Toy Review: Transformers Block Wars Megatron (Kabaya Model Kit)

Review:  #326
Name:  Megatron
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Decepticon
Line:  Block Wars (Kabaya Model Kit)
Year of Release:  2016
Size Class:  Kabaya Model Kit
Mold Status:  new

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:

For those not familiar with Kabaya model kits, there are relatively inexpensive model kits that you build on your own, usually based on existing toys and simplifying them.

For those not familiar with Kabaya model kits, there are relatively inexpensive model kits that you build on your own, usually based on existing toys and simplifying them.

The pieces come still attached to their sprues and they are tightly stacked on top of each other when you first take it out of packaging.  It also comes with a sticker sheet as the plastics are cast in solid colours and any intricate detailing will come from stickers.  Part of the fun is putting Megaron together yourself and it is a lot of fun.  You really feel like you're putting in a lot of your own effort into making the toy and slowly seeing it take shape.  Megatron is not hard to put together, will take roughly 30 mins, and most of that time is taking putting the stickers on carefully.

TANK MODE:

One of the most surprising things about this wave of Kabaya Tranformers is that all the figures are based off their Cyber Series Battalion toy.  Megatron transforms into a blue grey tank, while the blue is an odd colour for the character, it looks fairly good.

This is one of the better and more solid vehicle modes of the wave.  It's a bit weird that the stickers for the tank treads looks like they are incomplete.

Megatron is approximately Legion sized, and above is a comparison with Legends Combiner Wars Shockwave, which you can see is quite a bit bigger.

One of the unique features of these Kabaya Model Kits that the Cyber Battalion inspirations did not have is the ability to combine various parts from other figures to power up the vehicle and robot mode.  For Megatron, he takes Optimus' legs and Starscream's legs to make a walking tank.  It looks really weird and dorky though.

Overall, despite the questionable blue colour schedule, Megatron has a good tank mode that looks plausible and isn't obvious that it's comprised of various pieces clipped together.

TRANSFORMATION:

Due to the simplistic nature of the figures, transforming Megatron from each mode involves partsforming, or in other words, you have to pull him apart and clip him together again.  You have to detach the turret which separates into his arms and fusion cannon, while his head cleverly hides underneath the gun, you attach it to the front of the tank and swing his legs down.

ROBOT MODE:

Megatron's robot mode is pretty good, with a powerful and stocky body, he has his fusion cannon on his right arm and a riot shield on his left.

Unfortunately from the back, you can see that he is very hollow (which is a side effect from the budget price of the figure).  Still, the plastic used is fairly good quality and feels strong.

The face is a sticker and the tolerances are really tight, so you will either get a face that perfectly fits the groove or more likely, something just a bit off.  Apart from the grey and blue, every other piece of detail comes from stickers, and the most annoying thing is that the places you put the stickers on aren't flat surfaces but grooved, which means they will peel over time.

Size-wise, he is a bit taller in this mode.  Megatron's strength comes from his wider body giving him a bulkier look.

His weapons are his gun and shield, and his articulation is very limited so he can't actually make much use of them.

You can basically swing the shoulders and hips.  The large feet means that he cannot balance if you use his hip joints.

The shield also has a tendency to fall off since the post it pegs in has a piece stopping it from slotting in allt he way.  His hip stickers also really like to peel off.

Megatron's powered up robot mode looks weird, it's his robot on treads, with Starscream's nullrays as shoulder cannons.  Lazy and boring.

A fairly good robot mode, the treads details for his torso looks amazing but ultimately his limited articulation lets him down.

COMBINED MODE:

However, that's not all, yes, there is an additional feature for this set that the original Cyber Series Battalion toys never had, and that is the fact that they can combine!  Before we go into detail with this mode, a quick look at the whole set in vehicle mode.  You can see that the whole wave shares the same four base plastic colours (yellow, red, grey and blue).

Now in robot mode and they actually look great as a set.

Megatron forms the right leg.  He is unique in the wave in that the whole figure only forms one limb, his robot bits doesn't get spread around the combined mode.

As you can tell, this combined mode has bits of all the figures everywhere, but he holds together surprisingly well and is quite stable.

The head is basically Optimus with his axe blade forming a sort of crown, it makes the combined mode look fairly majestic though.

In terms of size, being comprised of four roughly Legions sized figures means he towers over Legends Shockwave, and even Deluxes such as Nightbird.

