Some people say Classics are dead, but toys like Spartan keep me a believer.
Producer: Bandai Tamashii
Price: $84.99 USD
Release: Height: Approx. 7.0″
WHERE TO BUY – TFSource
Toys like Spartan are tough producta to review. Not because it’s bad by any means. In fact, it’s so GOOD that I feel like I’m going to come off like a complete sycophant talking about it. However, it’s well deserving of the praise to follow in 3,2,1…
Spartan was one of those ones I picked up due to mild interest and seemingly “everyone” getting it. As soon as I opened the package however, I was really impressed. Mastermind Creations’ homage to Impactor definitely looks the part, but even the feel of Spartan is great with nice, thick plastic and a good weightiness to it. He comes with his blaster, as well as alternate arm attachments (drill and harpoon) and wrist extenders that make them look better when attached. The only real “kibble” on him is is backpack which lays pretty flat on his back and looks generally cohesive with the rest of his robot mode. The poseability on this one is very good, but I do wish his back knee bend could go a little past 90 degrees for kneeling poses where now it falls just short of 90 degrees in general.
What really put me over the edge with this one was the transformation. I was really worried about it after not having a good time with the Azalea molds and not being too keen on Carnifex. However, Spartan’s transformation is very intuitive. It’s fairly quick to transform, but also satisfying. And the Metal Slug style tank for an alt mode is absolutely fantastic. It’s crazy to me how well that translates into a cybertronian tank. By nature, it’s not a very “clean” alt. mode, but it looks very cohesive transformed. I also need to not that everything locks and pegs in together extremely well.
Overall, there’s been a tone over the past year that makes it feel liek 3rd party companies may be straying away from classics. It’s good to see Mastermind Creations still producing classics-styled figures like THIS while venturing off into other things as well. Not one thing about this figure feels like an afterthought, and that’s a great thing. I can’t wait for their Commotus (Turmoil) which also uses this base mold.
And oh yea; when you get this, definitely check out the comic inside of the instruction booklet. The art is just incredible.
Overall Score: 9.0/10
