So it’s
been forever, but here (finally) is my write up for Combiner Wars Menasor, as a
whole.
I’ve
written before about the individual Stunticons, having all seven of them now,
and my general impressions of them are very good. My standard Menasor
configuration is one that most closely mimics the G1 configuration, which
leaves Offroad out for Wildrider and actually practically requires the
Blackjack chest piece, despite that being one of my gripes with the combined
mode. Again, by now there is no shortage of opinions out there about this set
of figures, but here’s mine.
Menasor
was the combiner that I was most happy for following the Botcon reveal of the
Combiner Wars line and the later (I think…)SDCC reveals in 2014. He was also
the one that looked the worst in pictures. He was squat and too wide, and it
was clear that the chest piece Blackjack was carrying too much of the weight of
the combined mode and it was just not capable of doing so. Where Superion got a
Legends figure weapon, Blackjack was supposed to showcase the Legends class
armor part or similar concept, and it just doesn’t do it very well at all.
Legends class Groove looks like it will do a much better job on Defensor, but
Groove does something that Blackjack does not in order to combine: he
transforms. Blackjack is just stuck to the chest of Menasor as a car, and the
effect just does not work. The problem is is that there isn’t any way to form
Menasor that looks better without Blackjack, so. It’s like a necessary evil. Blackjack
also has this tendency to fall off of Menasor’s chest just by thinking of the
toy, which is really aggravating.
Another
Menasor issue is the legs. The Motormaster hips don’t really align in a way
that is both good looking and stable, with the most stable configuration being
the standard, intended one, which makes Menasor look squat and blocky. He
stands practically a full head shorter than Superion, and looks comical. Again,
by now this is old, old news, and so there are a ton of fan leg configurations
out there to choose from, and almost all of them make Menasor look better, and
most do allow him to be fairly stable, at least for a shelf. Still, Menasor’s
waist is non-existent, and his shoulders are so wide that it really throws off
the proportions of the combined figure.
The head is real nice, looking like the G1 cartoon Menasor head, but it does show an obvious separation from the rest of the body due to its being mounted on this part that slides up from over Motormaster’s back.
Overall,
I really like the Stunticons, and I really like Menasor. Aside from some of the
combined form issues like the shoulders and the hips, the combined form is
rather nice. The ‘good’ thing about the frustrating hips is that there are not
many ways you can attempt to solve the issue that the figure can’t do.
Basically, if you can think of some way to transform the legs differently, the
figure generally allows you to do it. So while there isn’t one way to totally
solve the issue, you can essentially do it up however you like the best.
It should be noted that Menasor is not really something that you ‘play’ with. One evening, as I sat around futzing with Menasor, constantly readjusting the legs and picking Blackjack up off the floor and muttering about how he wouldn’t stay in place, my wife looked over and said “There’s no way a kid could play with that.” And largely, that’s true. The combined modes for all three of the current sets (Defensor being the third as of right now) suffer from some kind of stability issue, or tab issue where parts that tab together don’t stay together under much stress, or balance issue or something else. That’s not to say that these are bad toys, but articulation and details really took their toll on playability as a singular figure. These guys sure look nicer, but I think the days of waving your combined Menasor around and making laser noises at frightened Autobot figures ended with the G1 version.
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