The combined mode has a claw for a right hand and a gun for the left hand, they don't look too bad.  The poseability is very limited especially when you consider his stability.  He has elbows, wrists and shoulder articulation but as they are fairly short combined to the rest of the body, they aren't that useful.  The hips are on balljoints but as the chestplate attaches to each thigh, it means his legs are fixed.  He also has knees but since the hips are fixed, knees doesn't mean much.

In terms of weapons, you can combine bits of Optimus and Bumblebee's weapons together to form a spear-bladed weapon, and use Bumblebee's car roof as a shield.

Unfortunately, the head is also fixed into place.  This combine mode is really only for looking good standing on your shelf and not meant to be played at all since parts will undoubtedly shift when you try to move him around.  Furthermore, for some reason, Starscream as a leg doesn't seem to attach that well and likes to keep popping off.

Nonetheless, this is a very novel mode.  While Megatron and Starscream will never join forces and combine with Optimus and Bumblebee, let alone having Optimus be the controller, it works surprisingly well and looks powerful.

OVERALL:

This wave of Kabaya Model Kits has a lot of creativity.  Instead of only going the lazy route and just recreate the existing toys, they added in extra play value in the form of mix and match parts for both modes, and the inclusion of a combined mode.  Megatron's strength lies in his tank and robot modes, and while he has limited articulation, the fact that he looks great on your shelf standing neutrally kind of outweighs that.

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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Starting when Burt was a child and how he got into magic, growing up with his childhood friend and partnering to create a well received magic show in Las Vegas.  Eventually, their act grows stale as it hasn't changed much over the past ten years, and being overtaken by a street magician called Steve Gray with unconventional magic tricks.  The Incredible Burt Wonderstone does not take itself too seriously but tries to convey a story about friendship and finding yourself again when you had lost your way.  The downfall of Burt was a painful one to see but also you felt that he deserved it.  As he slowly climbs his way back up, you start to side with him.  The magic tricks show in the movie err on the side of fantasy and especially the big finale trick, would never happen in reality.  There were some odd scenes where you're confused at how it managed to pass review because it made the movie really weird.  Overall, the movie was still entertaining and fun to watch.

Book Review: Sunker's Deep

Review:  #592
Title:  Sunker's Deep
Series:  The Hidden Series - 2nd book
Author:  Lian Tanner
Read Before:  no
Comments:  Sunker’s Deep is a solid sequel to Ice Breaker.  It introduces a plethora of new characters, which take up half of the novel’s events.  It is a bit confusing and unusual at first as you start to get used to the new characters Sharkey, Poddy and their crew.  The thing with Sunker’s Deep is that it introduces not only the characters, but also a whole new way of life in its world.  Sharkey is part of a group of people who lives their entire lives underwater in a submarine and it takes time in order for their culture and habits to be communicated.  Once Petrel and the returning cast appears and takes on a heavier focus, the plot becomes much more interesting.  Naturally, all the characters cross paths and this creates a great climax.  The ending was cut abrupt and it left a decent cliffhanger for the third novel but overall, Sunker’s Deep was enjoyable and a good read.

Rating:  6.5/10

Toy Review: Transformers Block Wars Bumblebee (Kabaya Model Kit)

Review:  #325
Name:  Bumblebee
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Autobot
Line:  Block Wars (Kabaya Model Kit)
Year of Release:  2016
Size Class:  Kabaya Model Kit
Mold Status:  new

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:

For those not familiar with Kabaya model kits, there are relatively inexpensive model kits that you build on your own, usually based on existing toys and simplifying them.

Each model kit will come with a piece of gum.  To be fair, the gum is not the reason you buy the thing, it's not awful tasting but it loses its flavour very quickly.

The pieces come still attached to their sprues and they are tightly stacked on top of each other when you first take it out of packaging.  It also comes with a sticker sheet as the plastics are cast in solid colours and any intricate detailing will come from stickers.  Part of the fun is putting Bumblebee together yourself and it is a lot of fun.  You really feel like you're putting in a lot of your own effort into making the toy and slowly seeing it take shape.  Bumblebee is not hard to put together, will take roughly 30 mins, and most of that time is taking putting the stickers on carefully.

VEHICLE MODE:

One of the most surprising things about this wave of Kabaya Tranformers is that all the figures are based off their Cyber Series Battalion toy.  Bumblebee transforms into a yellow sports car with black stripes.

The back is open showing off the robot head.  Otherwise, the are enough details to break the block of yellow.  Anything here that's not yellow is detailing provided by stickers, which is actually quite annoying when those surfaces aren't flat, so the stickers will crease and over time, will definitely peel.

