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Movie Voyager Mix Master Review


Yuyuyami

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Today I bought Mix Master. I was a little underwhelmed by how many parts popped off at first, but I quickly learned how to avoid that. He is very well constructed with a devilishly complex transformation. Once you know how to keep parts from crashing into each other he's quite fun.

 

A simple note: I'm not going to review his third mode. In my eyes it's no different than wadding him up like a piece of paper.

 

Mix Master : 8.33/10

 

 

Alt Mode: 9/10

 

Aesthetic: 10/10

 

This mode is a deliciously detailed cement mixer with the paint apps put in all the right places and in all the right colors. It looks more like a model than a transformer. Any robot bits explicitly showing, like at the back of the cab, STILL look like they belong to the vehicle. The underside, which is often the, deservedly, weak part of any automobile transformer, looks convincing enough, mainly because the missile pod to the back looks like drive shaft.

 

The Aesthetic gets a full 10/10 for a job well done.

 

Playability: 8/10

 

He rolls really well, though sometimes the missile pod will rattle itself loose and drag under the figure. The missile pod is about the only part that isn't rock solid in this mode, though that can be alleviated with some super glue. His cement drum does NOT turn. His cement pouring equipment at the back, however, is fully poseable, allowing you to pretend you're burying some wretched Autobot simpleton's with acidic cement.

 

The Playability gets an 8/10. He doesn't do anything to WOW me in this mode, however, he is solid.

 

 

Transformation: 8/10

 

Mix Master's transformation is unique and fun. It has many clever twists that I've never seen before and it makes ends meet perfectly in both modes. To describe his transformation, he accordions out, rearranged himself, then accordions back together. However, his complexity creates two problems:

 

1. Parts usually crash into other parts. While I have gotten quite good at transforming Mix Master, he becomes a distended MESS mid-transformation. This can partially be alleviated by focusing on one part at a time.

 

2. Transforming his arms back into cement drums requires painful precision and a lot of time. The easiest way around this is to not even bother following the instructions when it comes to transforming his lower arm's kibble. The best way to deal with it is to leave the drum plates where they are and to flip the wheel sections back and away from the body. Doing it this way will also make his arms much more stable in robot mode and keep the drum panels from crashing into each other.

 

The Transformation gets a solid 8/10. It's engaging, effective and sometimes annoying. A side note: The toy is NOT mass miss assembled. The instructions are wrong. If you bend the cab's shaft so you can tab the cab into the gun, you'll notice the tab and the slot are at the perfect angle.

 

 

Robot Mode: 8/10

 

Aesthetic: 8/10

 

In robot mode he looks like a creepy creature of the night. His drum panels give the illusion that he has a cape, he has an eerily hunched posture, his proportions give the impression of spider legs and his colors are dark enough to intone evil yet not so dark as to drown out the detail. And believe me, there is a LOT of detail.

 

My favorite parts on this guy are his hands and his neck:

 

His hands look strikingly alien due to the genius choice of giving him BACKWARD THUMBS. They are molded to look functional, however, giving his hands a spidery look to them.

 

His neck is a poseable section of the chest, not just an extrusion from the top of the chest. It makes a neat Mech Alive effect that is REALLY hard to explain.

 

Unfortunately, his creepy, alien look is RUDELY interrupted by two things: His cab-butt and the giant wheel sections that hang off his arms. They're not TOO bad, but I feel Hasbro could have found something else to do with them.

 

The Aesthetic gets an 9/10. It's good, but it could have gone the extra mile.

 

Articulation: 7/10

 

He has all of the articulation you would expect and then some, sans a waist joint. His arms have nine different points of articulation, including the hands. His legs can't do a lot, despite having the proper joints. The cab-butt crashes into the legs too often for it to not be annoying. It's not unbearable, but it should be better.

 

His head, however, is where his articulation shines. It's on a ball joint and that, in turn, is on a DOUBLE HINGE so he can move his head in all sorts of crazily awesome, characterful ways.

 

The Articulation gets a 7/10. It's sub-standard in the legs, crazily complex in the arms, and truly wonderful in the head.

 

Playability: 8/10

 

Mix Master's robot mode has a fun vibe about it. Despite his flaws, he just clicks. While I wouldn't smash him into things like I would Universe Onslaught, just fiddling with him is an enjoyable experience. Somehow he's more than the sum of his flaws. If I were to point out everything there is about playing with him, he'd sound like he has a boring robot mode even though it's not. The only thing that makes him not as fun as he should be is that some of his parts will come off if you accidentally twist them wrong for too long. Basically, I'm talking about the drum sections and the roof of the cab.

 

Playability gets and 8/10. He'd get a 9/10 if his drum sections and the top of his cab were more securely attached to him.

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I was really suprized with this figure, and still enjoy learning new things about him evean after 2 months.

 

A favorite lart is that it seems when liked up properly, the arms move fluently by simply tapping the drum pannels.

 

The ROTF Decepticons are turning out to be a very versatile lot!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'll say they are. An extremely versatile lot.

 

Great review, Yuyuyami. I've got MM too, and I have to say that I agree with everything you said across the board. I've said it before, but: there is something I love about a TFs base mode bearing no resemblance to its alt mode, and MM pulls this off perhaps better than any Bayverse figure--despite essentially bearing a truck cab as a fanny pack and having halves of his mixing drum as a cape/shield.

 

IMO, although there are a small handful of better toys in the ROTF line, MM epitomizes everything that is right about the Bayverse toys, as well as epitomizing the concept of a robot in disguise.

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No, I hadn't forgotten. But the robot parts that are even remotely visible in his alt mode resemble aspects of his drive train, so even those are well-disguised. The fact that he's got a couple of huge Decepticon insignias is easily overlooked to me...they don't get in the way of his excellent alt-mode.

 

But I was actually referring to his base (robot) mode. I'll readily admit that it is an odd summation, considering the nature of his alt-mode kibble, but: even with the alt-mode kibble he does have in this mode, it's still not totally obvious what it is he turns into, or how he does it, IMO...and I consider it a feat of modern-day toy engineering. And it might be me, but I also find it amazing and refreshing that ROTF Mixmaster comes across more convincingly as the cackling madman genius his G1 bio portrays (what with his hunchbacked, Quasimodo physiognomy).

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  • 2 months later...

@ Hunter Rose, (well first, long time no see bro. Now...) look up transforming him on Takara's site. I think TFW has the link to the ACTUAL url but takara has a intructions PLUS video (kinda a mix) of how to transform him. ;)

 

:pics lol No seriously, good review but i was hoping for some pictures. :(

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