner arms of the skeleton are painted to match. I think someone printed some adapters to put the cars on the front, but don’t remember how it was. Might have been pezley or jimmyh. LikeToys makes 3D printed lower legs and feet that you can swap around either way you want. I went this route, they look really good, and they lift him up to other mp combiner heights as he was a bit shorter. I found them on Aliexpress. A lot cheaper if you can do the whole Taobao thing, it would just take more time. I got these in about 2 weeks.
Dodgy Dan
Just out of curiosity, if you were to put the toon bots with the youth version trailer, would there be any colour mismatches? Also, are there any car-on-the-front leg mods out there?
neurotictim
He's waaaaaaaaaaay too small. Side-by-side comparison:
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Carlin
Has anyone tried sticking the legacy deadend onto Menasor?
Bugste81
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krysuk
my G2 Deathwish really is the worst QC I've had on any 3rd party or 4th party toy, I'm relatively new to x-transbots as previously I've stuck to KO Takara masterpiece bots, fan hobby, fans toys and back in the day tfc Hercules.
commander stack was my 1st x-transbots, the whole 6 toy parts of the menasor team being my second purchase so to speak from various vendors (although didn't realise g2 crackup was a convention exclusive and therefore impossible to find until after ordering all the rest)
Deathwish is by far the worse of the team, the fear of breakage from the plastic quality and tolerances on these is being significantly more fragile / scary than anything except my early IT-01 KO mp-36 (where both shoulders crumbled during first transformation) and more recently Fanstoys spindrift (where a piece was damaged out the box but Fanstoys sent a replacement part to the uk within 2 weeks of me asking)
The design of the boys and what they are intended to do during the 3 forms of transformation doesn't match the quality of materials Selected for manufacturing. Because they are marketed to adult collectors they don't got through the rigorous drop testing etc that retail toys do, but these companies need to have some QA testers on how robust these are to even survive transformation wel before it goes into full manufacturing
I'm not adverse to buying more x-transbots, and I think commander stack is wonderful, but I can see that anyone that went in without foreknowledge of some of the problems that are on display with just this set alone would be sworn off them
these 3rd party's live or die by their reputation among us hardcore supporters, but the disconnect seems pretty big with the customer base sometimes?
M Alex
So my Deathwish (toon) broke again. Turned him into alt mode, and at least I have a Menasor with an arm. *sigh*
But, to be honest, I'm done with XTB. QC in this hobby can really be a lottery, and I don't think any company has a clean track record here, including TT (*cough* MP Hound *cough* – which in all honesty deserves a rerun, as the mold is good, but the materials…) and FT (still waiting on my Inquisitor cause nobody went to check whether all the accessories fit). But I don't think that I've ever encountered toys from a different company in which something would that would break or not work as intended as often as with XTB (BTW, anybody got any hints how to tighten up his wrist and bicep swivel? The Dragstrip on mine are ludicrously loose).
My frustration is primarily fueled by the fact that I'm pretty sure we all know when XTB will release Deathwish – the moment FT get ready to release theirs. This is petty company rivalry, and the consumer is at a loss. I also don't think its a good business tactic – I think that most people who want to go with FT will stick to their preference, particularly giving how fiddly their Menasor is.
Sorry for the rant, but this bums me out. I've really had my fair share of QC issues out of the box with all companies, but XTB really is all too consistent in this regard. It also is the one which is hardest to fix.
CyclonuS_ZerO
Has there been any talk of the combiner parts/Motormaster trailer for the toon set getting a reissue? I needs it still.
krysuk
guess it's a good job I'm remodelling them using fusion360 photos and my calipurs, once complete I'll put the whole crotch assembly up on cults3d
Primeconvoy1
Since we're on the subject of G2 Stunticons, I still have a few custom sticker sheets (clear back and white border) available for sale, if anyone is still looking to badge up their figures.
Shoot me a pm if interested. Thanks.
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jimmyh
Well, you aren't getting a replacement from XTB.
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krysuk
I said I would report back after testing etc
So the first test with the pin strengthening broke as per picture, was a combo of the pin being a little too short and also then closing up the crotch piece at the wrong angle.