Bumblebee is roughly the size of Legion classed figure but feels a lot lighter since the plastic used is cheaper.  Above he is compared with Combiner Wars Legends Shockwave and you can see he is a fair bit smaller.

You can attach the robot sword onto any of the peg holes but the default placement is on the right side.  Note that there are no rolling wheels, they're all solid plastic.

A unique part of this set is that you can use parts from the other figures to create a sort of powered up mode.  For Bumblebee you can attach Starscream's wings, nullrays and Megatron's cannon onto the spoiler for a type of flying attack mode.

The roof of the vehicle has difficulty staying flush but otherwise, this is an okay vehicle mode.  Not the best in the wave but it doesn't look too bad either.

TRANSFORMATION:

Bumblebee (as well as all Kabaya model kits) transform between the two modes via partsforming.  For Bumblebee, you need to detach the roof and reattach as a backpack, and detail the sides of the vehicles to form the robot arms.  The only true transforming is from the vehicle hood into the robot legs and feet.

ROBOT MODE:

Bumblebee's robot mode is quite good, at least aesthetically.  The black and grey manages to break the yellow color scheme enough so that Bumblebee doesn't look bland.

He wears the vehicle roof on his back and this is one of his biggest flaws, since it's a big piece and blocks articulation from his arms.

The face details come from a sticker and it's modelled of the faceplated version of Bumblebee.  The head can turn from side to side.

He remains shorter than Shockwave in this mode (understandably), he feels very light since a lot of his parts to made of plastic that's less dense and more flexible as they need to bear the brunt of being detached and attached multiple times.

Articulation is fairly limited, while he has balljointed shoulders, they are limited both in outward movement and also swinging forward.

Bumblebee has knee joints, hip joints and ankle joints but the hip joints let all the articulation down.  You also have to be careful with the hips since trying to use the joint to its maximum range will probably start to crease the black thigh stickers.

Bumblebee comes with a sword that's comprised of a blue blade and a yellow handle.

He can hold the blade in either hand and it looks really good, too bad Bumblebee lacks elbow joints to properly utilize the sword.

For the powered-up version, Bumblebee takes Megatron's arms, Starscreams wings and nullrays, and Optimus' weapon which looks quite good.

A decent robot mode that really only looks good in certain limited poses or standing neutrally.  However, the powered-up mode looks fantastic.

COMBINED MODE:

However, that's not all, yes, there is an additional feature for this set that the original Cyber Series Battalion toys never had, and that is the fact that they can combine!  Before we go into detail with this mode, a quick look at the whole set in vehicle mode.  You can see that the whole wave shares the same four base plastic colours (yellow, red, grey and blue).

Now in robot mode and they actually look great as a set.

For Bumblebee, his robot legs form the combined mode's arms, his robot arms form shoulderpads, and the robot torso bulks up the left leg by being plugged behind it.

As you can tell, this combined mode has bits of all the figures everywhere, but he holds together surprisingly well and is quite stable.

The head is basically Optimus with his axe blade forming a sort of crown, it makes the combined mode look fairly majestic though.

In terms of size, being comprised of four roughly Legions sized figures means he towers over Legends Shockwave, and even Deluxes such as Nightbird.

The combined mode has a claw for a right hand and a gun for the left hand, they don't look too bad.  The poseability is very limited especially when you consider his stability.  He has elbows, wrists and shoulder articulation but as they are fairly short combined to the rest of the body, they aren't that useful.  The hips are on balljoints but as the chestplate attaches to each thigh, it means his legs are fixed.  He also has knees but since the hips are fixed, knees doesn't mean much.

In terms of weapons, you can combine bits of Optimus and Bumblebee's weapons together to form a spear-bladed weapon, and use Bumblebee's car roof as a shield.

Unfortunately, the head is also fixed into place.  This combine mode is really only for looking good standing on your shelf and not meant to be played at all since parts will undoubtedly shift when you try to move him around.  Furthermore, for some reason, Starscream as a leg doesn't seem to attach that well and likes to keep popping off.

Nonetheless, this is a very novel mode.  While Megatron and Starscream will never join forces and combine with Optimus and Bumblebee, let alone having Optimus be the controller, it works surprisingly well and looks powerful.

OVERALL:

While not the strongest figure in the set, Bumblebee still presents an impressive feat of engineering.  The transformation is simple but both modes work well, and the combined mode is a fun novelty.  Considering the low price, Bumblebee is worth tracking down.

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For other Transformers reviews, have a look at this page.