Deforming Foam Bullet Blaster (Adventure Force Robot K-03)

As a Transformers collector, I am no stranger to knock-off/off-brand robots that turn from one thing into another. Most of these are of poor construction and quality; cheap, waxy plastic, crummy decals and questionable transformation schemes. Every once in awhile though, someone out there will surprise you. This is the tale of one such item, the mighty Deforming Foam Bullet Blaster!



A whopper of a name that basically translates to "off-brand Nerf gun that turns into an off-brand Transformer", this is one figure in a series of five offered by the same company responsible for the equally interesting off-brand Devastator set that showed up recently (reviewed here by the fine folks at CollectionDX) with the same charming eccentricities. I don't always focus on the packaging of an item, but this one merits a closer look for a few reasons so let's dive in.



Ol' Blasty here comes packaged in a huge clamshell with a cardboard insert. The card features a lot of nice tech details, tons of Chinese lettering that I can't read and some amusing Engrish, common to items of this nature. Despite the bright colors and flashy graphics, the figure itself is nicely centered and displayed, letting you know exactly what you're in for.



Various call outs on the package include notation of the metal contained within, a shot of the combined form of the five robots in this line and of course, DIE-CAST DEFORMING SOFT BULLET BLASTER!



The back of the card showcases the five individual robots and their combined form once again.



One of the cooler things about these guys is the variation in design. It's kind of hard to make out from the tiny computer renderings on the backing card, but each gun and corresponding robot have their own unique look. The gun modes all have a quasi-futuristic vibe that reminds me of the weapon design in the Dead Space series, number five especially looks like something out of the third game.



Now, with an item like this, you're never sure what to expect. It's not an actual knock-off and the company's past work on their not-Devastator gave me high hopes but I was still blown away once I got this guy open. The gun mode has a nice heft to it thanks to die-cast metal in the handle and underside of the barrel, but the real surprise was the firing mechanism. Due to the sheer amount things this piece does (transform, combine and fire darts), I feared the Nerf-gun aspect of the figure would suffer because I just couldn't imagine a way to incorporate it into this process and still have to function well. Boy, was I wrong! This thing COOKS. Because of American safety laws, even the most formidable Nerf guns tend to fire with a disappointing "puh" due to weakened springs. Not so with this fellow. When I loaded up and fired one of the six gray darts as a test, it easily crossed the room and stuck to the far wall with a satisfying thwack. I haven't tested it, but I imagine it actually hurts to be shot with this thing, truly a rare occurrence these days. (Update: Yes, yes it does. Ow.)



Another benefit of being a non-American design is that the toy is not constrained by the American safety requirement of shockingly bright colors and a blaze orange barrel cap. This is to keep kids (or yourself, if you're not too bright) from being accidentally shot by the police, should they mistake it for a real gun. I'm not planning on any outdoor games of cops and robbers near banks anytime soon, so I think I'm safe. It's Chinese origins mean the toy can have a nice, subtle color mix of bronze, silver and black instead of blinding neons.



There are a lot of tampographed details on the blaster including Adventure Force (the name of the line?), K-03 ROBOT (the number this one is in the series of five), a sort of warning symbol near the butt and, best of all, a modified Generation 2 Autobot symbol of questionable legality. This is a great touch and mirrors the altered Decepticon symbol the not-Devastator members bear, giving the almost-Decepticons a force of almost-Autobots to face.



Beyond the paint detailing, the gun sculpt itself is rich with tech details to catch and hold the eye. I'm no gun expert, so I can't tell you if there is basis in real-world design buried in this, but it looks like it could be a plausible, if advanced, weapon. It reminds me of Deckard's pistol in Blade Runner, though it is clearly not an exact match. In a nice bit of integration, the robot's own weapon attaches to the top of the gun as a small sight.



Transformation is refreshingly simple but well designed; the handle unfolds into arms, the kibble underneath the barrel into legs and the main body slides down to form the torso. Robot mode is solid, with the barrel and firing mechanism of the pistol forming the majority of the body and the metal in the lower legs balancing it out nicely. This mode reveals a bit of turquoise on the shoulders as well as some copper and green for the robot head.



The robot has decent proportions and holds together well, the plastic quality is fairly high and everything feels nice and solid. One of the only real quibbles I have with it design wise is that the hands, which slide out from the forearms, have no locking point along their track so they will sometimes slide back into the arm against your will (robot hands being notoriously defiant.)



The head sculpt is nothing to write home about, but nor is it bad in any particular way. It's vaguely Optimus Prime-ish but is just generic enough to be a little irritating, if only they had gone just a bit further with it. In a nice touch though, the head is flanked by two twin-barreled cannons that can swivel up and down.



