Dave's TF:CR Rant: Build King Set C-022 Build Boy Build Cyclone Build Hurricane Build Typhoon CAPSULES Build Boy: Decent transformation, pretty good vehicle mode and robot mode, but has some trouble staying together. In robot mode the feet don't have proper heels, causing some problems with standing. Mildly recommended. Build Cyclone: Sturdy in both modes, simple transformation, well-armed. The hook needs another hinge so it can move with the crane arm properly. Mildly recommended. Build Hurricane: Nice transformation, good looking robot and vehicle modes, but kinda wobbly in both modes due to lack of pegs or tabs to hold some bits in place. Recommended. Build Typhoon: Goofy weapon, same basic transformation as Cyclone, but with his head being part of his body, rather than a snap-on. Mine doesn't want to stay together in vehicle mode, but this may be an isolated problem. Mildly recommended. Build King: A really neat idea for an updated "scramble city" style of combiner, where the limb robots can be any limb. But the execution needs some work. The combined form is very unstable, especially the "shoulderpads" formed from Build Boy's dozer blade halves. Also, simple ball joints often have to carry gestalt-sized loads, so his arms often sag. Points for concept, though, so Recommended. The whole is a little better than the sum of the parts. RANTS These guys are available either individually on blister cards, or together in a single box. The single box has no window on it and the toy pictures on it are so retouched they're hard to tell from the CGI pictures, so you're really buying a pig in a poke if you get the gift set. Of course, if you're buying online, it doesn't really make a differenc since you can't see the thing with your own eyes until it arrives in the mail anyway. I got the gift set from astrotoys.com (at the time I ordered, they had the best prices by a small margin, not counting hlj.com). Inside the box, all four are in a bubble tray, mostly in robot modes. All the loose pieces are detached, so Build Cyclone has no head and all the weapons are separate. There's plastic tray-tops over some of the pieces, but no twist-ties. The box is 13"x10.5"x3" (34cm x 27cm x 8cm). The gift set comes only with the techspec card for Build King, while the separate toys come with their own techspec cards. Thanks to Neale Davidson for getting all the translated techspecs together in one place on his protoformproject.com page. CYBERTRON: Build Boy Function: Buildmaster Sun Lord The young leader of the Buildmasters, Build Boy transforms into a bulldozer. Unrefined and reckless, he sometimes makes mistakes owing to his youth, but with the help of his friends and the acquisition of plenty of experience, he is maturing into a sound leader. Buildboy wields a double-barreled beam gun (the Double Buster) in his fight against evil, and is always full of energy. STR 7 INT 7 SPD 6 END 7 RNK 9 COUR 10 FRP 7 SKL 6 Avg 7.375 Here I'd been wracking my brain for a possible mistransliteration, thinking the toy couldn't possibly be Build Boy...and here the techspecs make it clear that yes, he's a boy. In the tradition of Liojunior from the BWII version of Magnaboss, we have a young gestalt leader who is tutored by his older partners. Robot Mode: 4" (10cm) tall at the head, add another inch for the shoulderpads formed by his bulldozer blades. Build Boy is mainly safety orange with dark grey and yellow-orange accents, plus silver fists and face. He has a large Cybertron (G1 Autobot) symbol painted on his chest. Build Boy has the poseability of a good Basic or even Deluxe, with ball joints for shoulders, elbows, hips and knees, plus a swiveling head and swiveling mid-thigh joints. He also has a swiveling waist, although you have to flip down his gestalt connector peg to free up that motion. His face has a neutral expression. As some have already noted, you can get a sort of "Build Midget" by swapping in Build King's head, although it sits a bit far back on the shoulders. Build Boy's biggest problem, though, is that his feet have hollow heels. You have to fool around with him for a while in order to learn how to keep him standing, since hi shoulderpads make him a tad backheavy. One nice pose involves setting his feet heel to heel at a ninety degree angle, then turning his waist a little so that one foot points forward. Transformation: Transforming his legs into the front part of the bulldozer or back can cause them to pop off