I always had this dream, where if Fansproject was able to continue this Retrofuture line, they could've done a Masterpiece style version of these guys, complete with accessories from iconic moments of the show that didn't exsist.
The fact that we never got any more of these retro future figures is proof that we live in the worst timeline. This is a beautiful set, even the boxes get in on the fun. Love the backstory of the boat carrying the original megazero sunk deeming it a lost figure, but miraculously a fresh case of the korean release was found in an old storage room. All the other boxes having realistic damage, the half applied stickers. It's all just so much fun
I wonder if her wreck was found with a bunch of deteriorating plastic japanese robots on board... (the cardboard boxes would have been completely dissolved by the ocean) Submechanophobia, but it would be a neat find.
One of the marketing ideas I pitched for this series was to take a few factory seconds of loose figures to conventions and hide them in junker boxes on stalls around the convention, and then wait for the confusion on forums and social media.
Fansproject's best work. I wish more independent designers created TFs like this: something old and something new. Such a shame it wasn't more popular.
Unfortunately, original ideas and designs (or even simply being based on real TFs that weren't G1 or not as popular) didn't sell as well as "Generations Hasbro hadn't made yet" then "Masterpiece Takara hadn't made yet". The arse kind of fell out of the affordable third party market, too, it seems. We'll never get the likes of the nearly Hasbro retail price third party Ironfist again.
100 percent agree with you matey. This is why I have always leaned towards collecting g1 and stuff like the various Mugenbine series as opposed to Masterpiece etc (as good as they are) because they are not overly engineered and more importantly- the fun factor.
Probly cause it was so overpriced. I mean 250 USD for a G1 style combiner? Even 100 USD would be pushing it, there's just nowhere near enough complexity or engineering or paint or anything to be worth that much.
I love how unique this set is, and the fact that this was a "new G1" figure. everyone always wants more complication rather than less, so FP's approach here was so cool. I always think of that incident when a bunch of people got boxes full of mold, though, which sucks.
Here's a cool thing: if you turn Tailclub into an arm, then his sliding knee transformation means that Glacialord has an actual elbow! I have to wonder if that's an homage to how some G1 characters randomly ended up with really good articulation, like Hun-Grr or Misfire.
It's actually a stealth nod to the IDW Dinobots. In the story where they pick their dinosaur forms at one point they consider prehistoric mammals instead, with Grimlock as a mammoth, etc. Note: swoop is the reindeer, because reindeers can fly!
It deeply saddened me to see these underperform, the idea was *stellar,* you have no idea how much I wanted these when they came out, but I was just a student back then, I had no means to acquire them and now that I am a working man, it's really hard to find them for an affordable price :(
Glacialord is a legimate Grail for me; by the time I learned about the set in high school they were long out of production, and I just didn't have the money to pay aftermarket price. It's just such a cool idea that I wish got more support
oh my god they are scramble city compatible that's so awesome shame about the price tag then, with figures this simple and small, it's really hard to justify
Confession; I wasn't "in" on the hobby when these guys were out and I'll always be a tiny bit bitter that all of the 3P scene once I got in was just "Optimus but incredibly complicated and named Eggs Defenseder" or something.
Very, very cool! Love how nothing goes to waste and love how the beastrider cockpits can just disappear. Ooooh, the neatness of it. And seriously, I love that we get a robotic elephant mode (We need more of those in transformers).
Another neat little set. I saw them listed online and was seriously considering them, but the price was way out of my range. When a toy's price gets into 3 digits, I really just have to pass. But this toy set with its simple design, simple transformation, combiner gestalt and callback to G1 was always on my mind. Thank you for a great review!
Makes me wonder if certain 3rd party companies will have the guts to tackle the idea of making new G1 engineer styled figures like these again sometime soon.
The review of this set makes me want to track them all down or maybe recreate my childhood G1 combiner experience and just get a single one and dream of the possibility
“Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, except for Tusker. He has two.”. It would be funny to see the reactions of the questionably legal third party companies if someone like Cang Toys did their version of Glacialord.
When they came out, Vangelus was reviewing them, but they went out of stock pretty fast and then all of a sudden some years ago a shit ton of them popped out in various retailers, probably second reprints I imagine
Tusker’s robot mode face reminds me of that one children’s book I had ages ago. Something about going to play in the snow, then coming back inside for hot chocolate.
It wasn't monstrously expensive, but getting hold of it now is a mammoth task. I may be a bit long in the tooth, but I'm no dinosaur, and these are stag-gerlingly good.
I didn't watch this while on the toilet! Hope that keeps your mind at ease. Totally agree with not condoning that. Disgusting behaviour. Watched it on the big telly like the epic it is. I retweeted the link when I was on the loo though. These guys look great. I've only just got my first third party figure in Fans Hobby Red Buzzer but this is the sort of thing I'd really like to get. Simpler bots that look like lost toys from my youth.
When I found out these existed I had to find them luckily I found them complete on ebay for way less than originally priced. I wished they had made a bad guy team g1 style that would be awsome.
Yes, these were a great idea, but that price point is not trivial. I got Tusker for $10 and I feel he's not worth more than 20 more. I don't know if even the people who were seriously in love with this idea were keen on paying leader class prices for a combiner nub. These also took a LONG time to come out, and people were beginning to tire of Fansproject's *glacial* pace. ba-dum-tssh.
