ToyFinity Robo Force Basic Edition Action Figure ToyFinity, 2015
Day #1,105: January 28, 2015
Basic Edition Mid-range Edition
Robo Force Painted Action Figure
Item No.: n/a Manufacturer:ToyFinity Includes:41 pieces, including guns, alternate heads, and knives Action Feature:n/a Retail:$18.00 Availability: October 2014 (pre-order), January 2015 (delivered) Other: An unpainted and Supreme version were also available
The Maxx Zero Basic Edition is the Robo Force figure I had pictured when I first heard that this license got picked up. Now that the figure has decorated eyes an a colorful chest panel, he really comes to life - but he also has black tube arms, painted tire treads, and a few blue highlights. It's not as much paint as the Ultimate Edition at twice the price, but that's OK - I wanted to not spend twice the price and I'm happy with this tubby little guy. The 3-inch action figure is solid, heavy, and ultimately satisfying in a way that may hurt sales of future products - it's hard to imagine a better take on this mold. I'm sure they'll manage, but it's so impressive that I totally dig it.
As an update of the original Ideal Toys action figure it basically works - the funny thing is now that I'm a year out of having bought the Genesis Edition, it almost seems different enough that the license may not have been totally necessary, but I'm still pretty unsure about the legalese on this sort of thing. The distinctive head was kept, as were the squat proportions. However, now that the suction cup is gone and so are all the mechanisms, it feels like a wholly different product. As a construction toy instead of a bona fide action figure with action features, it invokes the original designs while not slavishly recreating them.
When you open the baggie you'll find the main body as pictured is already assembled with the arms each wrapped in separate, oddly sticky baggies. Assembly doesn't take too long but the joints feel a little tighter than a lot of other Onell Design and Glyos products, so you may need to twist his arm some in order to get a good fit. Once you do, everything rotates nicely. Numerous pieces rotate easily to the extent that it seems goofy counting them as points of articulation, but there's no problem moving around the arms, waist, head, and so on. The figure was clearly overengineered so the kit could be taken apart and rebuilt into other configurations and characters, and as fans of IKEA are sure to know you get all these extra pieces left over.
The sack of spare parts includes pieces to make full legs for Maxx, although these have very little paint. You'll also find undecorated guns and knives, which are great accessories if you're going to make a more menacing build. Me, I'm just happy with the default version. The bright colors make me happy, and the idea of blacking out parts of the fists to simulate the gaps in the original hands was quite clever.
The amount of effort put in to making him a full-fledged kit is impressive, mostly because there are tons of builds you can make with this guy. For the sake of time (it came in last Thursday) and my fingers I won't be showing you them all here, but you can see some of them in my last review of this mold. Zoids Iron Kong and Wall-E are just some of the configurations, which means that this is one of those toys that keeps giving if you're willing to take the time to play with it. It really is a bundle of fun, but I like the default builds so much that I don't much want to mess around with the great design that you see here. It's a complex toy, and putting it back together can be a trial on the fingers.
If you like the pictures, you should get this one. Or another one. He'll look great hanging out with Pheyden and Inferno and Noboto. We had numerous unpainted or lightly decorated figures since 2013, but this is the one we were all waiting for - well, this one or the Ultimate Edition with panel lines and even more paint applications. But this one was $18 and the Ultimate one was $35, which to me was too big of a jump for deco. The marketing line was basically you had the Basic version which was sort of like the US Transformers toys, and the Ultimate one was sort of like Japan's more expensive toys with more paint that cost twice as much. This actually made the decision easy for me, as ultimately it's still the same toy and it's going to get about the same amount of play time. The Ultimate edition unquestionably looks better to a ridiculous extent, but is it worth double the price? It might be to you - it's certainly gorgeous, but I've got "good enough" and an extra $17 in my pocket for whatever it is ToyFinity does next, so I'm OK with that. At press time this figure was pre-order only but I have to assume a few may pop up for sale eventually, and at $18 it's a charmer. Get one if you can.
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