Articulation is varied, but a little stiff. Ratchet joints that angle forward and back extend from the body which the arms then attach to via ball joint. Furthermore, there are ratchet joints at the elbow and upper arm. The legs consist of ratchets at the hip that can swing forward, backward and outward, hinge knees and toes that can move if you need them to. Earlier, I mentioned I had a couple of quibbles with this figure's design and here is where the second comes up. Though the hips should have a wide range, their forward motion is severely restricted by the abdominal region of the body; when moved forward, the hip strikes the body which pushes it upward, which in turn pushes the chest out of place. You can somewhat avoid this by moving the hip forward ninety degrees then pulling the body piece back down, but it doesn't sit quite flush. This, like the hand issue, is minor but seems like something that should have been caught early on in design.



So to be completely honest here, I was in love with this thing the moment I found out it existed, having it in hand now does not change my opinion. It is such an amazingly insane and amazingly ambitious idea, I couldn't resist it's charms. I keep running over all the things this toy embodies that makes the super nerd in me squeal with piggish delight. Die-cast metal! Nerf gun to Transformer! Combining robot team! Despite it's flaws, this is an amazing, amazing piece that I cannot recommend enough if it's your kind of thing. These guys are sold directly from China via a distribution company selling through Amazon so the price and the wait can be factors in deciding if you want to purchase one of these, but keep in mind that shipping is free and my particular Deforming Foam Bullet Blaster arrived a whopping fifteen days before it was estimated to. Just please don't buy all of robots one, two, four and five before I can!

The Gun Club

Gentlemen! I have built, THIS THING!: Phage Drone

 Yet another installment of GIHBTT and once again, we're looking at a robotic drone based off a real world animal (sort of), the Phage Drone!

I took less pictures of this one for some reason so I'll have to jump right into the description. This is the Phage Drone, an autonomous robotic unit designed primarily as a deep-space area of denial tactic similar to a remote mine, but with an insidious twist. The drone gets it's name from the real world bacteriophage, a virus type with a bulbous "head" and multiple radial arms attached to a stalk body. The real bacteriophage attaches itself to healthy bacterial cells and injects them with it's genome, turning the bacteria into miniature factories that create endless copies of the phage until they burst. The Phage Drone copies both the bacteriophage's appearance and method of attack, but is well equipped to defend itself in any situation. The drone is shown here in a neutral, "stand-by" stance. Deployed in large numbers from capital ships, the Phages will float in this position in a power conserving state with incredible patience, waiting for a ship to come within range. The orange wedges visible on the head module are it's primary optics, four in total. Since each "face" of the head module sports an eye, the Phage has excellent vision and is difficult to approach unawares. The light gray nozzles at each corner of the head are microthrusters that help keep the drone from drifting off it's assigned path while waiting for targets. Also visible are two of the Phage's four secondary weapons: The gray double-barreled device on the left face is a magnetic acceleration cannon modified to fire short ranged bursts of charged projectiles in a fashion similar to a shotgun. This weapon is primarily intended for use against organic enemies, but can easily punch a hole in starship armor at close ranges. The black harpoon gun protruding from the right face is a pneumatically powered projectile launcher that fires foot long metal spikes. As with the scatter MAC, this weapon is most effective against organic targets, but the Phage can electrify the bolts before firing to cause minor EMP black outs to sections of larger ships or completely overload smaller robotic targets and starfighters.



This shot shows the additional weapons present on the Phage's other faces. The orange and gray stacked discs on the left are a kinetic wave generator whose output can be greatly modulated by the Phage. At it's most powerful setting, the generator can produce waves of force strong enough to rattle a starfighter to pieces, but can be attuned to a setting light enough to merely disorient living targets or render them unconscious by rapidly altering the subject's inner ear pressure.The dark and light gray cannon on the right face is a powerful cutting laser that lets the Phage make it's own entrance into enemy ships, often hiding within the target's hull to avoid external detection.The Phage's head module also spins freely where it meets the body stalk so it can bring any of it's weapons to bear on a target in a split second. Visible in both of these pictures is the Phage's long range communications antennae, with which it can send and receive transmissions from capital ships several star systems away.



Though the Phage certainly has the means to bring the fight to nearly any unit on the battlefield, it rarely needs to use the weapon systems and relies instead on it's sinister primary programming of crippling and destroying enemy fleets. When a Phage Drone detects a hostile ship within it's vicinity, it quietly engages maneuvering jets and drifts forward until within range, sensor-baffling reflective plating preventing it's target from distinguishing the drone from other floating space detritus. Once the drone closes the distance, it extends grasping arms and positions itself above the target's hull (imagine the Phage in the picture without the black pole/gray hub cab base, I don't have any clear "hover" stands). At this point, the secondary optic sensors on the inner surfaces of the arms (the orange wedges) come online and begin scanning the target, looking for vital electrical systems close to the surface. Once such a system has been located, the drone deploys it's primary weapon, the Viral Missile.



