Review: Mastermind Creations R-42 D-Zef

After years of delays was this one worth the wait?

Producer: Mastermind Creations

Price: Approx. $157 USD

Release Date: July 2022

Item Height: Approx. 9.75″

Item Weight: N/A

Batteries: N/A

WHERE TO BUY: Planet Steel Express and TFSource (No Exclusive Clear Lion Boost)

After years of wait, Mastermind Creations has finally released their homage to the Transformers: Victory villain Deathsaurus’ IDW comic appearances under their Reformatted toy line with R-43 D-Zef. I can say that it feels worth the wait because outside of a single manufacturing defect (which the retailer has already sent a replacement for) this is a front runner for my transforming figure of the year so far. Thanks for checking out this article and after you read through it, let me know what you think in the comments below.

Presentation: The packaging is pretty standard for the Mastermind Creations reformatted line with a rendering on the front and pictures of the product on the backside. Its accessories were nicely packed inside of a plastic clamshell minus the shoulder hinge piece that I’ll talk more about below.

Build: Optus D-Zef is an entirely plastic piece. The materials used look and feel good. Overall it has really strong joints and feels good to play with. However, mine come with a seemingly common issue of a clip to a shoulder hinge m and its spring having fallen out in the box due to a piece on the hinge that holds it down either not being molded on or having broken off at some point during production. The hinge is a swing joint that brings the arm down for transformation and without the ability to clip in properly the hinge and attached arm will randomly fall out of place swinging downwards. It’s really unfortunate because the rest of the figure is so magnificent.

Accessories: Accessories per the Planet Steel Express product listing;

– Mini Tiger (Lion Boost)
– Sword
– Gun
– Mace attachable to the gun
– Spare head with alternate facial expression (Only the faceplate is actually included)
– Manual
– Comic
– Bio Card
– Clear Blue Lion Boost (Planet Steel Exclusive.)

I love the accessories for D-Zef. They’re absolutely badassed and play well to the more intimidating type of charisma that the character and toy sculpt have. I love that holsters are included for both the back and shoulder to give you optional looks (I prefer the back holster for looks and the fact that you can then store the blaster on the shoulder.) I was surprised that the default face is a smirking expression while the alternate face is the stoic one but both are very good looking and it’s one of the few figures I have that I don’t mind displaying with a non-stoic expression.

The Lion Boost is an awesome inclusion because it looks good either as a chest attachment or its lion mode which has a good amount of articulation to it. The Planet Steel Express version comes with a second Lion Boost figure that’s clear blue plastic. Personally I prefer the way that the default chest looks over the PSX exclusive and the TFCon 2022 clear orange version due to the colors matching and being more cohesive with the figure.

Articulation: The articulation on this one is surprisingly good for a piece with its heft and proportions. It can hit a lot of more advance poses and has a lot of balance. On top of that, it’s legitimately fun to play with.

Overall Score: 9.0./10 (08/12/2022 Score updated after replacement part received/installed.) – Mastermind Creations’ D-Zef is incredible and truly brings me back to the feeling I’d get when 3rd Party companies were at their peak of creativity, engineering, and quality (2014-2018’ish.) Between it’s strong aesthetic, great articulation, and ease of play it’s just a plain good figure. The only reason this doesn’t get a solid 10 is because there are little things like butterfly joints and the like that could still be added to make it absolutely “perfect” but even as is this is one of those pieces that I’ll be recommending first if anyone asks about 3rd-Party, unlicensed Transformers items. It’s just plain GOOD.