Well, damn; Fansproject’s back! After a significant hiatus, the TFX-06 Parallax Red armor marks their return to the fold.
Producer: Fansproject
Price: Approx. $40 USD
Release Date: Nov. 2017
Item Height: Approx. 7.75″
Item Weight: N/A
WHERE TO BUY: The Fansproject Store
Fansproject has made a return that, while exciting, I don’t see anyone rating it as “triumphant” with the TFX-06 Parallax Red Armor. The latest in their sub line of upgrade armors dating back to 2008, this and TFX-07 Blue upgrade the Classics Voyager-scaled Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus respectively to taller, and more menacing homages to themselves. The TFX-06 Red armor in particular turns Prime into a Powermaster (Super Ginrai) version of itself from the “Masterforce” cartoon series and I think it gives an interesting spin on the look. featuring the pronounced shoulders, forearms, and lower legs while keeping the waist thin keeps with the Super-Robot-styled aesthetic that the Parallax line is synonymous with. One of the most neat parts about this armor set vs. previous parallax releases is that the armor parts are able to be kept on during transformation essentially making the piece into a new figure rather than being “armored” at all.
Make sure to check out the in-depth video review above as well as my thoughts/nitpicks and gallery below and then let me know what you think in the comments!
Overall Score: 6.5/10 – Although it seems like the fandom would have been a lot more excited for Pinchar, this is a pretty solid release and at $40 I’d go so far as to call it a “steal” if you have an extra, classics prime laying around. I was surprised at just how much the changes from the original prototype I have improved the overall look and the fact that I feel it hands-down has a better look and shelf presence than Maketoys’ Striker Manus (although Manus murders this thing in terms of playability.) The change making the Classics Prime mold’s hands having to be taken off is a bit of an annoyance as the screws on mine were hard to take off but the smaller hands on the armor and better weapon placement in them is well worth it. The armor piece in general fit on tight and stay on relatively well during transformation (I go back and forth personally about just gluing them all on but if something were to break on them it’d be that much more of a pain to swap the pieces out.) My only real gripe on this one is those two clips on the back of the upper-torso armor as they’re so thin that they automatically stress and potentially crack on the first attachment (this doesn’t affect anything as the piece still stays on extremely tight.) Overall, I’d say that this is very much so a “What you see is what you get” piece with no surprises. It’s not one of Fansproject’s best pieces and I wouldn’t say it’s a must-have, but I don’t think anyone who does get this would find themselves disappointed.
Check out the gallery below and if you fancy one of your own, check out The Fansproject Store and order yours.