at the hips, and his arms can pop off at the shoulders pretty easily during transformation as well. There's a number of very stiff hinge joints near easily popped ball joints, which can be a tad frustrating. Getting his weapon stowed behind the dozer blade is also an exercise in frustration, as it has to go in JUST SO, and the tracks can buckle under while you're trying to get everything pegged together. Bulldozer Mode: A tight little dozer, 3.5" (9cm) long and just under 2" (5cm) high. It rolls along so-so on its tiny under-the-treads wheels. The driver's compartment has clear windows but is filled with the Build King head, although you can pull that out and hide it at the back for nice front-on appearance. Transformation to Build King Mode: Trivial. Separate the treads, pop out the head, move the weapon a bit and pull down the connection peg in back. I've spent some time fiddling with the treads to try and make the shoulderpads of Build King more stable, but have yet to find a satisfactory position, although some are better than others. CYBERTRON: Build Cyclone Function: Buildmaster Volcano Lord Build Cyclone, who transforms into a crane, is a sureshot gunman second to none when it comes to using firearms, and is entrusted with bodyguarding Build Boy. His abilities as an SP are absolutely top grade, high enough that he was once entrusted with guarding Vector Sigma itself. Build Boy's recklessness can leave him at a loss, but he dispenses frank advice even while staunchly supporting his leader, earning deep trust from his teammates. For weapons, he uses his Crane Cannon and/or Crane Magnum, as the situation warrants. STR 8 INT 8 SPD 8 END 8 RNK 7 COUR 10 FRP 9 SKL 10 Avg 8.5 Robot Mode: 5" (13cm) tall at the head, his backpack adds a tiny bit more. Mainly red and grey, with some black and dark brown bits, silver face and fists. Build Cyclone has two weapons. One is a long rifle (as long as the figure is tall) formed from his crane, the other is a small pistol concealed within his driver's compartment. His head is part of his detachable control section, a bit of transformation aesthetic I don't care for. He has a sort of scowl on his face. Poseability is a bit more limited on this bricklike figure. His shoulder joints are heavily restricted ball joints, effectively working as hinges. He has ball joint elbows, but his forearms are kinda puny compared to his bulky upper arms. Hips are slightly restricted ball joints, and knees are hinges. No mid-thigh swivels or anything like that, so his legs are less poseable than I'd like. Head swivels. He also has huge "toes" and heel spurs, totall unnecessary for the robot mode...they're the fingers and thumbs of the Cyclone Mode Build King. Transformation: Pretty simplistic, although it can be tricky getting everything pegged together in the right order. The pistol is supposed to wedge down on a holder in the driver's compartment, but it holds loosely, and the thing starts rattling around pretty quickly. The hips aren't as tightly held together as I'd like, and in extending the legs the hips often come apart (in transformation to robot mode). Once everything is pegged together in crane mode, though, it's very stable. Vehicle Mode: The chunky body is 4" (10cm) long and 2.5" (7cm) wide, and the crane sticks out about an inch in front. The control area is locked in place by some tabs so that it can't rotate like on a real crane. This is probably because it pegs into place at its front rather than the center, and the designers felt that no rotation was better than weird rotation. The crane itself can elevate, but the hook at the end remains at a 90 degree angle to the crane arm. The four large wheels roll nicely. The vehicle mode has a documented "weapon" mode, which simply involves popping out the barrel of the Crane Cannon. Additionally, it has an undocumented feature. Under the front bumper are two small pegs which fold out to become stabilizers at the front. The heel spurs can be folded out 135 degrees to form rear supports. This lifts the wheels off the ground and stabilizes the crane for operations. Transformation to Gestalt Modes: Going to leg mode is trivial. Pull up the connector bar, remove the crane, fold down the rear wheels as heel and toe, get the robot mode toes out of the way. For arms mode, it's quite complicated, and I still need the instructions to pull it off. Each robot leg becomes a clawed arm, kinda stubby. It holds things by a peg hole