KM-06 STORMER

This is the 3rd Seeker installment by Mastermind Creations. The first one was a limited edition pure white version known as KM Awakening while the second version was KM-05 Screecher (the supposed Starscream). As you can clearly guess, Stormer is a rendition of Thundercracker.

The toy comes with a short train track as well as a series of plastic blue caps, for you to seal off the screw head openings. Hence if you take a look, you will hardly see any screw openings.

I have applied gold markings on parts of the figure. Also, the only extra detail on the toy is the green markings as can be seen above. I really appreciate the efforts of Mastermind for such a small part of the figure.

Stormer comes in the form of a 3-winged plane from the steel ages. It resembles the early inventions of the Wright Brothers. There's one main factor why you will never see toys like these bring produced by mainstream toy manufacturers & that's because of the safety issue. If you're wondering whether the wings & propellers of the plane are sharp, they are pointy sharp alright! You could probably use the wings as a letter opener if you wanted to.

A closer look shows Stormers face resembling that of Thundercracker.

One main weakness of these third party toys is the plastic quality. You gotta be really careful when you transform them as they do feel a little fragile at times. Also try not to have sweaty palms when you're transforming Stormer, you don't wanna hurt yourself from the sharp edges.

 
The rear wings can actually be spread open giving Stormer a larger wingspan when flying I suppose. Even though the rear or Stormer looks bulky, the figure is actually quite sturdy.

Various other poses of Stormer.
 

The additional wings tucked along the waist can actually be removed to become fighting blades. Alternatively, you can also combine both of them together to form a huge scimitar.

 

Here's one cool thing I found out from another blog that the instruction manual doesn't show. You can actually combine both the blades along with the rear wings, to form a gigantic shuriken.

I'm sure Stormer is going to need a whole lot of strength to even flip that at someone. Having said so, wouldn't something as huge as that be bloody visible for the opponent to have plenty of time to evade? Go figure.

Lastly, here's a concept art of the early designs of the three Seekers. Although they're not the same, they do bear a lot of resemblance.

To me this has been a fun piece to look at & appreciate. I really do look forward to upcoming figures from Mastermind. One to mention would be Hexatron, which I have yet to purchase.

MATRIX OF LEADER

 

It was by chance that I stumbled upon this in one of the online blogs. However, I noticed there were a few variations that were available in the market. I was trying to find out which was the best one in my opinion & not long after I ended up with this.

This matrix is manufactured by Junkion Blacksmith, hence the code J-08 Matrix of Leader. It comes in a solid black box with some paper inserts inside to keep the matrix in place.

 

The toy comes in 2 main pieces, the matrix & a display stand.

Inside the kit is also provided with a certificate in the form of a card & an Autobot emblem sticker.

 
The certificate shows '1856', out of 2010 sets worldwide.

Here's what the stand looks like after applying the emblem. From the image, you can see that the matrix comes in gold & silver chrome finish. However, in reality, the matrix is actually very light.

Additional images of the matrix. From the top you can see there is actually a latch for you to clip a string through it in order for you to hang it around your neck.

Here's the cool factor. The matrix is actually spring loaded and you can actually pull the matrix apart to make it light up!

Overall, this toy cost me less than USD80 inclusive of shipping if you where to get it. I'd say it was well worth the money. This toy serves as a great display unit in your cabinet surrounded by Optimus Primes, or even Rodimus.

WB-002 WARBOT STEEL CORE

When I first saw the prototype mold of Steel Core by Fansproject, I wasn't too interested in this character. It was just before the launch of this figure that some of my friends mentioned that this is a rare gem & an exclusive figure that I decided to grab hold of it. 

In vehicle mode, Steel Core looks like a futuristic assault truck. In many ways, I feel that there is a resemblance to Ultra Magnus due to the smoke stacks at the side of the vehicle.

If you take a closer look at the images above, you'll see there is a peg, where a trailer could be attached to it somehow. I've seen a couple of teaser images of the trailer where it's suppose to be carrying additional Corers. Let's just wait & see what Fansproject has installed for us.

The cockpit opens up to reveal Corer. The figure fits nicely in the driver seat.

Here's a closer look at Corer.

Corer bears resemblance to the G1 Powermasters where the figure transforms into an engine to be attached onto the larger bot. Although this figure is rather small, don't be fooled as Corer is very poseable.

A side to side comparison between Corer & G1 Eject.

The fusion between Steel & Corer to form Steelcore.

This is Steelcore in robot mode. I can't say that I'm a fan of this figure but I have to admit that I'm happy to own one since so many people have been looking for this figure.

The plastic on this figure is very light, as though it is made of cheap material. However, the quality is impeccable. It's a pity the smoke stacks are bloody obvious in robot mode. It would have been better if there was a way to tuck it to the sides, making Steelcore a little more aerodynamic & sleek.

Steelcore's primary weapon is a battle axe that can also be turned into a blaster. The should flips open to reveal a stash of micro missles to be hurled at unexpected enemies.

Among other shots of Steelcore so show how flexible this figure is. To sum it up, I'll be leaving this bot on my shelf for display, alongside my Warbot Defender & Assaulter.