Red Dragon is a special version of MB-03 Fei Long, the
Fanshobby Masterpiece scaled
Doublecross. A general release version of a limited edition figure, Red Dragon
is an odd mix up of Beast Wars Transmetal
II dragon Megatron, Beast Machines Megatron,
and Robots in Disguise/Car Robots Megatron. It's also a special edition figure, a detail which may be hard to determine considering it comes packaged in a literal cardboard box.
From the waist down, Red Dragon is nearly identical to
Fanshobby Flypro, different maybe only in some detailing and molding, but the
same in terms of transformation and everything else. The upper body is the most
different, as the chest is different in order to accommodate conversion into a
two headed dragon. This means the arms need to be able to flip upwards above
the chest, as opposed to serving as front animal legs as they did on Flypro.
The differences aside from the obvious coloration and head sculpt between this
figure and Fei Long can’t be commented on as at this time, the Coffin is not in
possession of Fei Long.
Red Dragon doesn’t have hands, but comes with attachable
fists. The robot mode arms terminate in the dragon heads, each with opening
jaws with ports inside that the fist parts attach to. Also attachable are
molded plastic flames, either the ones that came with the other Master Builder
Monsterbots or the ones that come specifically with Red Dragon, which are of a
redder, more translucent plastic than the orangeish regular ones. The hands can
be made to hold the RID-style spear weapons, or their combined form of a double
bladed sword, but sometimes they don’t hold it very well. Each of the sword
parts has a little ridge in the plastic that slots into a little track inside
the fist, but the connection usually doesn’t work as solidly as one would like.
The swords are very nice, and are very accurate to the original RID toy, and
they have some very cool detailing on the handles. The blades are attached
however, not like the original toys’ pressure launched missiles.
While they are nice options, the hands are not very well
implemented, because of the dragon heads. The mouths of the dragon heads open,
both at the jaw and by allowing the top of the head to move, and both head and
jaw parts are mounted on hinges that no only let them move but also fold back
towards the elbow. The forearm is not long enough to make this a convincing
arm, and the jaws do not fold away enough to make it look anything less than
messy. This can be mitigated somewhat by attaching the hand and then closing
the jaws more closely around it, but this will occasionally get in the way of the
hands’ ability to hold the swords. Employing the flame pieces while closing the
jaws actually works out just fine, so the issue is something that happens as a
result of the added hand, which is necessary to accommodate the swords. So
really, the swords sort of ruin everything.
Not everything, but you know. For drama.
It seems like the intention of the forearms is to serve as a
blaster, or since the figure is a dragon, something like a flamethrower housed
inside the dragon heads which serve as hands. That on its own is fine; but the
forearm, the actual forearm part, is too short and stumpy on its own. So while
the intention is to have a dragon head hand that opens up to reveal a weapon,
and that works, the attachable hands make Red Dragon look like a guy with some
pretty metal wrist guards and a partial forearm.
The head sculpt is new for this release, and it absolutely
captures Beast Wars/Beast Machines/Car
Robots Megatron, even though the figure itself is kind of unclear as to
which of those Megatrons it is. The eyes are a red chrome, and they just leap
out of the purple face. The face is surrounded by that toothy border that all
of those Megatrons have, and the total thing really, really is a dead-on
Megatron face, complete with the sneer of cold command that later-era Beast Wars/Beast Machines Megatron
always touted. And generally speaking, the colors are just outstanding. The primary
color is red, a deeper red that looks gorgeous and a lighter red that is not
gorgeous. Gold, purple, and black appear as accents or highlights, and the
overall look is bold and excellent. The wings are huge, incorporating a few
different hinges for transformation and posing, with the wings themselves being
translucent red plastic three section parts that spread out in an absolutely
impressive span, not only in dragon mode, but also in robot mode. An inexact
measurement to be sure, but the wingspan is probably twice the width of the
figure, so fully extending the wings means Red Dragon is going to take up a
shelf by himself. 
Dragon mode is also stunning to look at, but like company mate
Flypro, is bulky and blocky. Not necessarily in bad ways, but in ways that do
restrict posing: the figure is Flypro from the waist down, so it has the same
super narrow clearances that Flypro does, and parts scrape in all the same
places that they do on Flypro. While the rear legs are big enough to support
the dragon mode, the tail does not allow for the dragon to stand fully on those
hind legs, so Red Dragon is constantly in a hunched over position, like he’s constantly lurching forward rather
than being able to stand upright and reveal how imposing he is. Slightly longer
monster legs would have alleviated this. The dragon heads also need one more joint
somewhere in order to realize their potential, like a wrist joint to allow the
heads to pivot up and down, and then, quite frankly, this would be an almost
perfect dragon mode. The swords peg into holes on the backs of the wings and
then point forward, again like the toy this homages. The wingspan is huge, and
they attach to the monster body via some pretty small tabs, which are a
rear-constant concern of coming unattached due to the weight of the wings.
The transformation is a bit concerning, as it was with Flypro. The legs in general have real low clearance for movement, meaning that
various parts rub against each other during conversion, potentially leading to
paint scraping off particularly on the metal feet and waist plates as they
contact other parts. The chest also pulls apart so as to allow the robot head
to flip down and then compress the chest halves together to form the monster
torso, but the head feels like it’s just a smidge too large to do this without
it contacting the sides of the torso, which don’t really expand too much.
One thing that really needs to be mentioned about the dragon
mode is that the heads look fantastic. This is true of the original Fei Long as
well, as the heads are painted in all the right ways so as to make them pop,
starting with the black eyeliner.
There are two versions of Red Dragon: one a limited but
general release, and one that is a convention exclusive. The sample here is the
regular limited release, but the convention version includes extra faces for
the robot head, and probably some other goodies. That enhanced version costs
nearly a full $100 extra, and it is hard to say that it would be worth the
extra cost when this version can still be bought for less than the price of the
regular Fei Long release. Many etails have Red Dragon for $120, four dollars
lighter than Flypro, sure, but substantially cheaper than the $220 for the other
version. This sentiment was first posted for Flypro, but the $120 price tag
for these figures does feel a bit steep; but with Red Dragon being a limited
run to start with, $120 doesn’t feel all that bad.
As a repaint, this seems like a repaint that exists because
it could, and not necessarily one that was either planned out in advance or
really even much before it went into production. The notion that one cannot
determine which actual Megatron this is intended to be, but that it is rather a
pastiche of MegatronS from the 1990s, makes its inclusion in a collection
uncertain, since you don’t really know which Megatron you’re adding. And Red
Dragon does incorporate so many different versions that, while it references
all of them, it doesn’t actually represent any of them. If it were purple and
black, it’d be a great Car Robots Megatron.
But it’s not. None of the Beast Megatrons had two heads. So the figure is a
case of FansHobby having this dragon figure and wanting to turn it into another
dragon character, but then they couldn’t decide which one. Pretty odd. There is
another third party dragon Megatron coming eventually, one that is a far more
dedicated representation of Transmetal II Megatron. Not to say that Red Dragon here
is pointless, as it does serve as a good Car
Robots Megatron, which is the role it plays in the Coffin collection, but
it may not be for every collector. It can't really even be considered "Masterpiece" Car Robots Megatron because it's not the right color. Unless you’re invested in the FansHobby
Monsterbots, or if the figure just strikes your fancy, it should be an easy
figure to admire from afar.
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