in each robot toe, and this results in floppy weapons. CYBERTRON: Build Hurricane Function: Buildmaster Forest Lord The sub-leader of the Buildmasters, Build Hurricane transforms into a power shovel. Despite his appearance, he has a really sunny disposition. Calmly and coolly, he judges the progress of a battle, then provides appropriate advice to Build Boy and his other teammates. Hurricane can spend days racking his brains on how best to pass on to Build Boy his experience on numerous battlefields. STR 8 INT 10 SPD 7 END 9 RNK 7 COUR 10 FRP 6 SKL 9 Avg 8.25 Some have asked why a four-man team needs a sub-leader. Well, it doesn't. But the Buildmasters are three adults and a kid. So Build Hurricane could be considered a sort of regent. Robot Mode: The tallest of the four in robot mode, he stands just under 6" (15cm) tall at the head. His power shovel rises over his head like a scorpion stinger and adds another 2.5" (6cm) to his total height. Build Hurricane is a mix of forest green, construction green, light and dark greys, with a silver face and orange visor. He's grinning as far as I can tell. The toy's shoulder joints are weird, with a ball joint underneath a swivel, then hinge elbows. This gives reasonably good poseability overall, but any pose with his arms out to his sides looks like God Fire Convoy got him in a bear hug and snapped his arms in two. Rather than hands he has claws, a bigger claw on his left arm (and a bigger Popeye-like forearm, too). He has ball joints on hip and knee joints, plus poseable toes. However, the pelvis doesn't lock together, so it tends to come apart when posing the legs. And the feet are too wide for him to stand straight-legged. His shovel weapon is intended to sit over one shoulder or the other, pegging into his back. However, it can also peg into the back of his head for a more Scorponok-ish look. He can hold it in his right hand, but not very well. And it can also go into a peg hole on his lower abdomen, but looks kinda disturbing there. Transformation: A royal pain to get him into vehicle mode the first few times, there's not a lot of margin for mistakes in getting the order of operations turning his arms into the cockpit. It's also tricky getting the legs transformed into tracks correctly the first time, and even with the instructions it can be challenging. Vehicle Mode: 4" (10cm) long and a little over 2" (5cm) tall not counting the shovel itself, it's to scale with the other vehicles. It rolls on tiny wheels like Build Boy, only not quite as well. On the plus side, the control section does swivel and there's some range of motion for the shovel. On the bad side, the shovel can't actually reach the ground to scoop things up, and the whole thing is very weakly held together. The treads don't stay together well, and if you turn the cockpit it starts to fall apart. The "weapon mode" is a serrated jaw that can be (with some effort) pulled out from the underside of the shovel's arm, turning the power shovel into a chomper weapon. Sorta a draconic profile. Not too impressive, though. Transformation to Gestalt Mode: Again, trivial to make it a leg, very difficult to get it to be limbs. As an undocumented feature, it's also pretty easy to make a Build Boy-less gestalt using Build Hurricane's head instead (the other two, when in arms mode, have more difficulty getting their heads deployed well). CYBERTRON: Build Typhoon Function: Buildmaster Desert Lord The most powerful of the Buildmasters, Build Typhoon transforms into a dump truck. His armor is the thickest of the Buildmasters', and being well versed in all sorts of fighting techniques, he is also Build Boy's martial arts instructor. He is entrusted with being Build Boy's aide, and is prepared to lay down his very life to follow his leader's orders. JThis loyal warrior fights using his Chomper Bucket, which can crush just about anything to bits, as his weapon. STR 9 INT 8 SPD 7 END 10 RNK 7 COUR 10 FRP 7 SKL 8 Avg 8.25 I don't really associate typhoons with desert...maybe Build Sandstorm or Build Scirocco would have been more appropriate (and Build Firestorm rather than Build Cyclone?). Robot Mode: Almost, but not quite, a clone of Build Cyclone. However, his head is an integral part of his body, folding into the driver's compartment of the vehicle mode. As with Cyclone, the large upper arms make him look kinda gorilla-like, with his hands reaching down past his knees. Build Typhoon is mainly yellow and light