Review – Transformers United Rumble and Frenzy

The Japanese Transformers United series (Amazon.com search*, BigBadToyStore search, TFSource search) is made of toys we can buy in the US mixed with a few designs that just aren’t available to us. It’s a pretty neat series with same great design choices and colors, but it’s the completely-not-released-in-the-US toys that most attract my attention.

Toys like this Rumble and Frenzy set*. Unfortunately, there are problems with these set of toys that make them feel more like first attempts than professionally-produced Transformers toys.

Tank Mode

First up is Rumble and Frenzy’s tank mode. A small, multi-gunned instrument of destruction, these two little tanks look great with a smaller turret mounted on a larger turret, both of which swivel and can be aimed in opposite directions. The tank design looks pretty good to me, with the designers aiming for “generic tank” rather than any real design (as near as I can tell), and the only thing that would have made the tank mode better for me would have been if they had given us Cybertronian tanks rather than designs that appear to be Earth modes.

The transformation from robot mode (the toys come packed in robot mode) to tank mode was pretty easy and I handled most of the process without even checking the instructions. The only real frustration while transforming between modes is that the legs like to fall off of the main body; the ball-jointed hips give the legs a wide range of motion, but the plastic feels a little cheap and the legs just refuse to stay attached to those joints once you start swinging the legs around.

Robot Mode

The Rumble and Frenzy set* looks fantastic at a glance, but as soon as you start posing and playing with the toys the problems leap out at you and slap you around, the two little robots almost laughing at you as you start to realize that you paid $50+ for what amounts to Takara’s poorly-tested new toy. (I see prices are now hovering around $75 to $100, which makes me glad I got these early.)

Major Problems

Besides the legs falling off, there are a few issues with the design that makes me think that Takara did not put enough time into properly testing the toys before proceeding with production. Taking each in turn, the problems as I see them are:

• Shoulders – The joint at the shoulders — the hinge that positions the arms for tank mode and not the ball-jointed shoulders themselves — isn’t strong enough to hold the arms up and over time the arms sag down. If you look at Frenzy (the blue toy, this time) you’ll notice that the toy’s right arm is always drooping; that joint can’t even hold the arm up for a few seconds.
  
• Ugly Forearms – The transformation from robot to tank may be pretty slick, but it leaves the toys with horrible-looking forearms. And those huge “u”-shaped sections on each hand may be nice for the accessories, but they look terrible.
  

• Piledrivers – Look at the photo below and notice Frenzy’s arms are transformed from human-like arms to the toy’s piledriver arms. The idea was great, but the hair-trigger for the springs means I’m constantly setting off the pistons and the piledriver arms just don’t look all that great.
  
• Cheap Plastic – The last of the major issues with the Rumble and Frenzy set* has to be the decision that someone at Takara made to use incredibly cheap plastics. The silver weapons are mounted on ball joints and rotating the guns is an exercise in nerves as you feel the plastic starting to twist. It’s only a matter of time — unless I stop posing the guns — before these weapons break. It’s really crappy plastic.

It’s Not All Bad

Despite the complaints that I have with the toys, I do have to admit that in general the Rumble and Frenzy set* looks fantastic and I’m quite happy with the decision to make these little guys tanks. The head sculpt is perfect, I love the connection to the past with the chest design, and I really appreciate the transformation design. These look better than the BTS Minions Tremor and Frequenzy (review here), but I think that when it comes to modern interpretations of Rumble and Frenzy my favorite design has to be the Perfect Effect Warrior Type-R/Type F toys (review here).

Closing Thoughts

If Hasbro plans to bring this mold to the US I hope that they solve some of the bigger problems — fixing the weak shoulders and giving the toys arms that aren’t so ugly would be enough for me — because the Rumble and Frenzy set* is almost cool enough for me to recommend to Transformers fans . . . but “almost” isn’t close enough.

In the end, the cost is just too high to justify the problems and even if you think you’ve just gotta have these I say skip them; I can’t see how Hasbro won’t ever use this mold and even if the problems aren’t fixed the toys are likely to cost less in the US than they cost as exports from Japan.

For another opinion see the the review at Rabbit Haul . . . though don’t expect that review to be the opposite side of my own thoughts on the set.

Philip Reed really does hope that Hasbro solves the problems with this design and brings it to US stores. The product shots look great and Philip thinks that if the arm problems are solved these will be remarkable robot toys.