You have to take the laser cannon off the back of the neck. Then click the neck down flush. Open up the orange hinge on the wings on his back and THEN slide the laser cannon onto the tab. There’s even a little hole on the laser cannon mount for the tiny peg on that tab. Do that and it’s done. Neck in flush - no gap. Cannon properly tabbed in. 👍
I found even much easier if you pop off the head take off the Canon then push the neck piece down by bracing with the your thumb on the bottom of the toy. Then put the head back on.
I alwzys loved Hoist. I had the original G1 toy. A rare robot indeed !! I remember he was simpler to transform and a lot of accessories, He wss known as a family style doctor ! LolSalute Fam@
Got mine today. Loose hips are definitely a major issue with it. You can pop the screw covers on the back of the hips and tighten the screws a little bit in there but you won't get much improvement. And you don't want to thread the screws. But other than that, I like how awkward and clumsy he looks. Makes me nostalgic.
Hoist and their Trailbreaker came too late imo seeing as you can still get the other versions for reasonable prices. I own both the XTB versions of TB and Hoist and while they are not perfect, I see no reason tp swap them for the FT versions. They should focus more on getting their combiners finnished and release bots that people actually want. The way I see it is that FT is slowly loosing their spot as the #1 3rd party MP creator with more and more of their bots getting KO-ed and XTB having big line-ups.
I actually just got Hitch in because ShowZ had him on sale for $99. I have the Takara Hoist also and that figure feels so cheap compared to Hitch. I think they tightened up tolerances with a later batch. The one I just received the hips are solid.
I really do enjoy my Xtransbots Hoist, that being said, there are some cues on the FTs I really like as well. He's definitely a little more polished. I am still on the fence, in regards, to the Vac Metal Legs, although cool, I think the silver arms work against it. I think they should have gone all one way or the other.
Bobby I can tell you are just itching to get a character you don't already have represented for your mp shelves, but your reviews are still very fair. Diorama's are looking great though, so maybe it's a good thing because you're in a position to appreciate what you have more! Looking sharp.
I have a preorder open for this guy, but I might just pass on him. Just like their Outback the toy is cartoon accurate to a fault. Hoist was always a little awkward but I had hoped that Fanstoys would make an "idealized" version of the character like they did for Warpath. But nope, he looks like the cartoon with all of the awkwardness intact. Also I think the chrome looks out of place on the legs. Silver paint would have worked better IMO. Fanstoys seems to be attempting to put chrome where chrome doesn't belong, as I don't like it on their Blaster either. Save that stuff for truck grills and accessories that need it, don't just randomly chrome parts of a toy while painting other similar parts as it makes the chrome look out of place.
Hips on mine started ok but are now also loosey-goosey. Opposite way for me deco wise, I wish the legs were metallic silver instead of chrome. Much prefer the alt head with the built in piece, nice touch from FT. Its a nice figure but yeah its pretty plain looking and lacks the wow factor.
Also kinda weird that this figure has hallow parts...? I know it's due to transformation, but the empty inner thigh compartments give me CHUG feels. Anywho, great review Bobby! Great way to start the week - many thanks!
My hips certainly aren't as loose as this... QC issue? Could also just need to tighten some screws (which I guess would still be a QC issue but less egregious). That being said, I think the hips could still be a bit tighter, but they're not floppy like in the review. Standing up, there are no issues. Very sturdy. Seems Bobby never fully tabbed in the portion of the back where the "Voltron fins" are. With some effort, that area tabs in pretty snuggly at least for me. The main part of the backpack wasn't staying in that well for me until I properly transformed the back. So if the backpack isn't as secure as you'd like, properly transform it and it's better. I can now hold my figure by the packpack, shake it a little, and it stays in. My wrists seem to be about as loose as these. You don't really need them to hold anything and otherwise they hold up under the weight. Since they're plastic hands on plastic on plastic ball pegs, pledge would probably work nicely there. Of course, we shouldn't have to do this on $190 toys, but it is what it is. I really hate the die cast piece that pegs in behind the head. The slightly more toon accurate head where its build into the head is a lot better. I think I like the look of this toy a bit better than Bobby, but overall I agree with the assessment. It's a good toy! I'm happy to own it! But it's not going to knock anyone over. ...And now I can re-enact another Dr Smoov skit!
