TFC Toys: Hades

Took way too long to get to this, but finally, let’s take a look at the combined form of TFC Toys’ Hades team, the third party version of Victory’s Liokaiser, composed of Rhadamanthus, Thanatos, Cerberus, Aiakos, Minos, and Hypnos.

The Hades figures show a change in the aesthetics of TFC Toys combiners, moving away from the more cartoonish, Armada/Energon/Cybertron look of teams like Hercules and Ares, towards a more realistic vibe, commensurate with lines like Classics or Generations, or whatever they call that general style of official Transformers at any given time, or, dare I say it, even the live action movie toy lines. Alt modes of the Hades squad would fit in with a movieverse collection, but not the robot modes, as Hades’ members robot modes actually make sense and are pleasing visually, unlike the twisted mass of cans and hoses that the live action movie figures peddle.

As was noted in probably all of their individual articles, the component figures are pretty big, and so Hades is very big. But, it’s not as large as the separate figures may lead one to believe, as Hades stands essentially the same height as fellow TFC Toys combiners Ares and Hercules. Hades has feet built in to Thanatos and Hypnos, but they are limited in terms of movement and posing options but the flat bottom parts of those figures. The result is that Hades does not have the kind of ankle joint that Ares does, and the case can be made that it doesn’t even have the same range of ankle movement that Hercules does. The torso is a combination of Cerberus as the lower half and Rhadamanthus as the upper half, and the combo provides a sturdy body. The arms look too short, as the transformation for both Aiakos and Minos does not require the legs of the individual figures to be extended. Doing so would make the arms look too thin and weak, gangly instead of generally pulling off a stronger, more solid look.

The head of the combined mode is absolutely gorgeous, a good, straight take on Liokaiser. It is a helmet that encloses the head of Rhadamanthus, and even does so in Rhadamanthus’ conversion to jet mode, and because of this, Hades cannot move his head more than slightly. No looking to the left or right for this guy, no sir. There are images online of Hades turning his head, but I think that people are attaining this by doing something to Rhadamanthus’ head underneath. Aiakos and Minos come with different sets of hands, one with flat, square fingertips and the other with clawed fingertips, offering a choice there. But the differences are merely cosmetic, as the fingers of both hand types are fully jointed and able to hold the huge combiner weapons and everything. Hard to tell from these pictures, but the Coffin’s Hades is sporting the clawed hands.

The weapons are gigantic, as is customary. A large blaster constructed from the twin blasters and block of plastic that came with Aiakos, and an enormous spear that came with Hypnos, which is able to be pulled apart and serve as that crazy nunchuck thing Liokaiser had in Victory. The blaster pegs nicely into the palm of either hand, while the spear doesn’t peg in at all, rather needing the fingers to be closed around the shaft, creating a very imperfect grip. Elongated nunchuck mode makes holding a lot easier, as Hades just holds the chain parts. Once more, melee weapons for third party combiners are just totally nuts, going for size overkill over all. It does make sense that such a large robot would wield such a large weapon, and when viewed in the context of the combined form, these huge weapons aren’t as oversized as they appear in the context of the individual members. Hades may have the best of the combiner weapons among the TFC Toys combiners in my collection, as they are generally single pieces and not amalgamations of smaller parts packed with separate figures. The spear works and is solid because it is a single part, like the hammer of Hercules, or Ryu-Oh’s ax, and not like the compound sword of Ares.

Hades is marvelous to look at, and holds a special place in my third party collection story. I saw a complete and combined Hades on display at TFCon 2016, and knew right then that I wanted to add it to my collection. And I really, really love Hades. But, I do have to complain about the hips.

Sometimes the world just weighs you down . . .

Hades’ hips are pretty weak, and so if the figure is standing in anything less than a perfectly balanced stance, the feet begin to slide apart, and the hips offer little to no resistance, causing mighty Hades to fall down into a rather drastic split. The feet also don’t lock in place at all, so if the weight of the figure is unevenly distributed to one of the legs, the panels on either Thanatos or Hypnos that basically keep the foot parts in place will pop out, making it easier for the feet to move around, leading to said hip issue as well. It’s a bummer, as such a majestic and powerful looking figure is not able to easily or solidly strike poses, which frankly is a problem among third party combiners, although it does seem to strike the TFC Toys ones more often. Ares has a similar issue, while FansProject Ryu-Oh and (not to spoil anything or get too ahead of ourselves. . . ) MakeToys Quantron have very little or no issues in this department. Hades is also kind of slender in the torso, something else that detracts from the mighty appearance and vibe of the figure. Since the torso is comprised of two separate robots, there are limitations, but a beefier, larger body would have done a bit to improve the look. Perhaps something as simple as making it so that the connection of Rhadamanthus and Cerberus’ arms, which happens just below the winged chestplate, would have happened slightly lower, maybe half an inch lower, on the torso would have solved this by presenting a little more thickness. That’s something cosmetic, and not anything that would have done anything for stability issues.

But despite any flaws or problems, Hades is a real masterpiece of a combining robot. The individual toys are of excellent quality, and the stability issues are solved via some patience and attention to posing.

I completed my Hades set last summer, and spent a lot of time trying to figure out where I’d display him once combined. It wasn’t until the winter of 2018 when I finally reached that decision, and then he was combined on my desk for the last few months we lived in our old apartment. Following our move, Hades was one of the first, if not the first, third party figure that was reassembled and then Detolfed, as the massive undertaking of unpacking began. Because I love it so much, Hades is a real solid cornerstone of my third party collection, and a set of figures that I would recommend to any and everyone. It is a terrific example of third party engineering and construction, and is a great example of the value that third party companies provide to collectordom, as there is probably no chance of getting an official Liokaiser at any point in the future, near or far, and despite the clamoring of collectors for an Encore release of the original, that seems unlikely to ever happen either. The Combiner Wars Liokaiser doesn’t count, and for as much as I love and laud that particular figure at more or less every chance I get, it doesn’t even come remotely close to Hades; any person who would claim it does is simply wrong. Hades is an absolute winner as a combiner, and as individual toys. This is currently the only combiner that I own where I look at it and appreciate its excellence, but feel a small lament that in order to appreciate the whole, I have to go without the individual figures.

Highly, highly, highly recommended.