Transformers: Masterpiece Thrust

 

With no intended slight at Titans Return Breakaway, Masterpiece Thrust is the review that I want to use to usher in 2017 at the Coffin. Released (and received) in October of last year, Thrust is one of the more unfortunate casualties of my lack of blog time in the closing months of last year.

Thrust is the second of the three Conehead Seekers, the G1 Season 2 trio of Decepticon air warriors. He is also the second modification of the MP-11 mold, this time labeled as MP-11NT, the first being Ramjet. Thrust is quite a bit different from Ramjet, sporting an impressive pair of new wings.

But the color, eh, that’s not that great. The boxart shows Thrust in a fairly deep maroon color, like his G1, Generations and even Botcon figure iterations. It’s a deeper, glossy color, and man does it look good. The actual figure, fairly apparent even in photos, is not at all glossy, and the paint is not a deep a color as Thrust should be. The overall effect is that Thrust looks a little anemic. The base color is not rich enough, and the lack of shine makes him seem flat, almost unfinished. It makes the plastic appear dull. Even the wings have this look, almost like the figure is unfinished, or in the rush to distribution they skipped the top coat at the factory. From a distance, and in slightly lower light, Thrust does look like deep maroon Thrust, as I look over my shoulder right now and see him on the shelf to verify this claim; but in your hand, right in front of your face, the overall appearance is a bit washed out. This is really the only issue that I have with Masterpiece Thrust, as the rest of this article will return no doubt to gushing over another Masterpiece Seeker, culminating with an anticipatory mention of having already preordered Dirge. The washed-out look isn’t quite as detrimental as the appearance of, say, Masterpiece Acid Storm, whose neon green makes him look of lesser quality, but the weak color is a flaw in the figure.

Aside from that though, there is a whole lot of good happening. Masterpiece Thrust is Masterpiece Ramjet in a different color and with different wings, so he has the large knee pads and cockpit rotation for transformation that Ramjet first displayed. Wow, the wings. They are a variation on the Ramjet sliding calf piece, but they contain a number of moving parts. They may be the only new thing on the figure, but they are pretty amazing.

Each calf
 piece holds both the main plane wing and the smaller tail stabilizer wing. The small tail wing rotates 360 degrees and sports a Decepticon badge. The larger wings flip over backwards, essentially the same way that the wings on the MP-03 Seeker mold do, as well as pivoting inwards, so the wings can be splayed behind Thrust rather than having to stick immediately out to the sides. This was an extra hinge that I really, really appreciated on Ramjet, and likewise here on Thrust, I think it is perhaps the best hinge on the entire figure. The Masterpiece Seeker is not exactly the most poseable of toys, and so it does not have to strike the most dramatic of poses. But being able to move the wings, particularly these larger, wider wings, out of the way allows the figures to look more dynamic and vibrant. Being on the sliding calf pieces, Thrusts’ wings don’t sit as high up on the robot mode as the original three Seekers, and at the height of the parts’ movement they rest essentially at the hip, with the wing engine just above the hip. When viewed from the side, the separation between robot and wing is a bit unsightly, but from a frontal view, you can’t really tell that a gap is present. Overall, Thrust strikes a strange profile, as one is used to seeing the Seeker wings either off the legs, as with Ramjet and Dirge, or up along the shoulder, as with the original three, and Thrust is someplace in the middle, rather literally. The eye is drawn towards the center of the figure instead of up to the chest, and this makes it seem like something is wrong with the toy on the whole. There is nothing wrong, but if the wing assemblies were able to move upwards just a bit more, the wings in robot mode would be more centered.

The wings themselves are nicely detailed and sculpted, showing of all kind of control surfaces and lines. The wing engines are nice, with rounded edges and spinning fans in the center. While I may never spin the fans again, it is really, really nice to know that they are separate parts that do move, as it contributes to the quality of the figure in general. The type of detail you’d kind of expect from a toy claiming to be a “masterpiece,” I think. Besides, if the MP Seeker mold still has the nosecone radar and still has that air brake panel on the back, it sure as hell should have a spinning engine part. 

Other new parts include a pair of bombs that plug in beneath the wings in vehicle mode, and can be stored behind the wings in robot mode. Also, Thrust sports new null rays, collapsible ones that fold up and then sit flush with the jet body in jet mode, or can be configured normally, but won’t peg in to the underside of the wings. I think that’s why they fold up: the large wings place the null ray peg hole too far away from the body, so the weapons won’t reach in vehicle mode. While the new bomb accessories take their places, it wouldn’t do to just have some blasters hanging underneath, so the folding and flush placement at least gets them out of the way, preserving the general outline of the plane. Unlike the new bombs that came with Ramjet, these are nothing to get excited over, as they don’t attach in any meaningful way to the robot mode, and they really don’t add much to the vehicle. The folding null rays are slightly problematic, as they don’t click into place or anything, so they wind up being just folded weapons that are pretty fidgety in alt mode. 

