Fans Toys FT-54 Warthog (Masterpiece Powerglide)
Fanstoys items usually come with an outer plastic baggie to protect the box.
Ye ole Fans Toys protective film sheet.
As usual with Fans Toys packaging, Warthog comes mis-transformed out of the box. Simply re-align his forearms and rotate his waist around to set him straight.
You’ll also need to push down on his knees HARD! You’ll feel a click if you do it right. Just push hard until you feel the click.
The knee joint should not be visible at all if done right.
Since this is a Third Party, non-official item, it doesn’t come with a faction symbol. It’s best to get some stickers from Reprolabels/Toyhax.com to make this guy more “toon-accurate”. Alternately, you can also use “water slide decals” to make them look even more flawless (you won’t see the edges, unlike with stickers) but I’ve never really had the proper skills, or time (usually needs to be individually cut first) to work with those.
For water slide decals, most folks recommend the one from Ocean Studio. Here:
http://www.unclebillyshop.com/decals-poster/ocean-logo-decals.html
To apply stickers, I find the best way to stick the stickers on is to use the tip of a blade, or a flat, small-tipped object, this way you have more control over the application, as compared to using one’s stubby fingers. You can also use the blade to help gently peel off a corner of the sticker in case you didn’t center it right and need to re-apply.
Proud of his ability to fly, Powerglide loves to show off doing amazing aerial stunts that dazzles both friends and foes. While easily outclassed by most Decepticon flyers in terms of weaponry and even speed, Powerglide’s high maneuverablity and aerial skill often is enough to get himself out of jams.
I got QC 35.
While Warthog’s head can rotate, I don’t think there’s a ball joint on the neck to help him look down?
While there are ankle rocker joints, you get very, very minimal range of articulation.
Warthog features an ab crunch joint. Nice.
Warthog stands roughly 7.25 inches and weighs 239 Grams.
Diecast parts include:
-Sections of the torso
-Main joints
-Sections of the lower legs
-Sections of the feet.
Warthog comes with a blaster as seen in the episode “The Girl Who Loved Powerglide”.
To recreate the famous ending scene from the episode “The Girl Who Loved Powerglide”, you can pry open his chest panel (I recommend using a spudger tool) to reveal this little detail. It’s a shame the set doesn’t come with an Astoria Carlton Ritz figure to complete the scene.
For added options, the set comes with an attachment to plug Warthog into Fans Toys’ flight stand (sold seperately).
Lastly, Warthog comes with the alien mask from the episode “Hoist Goes to Hollywood”.
To attach the mask, you’ll have to rotate the face to expose the ports.
Sheesh, transforming Warthog into his plane mode is a REAL CHORE. Get ready to struggle even with help from Fans Toys’ Youtube video guide.
In plane mode, Powerglide is armed with small concussion bombs and a nose-mounted thermal beam.
Lol… because the plane mode’s center of mass is a bit off, the front of the plane tends to rise up.
His blaster can be pegged onto either wing for storage.
When transforming Warthog, be mindful of these little screws on the wings, the holes for them are too big and the entire wing assembly tends to pop free of the screws quite easily. So be careful.
Another separate attachment piece for plugging Warthog onto Fans Toys’ flight stand is also included.
While I didn’t have the time to break out my DX9 D-11 Richthophen for a proper comparison, here’s that particular figure.
Overall, not bad, but I think this may be the worst Fans Toys release for me. The robot mode is generally fine but transforming the figure is a terrible experience and should’ve been more simplified. Not Fans Toy’s best moment IMHO.
The look of the plane mode is also a bit of a mixed bag. While I am impressed with the engineering that allows the plane mode to expand to become something bigger with real-world proportions, it doesn’t match the cartoon models and personally, that’s a bit surprising, given how the company usually prides itself on toon-accuracy. It’s painful hassle to transform the figure just to get to something that doesn’t quite match the animation models.
I honestly think I prefer the DX9 Richthophen as my overall choice, thanks the fun transformation on that one, plus the Astoria figure. The Fans Toys gets the upper hand only in terms of diecast content and robot mode screen-accuracy (better proportions).
Gold
