FansHobby Master Builder MB-05 Flypro

 A new company around these parts, FansHobby’s Master Builder series appears to be a pretty serious effort at producing Masterpiece-tier figures of some real underrepresented characters, yet doing so in fairly simplified forms but including die cast metal in the construction. They’ve released a few G2 Optimus Prime-based figures, but what catches my eye are these Monsterbots. Taking a dive into both the company and the line and the subgroup, the first one to enter the Coffin collection is Flypro, known in the G1 continuity as Grotusque.

The Monsterbots were a trio of G1 figures that showed up pretty late in the line, and incorporated a spark wheel gimmick: that little button that you’d push and a wheel, not unlike that of a butane lighter, would move and grind out some sparks. The Transformers brand was experimenting with sparking technology quite a lot in those days, as the Monsterbots, Sparkabots, and Firecons all did this, but none of them did it very well because the incredibly low tech gimmick didn’t actually look like any kind of flamethrowing, just like you were playing around with a lighter you found in the dirt on your walk home from school. Many years later, the Monsterbots were given some group character, and it was determined that they were a kind of strike team that would do all the really terrible and questionable jobs because they were monsters. Always seen as strange adds to the Autobot cause because of their temperaments and alt modes, the Monsterbots were kind of like the Dinobots, if the Dinobots had no moral compass whatsoever. There have been precious few attempts at new versions of the characters, as Repugnus has been in a few toylines over the last decade as a nameslap, Doublecross has a Titans Return figure, as did Grotusque, although it was a real limited release. As of now, Fans Hobby has released all three of them.

Flypro is not the most complicated of figures, but he is BIG. And HEAVY. There is metal in this feet, which grants him some excellent stability, since the heavy part of the toy is constantly at the bottom. The robot feet unfold into the monster legs, so this weight is always low to the ground. Stability not being an issue, it ends up being a little disappointing that Flypro is not very poseable, as there wouldn’t be a weight issue to take into consideration. He looks great, but the body is all big, chunky parts. The legs are huge, the forearms are big plastic boxes. This chunkiness is part of the charm of all the Monsterbots in the line, but it really does impede their posing. Flypro comes with a pretty cool looking double barreled blaster, and he can hold it, but it needs what seems like an extra-long handle in order to achieve this. It is a cool blaster though, and the long handle allows the wrist swivels to be employed while holding it and be mounted on the back of the monster mode as well.

 

Robot mode is generally posable, as it does have joints in all the necessary places. The large, blockiness of the toy is really the only thing that impedes its movement, as the robot has wrists and shoulders, an elbow and some less than great (but technically still present) ankles, knees and a waist, as well as hips. I feel that most of that list is, or should be, a given, but. Flypro and his bulk means that glances are misleading, and that there is a lot more range of motion than it looks like there’s going to be. He is big and burly, truly a monstrous appearance, giving the impression of power and ferocity. The back mounted wings are pretty posable as well, and can be used to effect all kinds of neat looks in robot mode. They sometimes, if displayed in their fully deployed position, remind of Deathscythe Hell from Gundam Wing, with the large wing cape. Sometimes.

Duo Maxwell, repor. . . oh. Wrong fiction.

Monster mode is the strange mashup of leathery winged flying beast and sabre tooth tiger and bear that is Grotusque, a real “what the hell is that?” type of monster. The beast can stand on the hind legs pretty easily, but doesn’t do a four legged stance due to the front legs being unable to position themselves in the needed way. Each of the claws on the front legs is ball jointed, so the claws can be splayed out or positioned like fingers, to some extent. The mouth opens and the head has some limited range of motion. The huge monster teeth are chromed, and they are a source of concern in terms of potential breakage; although, this may be a personal issue and not anything germane to the toy itself. The head actually makes Flypro look more comical than menacing, kind of cute in large, mechanical beast with fangs and claws form.

Pppffffff! Ppppffffffff!!!!!

Flypro is the last of the FansHobby Monsterbots, and he comes with a slew of accessory parts for the other two figures. Flypro has exchangeable faces, and a different helmet piece, but also has other faces for Mega Tooth and Fei Long, Repungus and Doublcross respectively. The best and most useful parts are the flame effects, which can be plugged into the monster mode mouth, so that the creature looks like it’s breathing fire. The flame parts are high quality and partially translucent, so they catch a fair amount of light and look cool. For Flypro, the flame effect wedges inside the mouth, but the fit is pretty tight, and rubs against the fangs, adding to that concern about breaking or damaging them. All of the flame parts are the same, all three sets of them that are included, so it’s not a case of using the wrong part with the wrong figure. A little bit of care seems to be all that is needed, but it can still be a little worrisome.

The transformation is super simple, being of the flip robot legs over to form monster body variety, but the monster legs fold out from inside the robot legs, and are attached to the figure by panels on hinges  that almost always seem like they will be too weak to last for a long time. The plastic is real thick, fitting a figure of this size and weight and simplicity, but unfolding the monster legs always feels like too much pressure is being applied to the wrong spot. Again, a little bit of care.

Who's a handsome guy? Who is that handsome guy??

Flypro and his teammates are expensive, and that is probably the only major drawback for them. Sure, they are big, and heavy, and they look good. But, Flypro at least is very simple (so is the Fei Long mold, as a bit of foreshadowing. –mr) and at a general price of $125, sometimes doesn’t feel like a real value. For all of its strengths, Flypro can be tough to justify pricewise, especially if you’re not the type of collector that puts inflated value on the inclusion of metal. Around Black Friday, TFSource had these figures on sale for $99, and that would feel great. The retail $125 feels a little high. Ultimately, my collection hopes to have all three, but I don’t feel bad about waiting for a special price, maybe when TFCon rolls around, or perhaps even Black Friday of this year. The simplicity of the figure (and by extension, the other two) is something else that makes waiting feel tolerable, and so these Monsterbots are now inhabiting that spot in my shopping that is essentially “Want To Buy, But Not In A Hurry”. Flypro and his teammates are much more figures for aesthetics than anything else, despite being easy to transform and overall enjoyable.