TFC Toys: Poseidon

 A full Third Party combiner team reviewed in a single calendar year? Seems kinda amazing, but it’s about to be true. Mentarazor debuted the TFC Toys Seacons back in March, and Thousandkills rounded out the individual figures in August, and after a hiatus, the great god of the seas himself is here in November to finish out the series.  Poseidon is the mammoth combined form of Mentarazor, Cyberjaw, Big Bite, Iron Shell, Deathclaw, and Thousandkills, and it is a combined mode that literally dwarfs other figures.

TFC Toys Poseidon: Thousandkills

 

 Thousandkills is the last of the TFC Toys Seacons, and for quite a while was thought to not be a real figure. Most of the promotional images of Poseidon in his combined mode omitted this unofficial Tentakill, and there truly was a sense that this combiner masterpiece would finish without one of its members. Images and teases began appearing, one of which showed a pot on a stove with Thousandkills’ tentacles hanging over the sides. Then Thousandkills was released, Poseidon was complete, and all was well.

TFC Toys Poseidon: Deathclaw

 It’s time to end the Poseidon hiatus, an unofficial thing that basically happened because I got caught up writing on some other things, but was never intended. Our last entry looked at the really good Iron Shell, and now, it’s time for the best figure in the set (or at least the one that blew my mind all those months ago –mr), Deathclaw, the Nautilator stand-in.

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.

TFC Toys Poseidon: Iron Shell

 TFC Toys’ Ares was a big hit at the Coffin. Sure, it has an issue here and there, but overall it is a quality third party Predaking. One of the low points of the Ares experience was the torso figure, Nemean, who is lacking in so much of what makes the set as a whole great. So there is some trepidation heading into Iron Shell, the Snaptrap-themed –or, for Masterforce fans, Turtler-themed -- torso bot of Poseidon. But, most concerns are quickly dispelled after a few minutes of handling.

TFC Toys Poseidon: Big Bite

I feel like the best way to begin this article is by being completely honest: I do not care about Skalor at all. I don’t care about him as a character; I don’t care about him as a figure. I hate his beast mode. I hate his little tech spec story about being a disgusting, filthy guy. I don’t like anything about Skalor. But, I really like Big Bite, the TFC Toys Skalor-alike.

TFC Toys Poseidon: Cyber Jaw

The second of the unofficial Seacons, Cyber Jaw has a lot to live up to following Mentarazor, and it does so pretty easily. This figure will also be the base of the next two Seacon figures, so hopefully, it is a good toy all on its own.

TFC Toys Poseidon: Mentarazor

Amidst the chaos and bustle of moving, it was decided that a distraction was necessary. For Christmas, my wife got me half of the TFC Toys not-Seacons set, and I bought the other half. So, as has been mentioned in passing since mid-December, I have been in possession of the TFC Toys Poseidon team, but like so many other cool figures obtained over the last three or four months, there hasn’t been time enough to deal with them. The original intent was to take pictures of each member of the set and begin reviewing them in February: I was successful with four of the six, and then, our moving plans took shape.

So, let’s try to take a look at the first member of the team to be released: Mentarazor, the Seawing stand in.

TFC Toys Ares

 

 The 2018 Toy Fair was a few weekends ago, and Hasbro revealed its Titan Class Power of the Primes Predaking. (It’s awful. It really is. – mr) To celebrate that, let’s talk about a much better Predaking, TFC Toy’s Ares. Ares is, of course, the combined form of Nemean, Phlogeus, Conabus, Aethon, and Phobos.

TFC Toys Hercules

 

  (Just for reference, a lot of thought went in to making Hercules the focus of the first third party combiner article. But because it was the first full set collected, and in deference to Devastator’s status as the first combiner, here he is. –mr)

It has taken a long time to get here, the final and completed form of Hercules, TFC Toys’ Devastator, and one of the first Third Party Devastators to hit the market. It took a little over a year, in fact, as the complete set was acquired early last January as a set, and then very slowly rolled out, figure at a time, months after the fact in accordance with the often glacial pace of life at the Coffin. By now, the Transformers community is general accustomed to the 3Ps offering full combiner teams, or some other such complete figure, but at the time of Hercules’ announcement, 3Ps were generally still producing figure add on sets or parts, or were producing what can only be described as altered knockoffs, like the iGear Coneheads: clearly bootlegged Takara Masterpiece Seekers with the necessary alterations to become at-the-time-unavailable Masterpiece-compatible versions of Ramjet, Thrust, and Dirge. Seemingly out of nowhere, competing Constructicon sets began to surface, and the real third party market, the one we still currently inhabit, began in earnest.

