Review – Causality Flameblast

Fansproject (website) is one of the better known of the unofficial Transformers toys and upgrade makers out there today. They’ve got an insanely loyal following and have produced several kits and individual transforming toys and it’s not tough to see why they’re so popular. I’ve only reviewed one of their toys before — the Protector Armor upgrade for Transformers Classics Rodimus* (review here) — and it was not at all a great work.

But the company gets so many excellent reviews that I wanted to give them another shot. So here we see Flameblast, a complete transforming robot toy created by Fansproject. And he’s not bad.

Packaging

Flameblast comes in a very attractive box that includes both photos and an illustration of the character. The window is a nice touch and this is a professionally-produced package that looks good and shows that Fansproject put some real work into the toy. I’ve got no complaints with the box.

Space Shuttle Mode

Flameblast is pretty easy to convert between modes and everything locks nicely into place. This is actually a retool of an existing Fansproject design — Explorer, which was an unofficial version of the Combaticon Blastoff — so the fact that the toy’s a space shuttle has more to do with his original design purpose than anyone’s desire to create a space shuttle transforming robot toy. That tail fin on the piece is the robot’s sword and other than one point at the rear that’s prone to unlocking it’s a nice vehicle mode. But I don’t buy transforming robot toys for their vehicle modes so it’s time we move to Flameblast’s robot mode.

Smaller Than I Expected

At $50, I was expecting Flameblast to be about the same height as the official Transformers “Deluxe” toys. But at only about 4-inches tall he’s roughly one to two inches shorter than I would have liked. It’s not a drastic point of failure for the toy, which is generally pretty good, but it’s one flaw that I think directly affects my single biggest complaint with Flameblast: this robot has a space shuttle hanging off of his back!

You see, when he transforms the shuttle nosecone swings back and hangs from his shoulders where it just . . . well, it just hangs there. If the toy had been a little larger I think they would have been able to design the nosecone to at least split in half and give the robot wing-like pieces at the back. Hell, maybe one of the other unofficial producers out there will sell an upgrade kit that fixes Flameblast’s nosecone.

But that really is the toy’s biggest problem and once you get past that you find a robot with decent articulation and a nice design. And those colors in robot mode — the white of the shuttle mode is almost completely gone — look great and give the toy a cool look. The paint is a little spotty and scratchy in places but it’s pretty good with just a few spots of color laid over the black, white, maroon, and purple plastic. If this toy had been safety tested the number of different plastic colors used would have made the testing costs truly suck.

Articulation

So what do I mean by “decent” articulation? Well, let’s run through the various points and you can decide for yourself. Flameblast has ball-jointed head, shoulders, elbows, ankles, and hips, a swivel waist, cut joints at the thighs, and hinged knees. The only joints I miss are at the wrists — I’m really surprised there aren’t at least swivels at the wrists — but even missing those joints he’s pretty poseable. He’s not insanely poseable, but he’s decent.

Holsters!

The booster packs on the wings — once popped off and then reattached to the toy in robot mode — swing open to reveal two small pistols, one in each pack. These fat packs act as holsters and they look good on the toy in both shuttle and robot mode. Check the below photo and you can see one of the packs open and the pistol inside just waiting to be pulled out and stuck in Flameblast’s hand.

A Cool Toy That Isn’t Incredible

As a transforming robot toy Flameblast is pretty neat. The shuttle on his back problem is the biggest issue while the overall design in robot mode looks good. But at $50 he feels just a little overpriced, especially when compared to the taller (and more fun) X Transbots Glider (review here). The plastic feels durable, the paint is pretty good, and those holsters are a nice touch. I just wish that he didn’t feel quite so fragile — some of those joints feel like they’re gonna pop — and that he had somewhere to store his sword in robot mode so that he could hold both of his pistols at once.

But he is fun to pose and that head gives him a unique look and really makes him his own character. This is far more fun than the Protector Armor and I’m glad that I gave Fansproject another shot. How much more fun do I find this toy over the Protector Armor? Well, let me just say that I now kinda regret that I missed out on the first version of his mold (but not enough to pay the ridiculously high prices people want for Explorer these days.

Closing Thoughts

Not nearly as neat or as large as the Fansproject unofficial Insecticon toys (see my quick pics), Flameblast is a nice toy that I’m going to keep in my Transformers collection. He looks good posed and looks even better when he’s with other toys.

I’m still not one of the Fansproject hardcore supporters, but I will say that I find this to be a lot more playable — and enjoyable — toy than their Protector Armor. I’m not quite excited enough to recommend this toy to anyone without suggesting that you read several more reviews, but I’m also not about to say that it should be skipped. It’s nice, but it feels about $15 or $20 too high for what you get.

Philip Reed also has the Fansproject Warcry and should open and review that soon.