grey, with black and dark brown parts, silver accents and face. No faction symbol on him, or on anyone but Build Boy. His hand weapon is his dumper bed, which opens up with jaws. Kinda silly, and hard for him to hold up. He has a smirk on his face. Transformation: Almost the same as Cyclone's, but different around the chest, since he turns into a dump truck rather than a crane. The pegs securing his arms to his legs are a different design, and don't work as well. In general, pegging this together relies on more tabs, but they're weaker and the net result is that the toy keeps popping apart. Vehicle Mode: 4" (10cm) long and 2.5" (6cm) high, it's a squat modern construction style dump truck, although those tend to have the driver's compartment to one side rather than in the center as with this toy. Odd little side feature is that the cockpit can swivel back and forth like a head. Rolls along pretty well on its large wheels, but it doesn't always have all four wheels on the table thanks to the weakness of the tabs holding it all together. Weapon mode involves swinging the dumper bed around to the front and using the chomper blade. Sort of a gator mode. The dumper bed can raise and lower. Transformation to Gestalt Modes: Almost identical to Build Cyclone's. No real surprise there. CYBERTRON: Build King Function: Buildmaster Steel Sovereign This giant robot is a combination of the four Buildmasters. With his Tornado Fusion System, he has three modes that switch around his limbs while Buildboy remains steady at the center. Hurricane Mode is a superb multi-purpose type formation, balancing offense and defense. Cyclone Mode is a power type form, excelling in close-quarters combat. And Typhoon Mode is his battle type formation, with the highest offensive power. This invincible gestalt robot is born of his components' four good, nature-loving hearts. STR 10 INT 10 SPD 8 END 10 RNK 8 COUR 10 FRP 10 SKL 10 Avg 9.5 Combination is pretty clever, actually. Build Boy is always the chest and head, but the other three can each be either leg or the arms. The limb toys each have an identical connector piece and all three link into a triangle. There's a hole in the center to hold one of Build Boy's pegs (which rotates in) and then Build Boy pegs down to whichever one is the arms (he has multiple pegs and holes for this). You can even switch between modes without disconnecting the three limb robots...just pop off Build Boy, transform the arms guy into a leg and one of the legs into arms, then put BB back on. You can also put all three in leg mode and make a nifty tripod battle platform for Build Boy to stand on. The reasoning behind the modes listed in the techspec is that, with only two hands, Build King can only hold two weapons of the three available. So he holds the two related to his legs. Hence, Hurricane Mode uses the Chomper Blade and the Crane Cannon, leaving the power shovel out. Although you can use the back of Build Hurricane's head as a peg hole to put the power shovel on Build King as seen in the box art. This is an undocumented feature. Build King stands about 8" (20cm) tall in all three flavors, with a shoulderpadspan of 8" (20cm). Arms have ball joints for shoulders and elbows, and variable hand options depending on the mode. Hurricane Mode gives the best arms for posing, I find. Not to mention it looks a bit more symmetric, with the clone boys both being legs. Hips are universal joints and nicely stiff, but they're located halfway up BK's abdomen. The thighs are rather short, leaving the knees at the level of the bottom of the torso, kinda weird. Cyclone and Typhoon modes look kinda lopsided, plus it's harder to store the spare weapon on the toy. And here's a weird little bit I just figured out. A robot mode Build Boy with his connector peg flipped down can connect to the linked other three just fine, giving us an Exoskeleton Mode. It's especially striking in Hurricane Mode, as the large tread arms of the gestalt can mirror the small tread arms of Build Boy. Overall: Well, the component toys have their share of flaws and the combined mode can be kinda floppy, but there's a lot of neat ideas here, and plenty you can do with the toys beyond what's in the instructions. That flexibility alone makes this a toy worth checking out, although it's more suitable for tinkerers than kids. Dave Van Domelen, caught up just in time for his JRX to finally arrive in the mail, which it should be doing tomorrow....