TFC Toys Hades: Aiakos

 Aiakos is the final member of the Hades squad to get the spotlight, and as the Gaihawk impersonator, it is a fitting end to the set. A remold of the outstanding Minos, Aiakos brings back all of the excellent aspects of that figure and fixes one incredible drawback.

TFC Toys Ares: Phobos

Phobos, the son of Ares and the personification of fear, is the fifth and final member of the Ares team, and is the TFC Toys version of G1 Predacon Divebomb. The figure appears to be the same base mold as Phlogeus, which is pretty amazing given that figures’ more slender and lithe appearance compared to the stockier, thicker Phobos.

TFC Toys Hercules: Mad Blender

 

 Mad Blender is an interesting figure. The Mixmaster and final entry in TFC Toys’ Hercules group, Mad Blender is, on the surface at least, an amalgam of Structor and Dr. Crank, and as both of those are good figures, Mad Blender should be as well.

Not that this article wants to get started with a “should,” but it does, in the least sinister way imaginable. Mad Blender is a good figure, no doubt, but depending on how you look at it, it’s also a little bland.

TFC Toys Ares: Aethon

 

The fourth member of the Ares squad is Aethon, a third party Tantrum, again named for one of the fire breathing horses that pull the chariot of Ares in Greek mythology. Aethon is a general reuse of the Conabus mold, with some slight differences.

(Apologies for blurry picture. I only realized now that after I wiped the lens, I never retook a picture of Aethon as the ‘cover’ photo. I am sorry. – mr)

TFC Toys Ares: Conabus

 

 The third member of the TFC Toys Predacons is Conabus, named after one of the four fire-breathing horses that draw Ares’ war chariot in Greek mythology. His name is the Greek word for tumult, and it is thus fitting that Conabus is the analog to Headstrong in the official mythos.

Ultimately, the Ares team is composed of two general molds, and Conabus is the first exposure of the second mold. Nemean, Phlogeus, and Phobos all share basically the same body, while Conabus and Aethon share the other. Conabus converts between robot and rhinoceros modes, and is probably the better of the two molds that comprise the team.

TFC Toys Hades: Thanatos

 

Thanatos was the second member of the Hades team to be released, and was the second to last member of the Hades team to be obtained. He is the analog for Killbison on the team, transforms into a tank, serves as a leg, and is the same body in both modes as Hypnos. Symmetry.

TFC Toys Hercules: Neckbreaker

Neckbreaker is the first of the Hercules set that feels not so great. The TFC Toys analog for Bonecrusher, this figure shares a lot with Exgraver, but executes not as well.

By now, the general positives of the Hercules figures have been well documented. Fun. Good looking. Nice Cybertron aesthetic. Amusing to transform. Decently but not excessively posable. Neckbreaker exhibits all of those things. But he is a figure that generally disappoints.

TFC Toys Ares: Phlogeus

 

 In Greek mythology, Phlogeus was one of four horses gifted to twin demigods by Hermes and Hera. Since TFC Toys has adopted a Greek mythology naming scheme, Phlogeus is also the name of their version of G1 Predacon Rampage, who, true to the mythological Phlogeus, transforms into a . . . tiger.

TFC Toys Hades: Cerberus

 

Cerberus is an interesting story. Half of the original pair of Hades figures obtained, this was the one out of the full set of six that was predetermined to be the weakest, least impressive one.

Boy, was that wrong.

TFC Toys Hercules: Dr. Crank

 

 Many, many years ago, a little boy was introduced to the incredible concept of combining robots when, on an unassuming summer afternoon, his grandmother took him to a store and bought him a Transformer. Well, it wasn’t really a Transformer; it was one of the plentiful-at-the-time transforming robot toys that was a Transformer, but not an official one, released by some other company to try and capitalize on the toy phenomenon that was Transformers in the early and mid-1980s. The toy was a red version of Hook, stuffy Constructicon surgeon. It seems that that anecdote is particularly appropriate here, with Dr. Crank, a not-a-real-Transformer version of Hook.