I tried a nail with a flat head for strength but the shaft and mushroom head was too loose to put into figure.
At this stage I used some tiny parts of 2-part epoxy to strengthen some of these as fall back options, but because you have to wait 24 hours for full strength I wanted to carry on…
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So while that was curing at this stage I took a 2nd one of the same idea but with the metal going all the way up to the end of the mushroom peg and then carefully put back together and used lots of shock oil to lubricate.
The pin that was used to secure the legs I got out eventually, but it is WAY too thick for the sockets.
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I could have drilled the holes bigger but instead used a slightly less thick pin that I cut to size, again adding shock oil on the joint.
I've since taken the crotch apart 5-6 times taking photos and understanding the whole mechanism of the crotch piece since one of the hip side flaps crumbled (shoddy plastic)
I've recreated the hip flap completely in fusion360 and printed successful replacement
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however due to the issue of colour matching being challenging I repaired the existing flap with a small amount of 2-part epoxy resin that was a rough match.
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Finished result, transformed about 5-6 times and seems to hold with this design, if it fails ill used the strengthened flat headed nail approach but I'm confident I won't need to.
I did notice once all complete that I'd lost one of the red spoilers along the way, I'm sure it's under the couch or something, but started remodelling that and plan to try and recreate the whole crotch assembly in fusion360 when I have more time.
So all in all a pretty nightmare figure and all because of some poor design and build choices that mean that probably all of the ones produced stand the chance they will snap at some point.
Honestly it needs the leg attachment being redesigned for resilience and appropriate plastic being used for these parts (if not die cast on the mushroom peg pieces)
My recommendation to anyone that picks him up or has one that didn't break would be unscrew the single screw and take the crotch back off and us lots of shock oil lubricant on every moving part carefully until moving freely on all parts that secure the legs to the crotch piece at minimum, then reassemble carefully
krysuk
yeah I know, only have a resin printer though, drilled and cured them today and inserted strong pins, also waiting on some flat headed nails/screws that may be the better way as other alternatives
Ideally I'd cast them out of metal, but that's a step beyond the tools I have here at home right now, although silicone molds and a strong epoxy resin may be another option, as would getting some specialist resin that's more flexible (but also much more toxic to handle and clean) but if I got to that stage I'd start putting them up on eBay of something.
I've seen that there is potentially a printable fix for overheats shoulders on shapeways, mine is fine right now
If anyone has any other recommended upgrades/improvements – I've seen the leg fillers for stability, seen the liketoya leg extensions – which in g2 is just the legs available and not the other parts of the set, but not a fan of the legs, the knee fix though could be useful, but would probably have to design a copy myself
I saw on this thread there has been a back cover that was designed and looks good, and front frames to attach the cars.
although the trailer transformation to robot frame was annoying due to the size, I've come across many more annoying transformations over the years to be honest (mp-5 springs to immediate mind, and I honestly think the 4th party mp sky fire was a harder transform than this cab)
The biggest challenge I had with the monolith frame was those little key and lock things to pin the structure of the robots upper body together, had never come across a connector/joint/approach like that before so was genuinely some thing that without emgo's and bobbys video's I would never have got that myself, and the bend through of the back wheels into the chest I had to repeat watch a few times to get it right as mine was tough to disconnect and move, but very happy with the total package, he stands as tall as robosen prime on the stand I printed (as he's next to him on the floor before making his way to a shelf) so the height is perfect I think, though may comment again after putting him in with the 2 zeta combiners
the instructions and shells for the accessories was confusing as the plastic clam shells have an indentation for roller car, but found out that only came with youth version
Only thing I'm annoyed about is that G2 crackup im several years too late on it seems, have a toy version on its way, but completely sucks that was a tfcon exclusive and all the other members are available, gravestone g2 cab is a bday present and boxed up for end of next week. But I don't plan to put him into menasor though as everyone says it makes him back heavy and he's fairly stable right now without
I'm definitely please with the overall look for my masterpiece collection (plus being g2 it doesn't rule out getting another company's version down the line should that turn out ok in the end)
Anyhow a few pics until the other members are available
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jimmyh
I wish you luck, but I don't think resin parts will hold up over time. They need to be FDM.