The Phage fires the drill-tipped Viral Missile directly into the enemy ship's hull, boring until it strikes the targeted electrical relays. A high tensile, flexible cord packed with fiber optic cables links the drone to the missile and allows it to transmit a debilitating virus directly into the tethered ship's systems. This virus quickly guts the target's central computer and places the Phage in direct control, locking crew members out of the system, disabling life support and escape pods and hijacking the ship's weapons to turn them on allies. The virus prevents both direct and indirect attempts at limiting it's spread or control, even re-routing systems around infected consoles or hardware physically removed from the target. Experts have theorized that it may be possible to eventually undo the damage the virus inflicts and regain control of an infected ship, but the Phage is specifically (and somewhat sadistically) programmed to minimize the chances of such an operation succeeding.


Again, imagine the missile with no base...

Phages have the cruel tendency to open all hatches and air locks to the vacuum of space as soon as they gain control, negating a potential crew uprising almost immediately, often before any personnel realize what is happening or have time to send a distress call to other ships in their fleet. As a result, Phages are considered to be one of the most terrifying weapons in exo-naval warfare, able to lie dormant and nearly undetectable for long periods of time across space lanes before hijacking a ship with no warning and turning it against it's fellows. The drone's own intelligence and high level of independence make it even more dangerous, as multiple Phages will covertly communicate over encrypted short-wave bandwidths and work together to hijack strategically positioned ships within a flotilla secretly, only to reveal their deception once the enemy fleet encounters the Phage's allies, unleashing a surprise attack that can rip formations apart and leave the remnants easy prey for the home fleet. Some concern has been raised over the ethical use of Phages in space combat as the drones are often released in the hundreds of thousands and exact records are rarely kept of every unit deployed to a zone. This shoddy record keeping, coupled with the tendency of the drone's advanced CPU to become "bored" when left floating for long periods of time without directives, results in huge swaths of space within some systems that are incredibly hazardous to traverse to this day, decades after the conflicts that seeded the area with Phages in the first place has ended. Multiple instances of civilian ships being puppeted or outright destroyed by "malfunctioning" Phages that refuse to acknowledge command signals has led many governments to quietly retire the model from their naval forces, but they are still popular among pirates and smugglers as advanced defense systems for less than legal star bases and outposts.

And that's the Phage Drone. It started out from me just fiddling around with random pieces while trying to polish off an unrelated mech design (still unfinished mech design...) and then almost built itself once I thought "Hey, this kind of looks like the head of a bacteriophage..." Besides the bacteriophage itself, the Phage Drone is influenced by the Probe Droids of Star Wars, and to a lesser degree, by the "hovering" Imperial kill Droids of Star Wars in general. If I had the pieces, I would make all it's legs joints ratchets since the current friction joints just can't support it's weight. Also, I'd build it a clear display stand of some sort if I had the pieces because this baby's gotta float to look it's best!

Gentlemen! I have built, THIS THING! Guardian Mech

I know it's two days late but, I had reasons. I was just going to show you a heavily modified Magma Mech from the Power Miners line (readers from Sydlexia may remember me posting crappy pictures of it there way back when.) After digging it out and looking it over however, I felt the urge to tweak it a little. Said tweaks turned into hours of rebuilding basically from the ground up and I had to give it a rest when it was one thirty Wednesday morning and I had to work at ten. So after work, I snagged a Ninjago Fangpyre Mech mainly for arm joints and went back to work. After building the Fangpyre Mech and studying some of the new joints they had incorporated, I had to scrap half of what I built to add a waist joint and other bits. However, the final result scares even me...

Here it is, the Guardian Mine Defense Mech! I was thinking that this is what the miners use as security patrols, seeing as their primary antagonists seem to be giant lava monsters. Inspiration for the design clearly goes to Battletech mechs and ED-209 from Robocop.

The right arm has a twin-barreled grenade launcher with an under-slung rocket tube assembly

The left arm combines two long-range, armor-piercing cannons with a flamethrower nestled between them, note the drum fuel tanks.



Articulation is pretty good since I cannibalized every decent joint I had. The waist turns freely, the arms have ball joints at the shoulder and "wrist" and the legs have ratcheting hips and ball joint knees and ankles.



A view of the back section. The cylindrical section the hoses are connected to is part of the power core. The box below the "15" is actually a supply crate for field kit. There is also a shovel pegged to one side of it and a pick on the other. I liked the idea of the pilot having all the gear he might need strapped to the mech, like modern tanks have trench shovels and whatnot.



And what life saving gear is he carrying you ask? Why, a frying pan and a sausage of course!



Shot of the cockpit open and the brave pilot. The clear bits behind his head are supposed to be cabin lights and an alarm light, respectively.



Cockpit shot with pilot and canopy removed so you can see what he's got to work with. There are two control sticks and a holographic display, as well as binoculars and a rifle clipped next to his seat so he's prepared for anything. Anything that doesn't require a sausage at least...

Finally, our hero makes camp in the shadow of his machine. Still, even cooking dinner requires vigilance...

There you go folks, sorry I was late on posting this week, but I hope you feel it was worth the wait. I sure do!