Based on the original color images I feel like the head with the piece built into it was FT's original intent, then the head that comes installed with the separate piece that falls off was added later in response to feedback. At least to me it seems like that is why it isn't built into the figure at all.
Man, I really wanted it to be good but I'm just not feeling this. It looks nice enough and the engineering seems far less hellish than XTB, but it's got some very simplistic joints and poor articulation... We've had so many attempts at Trailbreaker and Hoist, and it feels like every single one of them has some sort of shortcoming (usually multiples) which make them undesirable to me. You'd think with all the attempts made, someone would have absolutely nailed these two, but nope. They've certainly got close, but I don't think there are any "perfect" versions.
I would be happy to add this guy to my collection if I didn't have XTB but I'm certainly not going to swap him out. I'm honestly not sure which one I would choose if I was buying one for the first time now. I kinda like the more exaggerated height difference of the XTB Trailbreaker vs Hoist. Curious for the comparison video even though it won't make a difference to my collection.
Good review. I agree with you on the Chrome legs vs. silver painted arms. I kind of wish they would have chose a style and stuck with it. I would have rather the legs been painted silver rather than the chrome. I am not a big fan of chrome on thing other than the bumper and roll cages. It tends to add thickness and weight that it doesn't need. Also fingerprints tend to stick out on them as well. Hoist is not really one of the characters that I really had to have, but need him to complete my collection. I am looking forward to a XTB vs FT Hoist-a-thon to compare them. I am curious as well as to what the Takara version will look like as we all know they will be making that one as well. I hope we hear about the completion of at least one of the FT combiners soon. One thing I wanted to mention was that I see stores putting FT on sale now because they are not selling as well. Thought that might be a good thing to keep your eye on as we continue to get FT releases. I think all of the FT figures that have come out after Spindrift 2.0 have not sold out and have been available for a discount now, I think that is worth noting as there can be a couple of factors, some of which I think has to do with Legends, but what do I know? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ngl, this seems like a good looking figure and I kind of wish I could afford it Tbh I kind of have a soft spot for Hoist, the ER figure is my first mainline figure and the first I've had to have any sort of complexity or articulation
Mine just came today and I really like. Price is very high though. Personally I like the way he looks much better than the other options. I used to have Artifex and I hated that figure
Not gonna lie, the botmode looks awful and the car mode does not fair much better, the build feels stretched out and it makes him look straight up weird, i think earthrise hoist looks better than this and thats like a 20 bucks figure thats highly restricted by budget compared to this 160 bucks trashpile, hopefully someone will make a decent 3rd party hoist the closest one to good we got so far was ocular max artifex, and while good it was also far from perfect
I have said it before and I will say it again, I will suffer a transformation for a great alt and robot mode. This, this thing is just an upscale G1 toy with a few bits of added articulation. This does not appear as MP anything to me. Here is why, the wheels at plainly visible and do not tuck in which adds to the kibble and ruins the potential for clean lines. The arm back flaps suck. Can we all admit that was drawn it to the cartoon because the toy had them and it is not esthetically pleasing at all. Like seriously, get rid of that crap. The legs, while accurate to the toy and toon, look so bad. The chrome is too much. The altmode looks doofy. The tow rig in the bed of the truck is too tall and blocky. I hate it when an alt mode suffers for a robot mode, more so when the robot mode leaves a lot to be desired. I feel like Fanstoys peaked with Breakdown. But what do I know, they can't even finish that team. It feels like FT is flailing about trying to get something to stick. Struggle with materials, struggle with design, struggle with completion. I think it irritates me so because I saw how good they can be, and they have chosen to go the other direction. Shame.