As a general condition, I get pretty nervous the first run or two through transforming a new Masterpeice figure, and with Ramjet and Thrust, I was extra cautious because I am aware of the mileage the mold has on it. The MP Seeker, whether it be MP-03 or MP-11, has always had a flimsy feeling to it, most likely because it is thin in both modes: there’s not a chunky vehicle mode, or sturdy robot mode, like the old MP-01 or Grimlock, to feel confident in in terms of toy heft. The grey plastic that Thrusts’ wings are made out of make me very nervous, as while they feel fine in hand, like good, quality plastic, they look like they may be weak or soft plastic. I am going to attribute this visual worry to the overall unfinished look of the plastic at large, but each time I have transformed this figure, I’ve checked the wings for stress marks. Haven’t found any, and again, they feel nice in hand, so I don’t think that the plastic is bad or anything; but I cannot say that it hasn’t caused me to take things a little slow when handling the toy. I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m pretty out of the Masterpiece game these days, with this updated Seeker mold being the only one I’ve actually experienced, and certainly, the original Seeker mold was fragile in its own right. I think I’m just overly cautious, given that this is a Masterpiece figure. The wings, in my defense, are not as thick and sturdy as those of Ramjet, who I have no issue with getting my hands on. My trepidation is probably just due to the color of the plastic, and some mental connection that I am forging there to fragility, without it being really warranted. 

I fear that all of this makes it sound like I don’t like Thrust, and that is just not true. The jet mode looks really good, and just like Ramjet, a new set of wings makes this look like a completely different airplane than any of the prior uses. Each of the original three Seekers look like F-15s in different color schemes; but the three Coneheads all look like very different jets. Something that I’m not sure I mentioned back with Ramjet, but the new wings give the jet overall an appearance of being a totally new airplane; not just an F-15 body with different wings on it, and I think that is something great. By now, this is such a familiar toy in both forms, and so when it is able to look like a totally new toy, after all this time and all these uses, someone is doing something right. Thrust is no simple repaint, no Thundercracker or Skywarp, and he does not look it in either robot or jet mode.

Again though, the grey color of the wings make them look a little cheap in jet mode. As much as I do appreciate the figure as a whole, the coloration really is a drawback. It’s like they missed the last coat of paint or something, so it just looks flat. 

The face sculpt, here a variation on the Ramjet face, is decently thuggish, befitting a brash, blowhard braggart like Thrust. He sorta does scream “tough guy,” and while I do miss the swappable face gimmick the MP-03 Seeker body had, Thrust’s face is expressive and characterful enough as it is. Besides, all I ever did with the faceswap thing was pick the face I liked more, and then left it that way until the present moment. Hell, I'm amazed I remember that the gimmick was even there. Maybe this is just my "back in my day, the Masterpiece Seeker had . . . " thing. 

Right after I’d put in my preorder for Thrust, Masterpiece Dirge was teased in pictures from the Tokyo Toy Show. A subsequent picture of all three of the Coneheads surfaced a bit later, and then there was silence. A few weeks ago now, preorders for Masterpiece Dirge went up, and I got mine in superfast. Set to be released in May of this year, Dirge will bring an end to the original G1 Seeker lineup. I for one am excited to have all six G1 Seekers together in Masterpiece form, but there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm for Thrust, which I do think is a shame. No secret, I am a Seeker fan, but how people will turn their noses up at an actual character getting a Masterpiece figure but soil themselves with excitement for a non-character MP like Road Rage or Loud Petal or that red Bumblebee is simply beyond my understanding. While I have listed some issues with the figure, I like it a lot, and absolutely do not mean to give the idea that it is anything less than a Masterpiece level version of the character. I remember feeling much the same way back in the day when the Thundercracker version of MP-03 was released. Oh, man, all three original Seekers! But it’s that figure again. Man, he looks good! But nothing really new or different. Thrust is suffering from middle release syndrome, where he’s not as exciting as Ramjet, having been the first Conehead, and won’t be as exciting as Dirge, the last and thus set-completing Conehead, and so he’s “just” Masterpiece Thrust. I’d bet he’s going to be the super-expensive one on the aftermarket when Dirge is released, and people late to the Conehead party are trying to get in. 

Just remember, the Conehead party has a dress code, and a no singles policy. Strictly enforced.