Never heard of this but wow this is great! I like to believe these are the autobot counterpart to the Seacons what with the seacons all being targetmasters.
Nice review! Definitely has that G1-style asthethics. Also reminds me of Dino Riders - Ice Age toys for some reason. Also, i love the jokes man. Specially that mammoth joke. :)
When you said headmaster I thought you meant the conventional headmaster so I was surprised but amused seeing the tiny robot head on the four limb bots
This set is truly my favorite third party combiner and probably my favorite, third party offering, hands down. I am currently working on my third set of these. The first two in combined and individual bot mode, respectively. Glad I got to see another favorable review of these guys although there is a companion sticker book to these guys that would make it complete, if you can still find it.
I love that you pull from all eras, official or otherwise, ya know? I'ts nice to not just the latest wave. Like Vange1us is the only person i've ever seen talk about these fellas and that was nearly a decade ago. Always such quality coming from you and I'm always on the buzzer for more.
I think the reason why it never got popular was that the retro-future concept was a little bit ahead of its time, and aside from the G1 deisgn aesthetics there is no "nostalgia" to connect to the toys. they're not a redesign of a G1 combiner team, there are no nods or references to one either.
The lack of articulation keeps me away from sets like these. However, the sheer creativity on display is worthy of admiration. It's an amazingly unique concept and beautifully adheres to the design standard of the original Scramble City-Style combiners. They would make an excellent companion team to the Dinobots.
I’ve seen a few of these guys floating around on BBTS and TFsource, and I always dismissed them in pursuit of other bots. I feel bad now that I’ve let them fall to the wayside for so long! These guys look like a good time! Edit: you can’t stop me from watching these on the toilet
I'd love to see other manufacturers developing their own IP if the results are as fun as this. Would I buy them? Well it would help if I saw them in shops...
I can confirm that yes Gavin - you are regular and preferred viewing whilst I complete my ablutions in the smallest room. It saddens me that you can’t condone that and just be happy for me, but I’m growing beyond the need for external validation, even yours perhaps one day.
3:38 Republic of Korea Translation: The Wildest Battle Team in the Universe!! It says Fan Project Retro-Future Glacier Dominant Mega-Zero. It's like a Korean classic toy.
I absolutely love these figures🥰 so much so I have three complete sets !!!! I know it’s crazy but everything about this set is such a great love letter to classic toys ! I just wish this line could have continued 😢
I actually did buy the set when it came out, however the case they are in has remained unopened since then. Every once in awhile I'd ponder if I should open them up and display them, and invariably I'd get distracted by something and they are forgotten again. until I come across that box again
"They certainly feel like third party from ten years ago" I see you have encountered the ouchies of CAD-based designs where they didn't think to round off the corners and edges of parts.
I mean 52toys has managed to make a successful adult-oriented non-nostalgia based toyline, but I'm not sure why what they did worked and other stuff didn't.
I really wish I could’ve gotten my hands on these guys. Three of them are still fairly cheap on Big Bad Toystore , with Razorspike and Megazero being impossible to find second hand
the thing is, well, its' early'90s toys let me rephrase that, it's early '90 engienering toy in a full on 2010s setup. (at full third party cost) the greatest apology for G1 is that there were limits in what the engienering could do this guy have no articulation at all, it's a curiosity, nothing more. it doesn't have enough staying power beside that, it's a lovelly set of bots, they feel like the ultimate incarnation that strated on paper with color pencils, a young faninvention given (plastic) flesh, and I really like the look the headmasters are also very nice in their approach I cannot help but feel that, had they been given something more to work with, an evil counter part, anything more than just "get ti and plop it near your G1 combiners on the shelf", it could have been the start of a nini-serie, but retrofuture remained 5 bots that became a bigger bot
The current state of third-party Transformers absolutely saddens me. There's nothing that I really can get into. It's either infinite Masterpieces of season 1 G1 characters with slavish animation accuracy, Legends-scale figures, or the thousandth iteration of Prime, with a admittedly really cool concept, but dropped at the last second. I say this as a fan of (admittedly obscure) characters like Broadside, who hasn't a single good 3rd party offering yet, and the Powerdashers, who don't even have the benefit of a proper characterization. Even the deluxe Insecticons were cool, even though I grew up with the Bay films, Prime, and Animated. I wish 3rd party could be less afraid of making something like this set, it's a genuinely cool idea, done very well in my opinion. Besides, I thought nostalgia sells...
seven and a half minutes may seem unusually long, but think about it! it's basically six whole reviews in one so you're getting incredible value for your time
I remember seeing this thing when it came out and thought it looked dope as hell One small issue, I was a kid at the time it came out. And I don't know if I have to sell my organs for the set now. Though it would be cool to see another shot at this idea.
lmao I noticed the careful wording around him not saying those were going to be sold at toyfu, and sure enough the last couple seconds validated my pointless attention to detail
great theme and great colours, absolutely knocked it out of the park on aesthetics. i've always thought these were interesting. however, not 40 or 70 bucks apiece interesting because i'm not enough into G1-tech transformers to let it eat such a big chunk of my disposable income.
Transformers Reviews Done Quick... In 7 minutes. Don't mind it though. Whatever Gav makes I'll watch even if it means I waste my precious and pointless time.
The only thing about this set I don't like is the color schemes. When I think of glacial creatures and ice, I don't think of deep red and salmon colors with yellow highlights.
