Gun Fighter II

 Fans Hobby is a relatively new company, with just currently four releases under their belt. I skipped the first release in the Master Builder line, their interpretation of Black Convoy, but I do own both monster bots and their G2 Laser Prime. While not quite as polished as some of the more established 3rd Party companies, each release has seen improvements and they put out a very solid product.

Gun Fighter II features a basic cardboard box, with a single plastic tray and the weapons bagged separately. There’s not much to say about the box though this is the first one i’ve received that hasn’t been dented during shipping.

Fans Hobby’s design aesthetic seems to heavily favor chunkier looking robots, and it’s one of the things that really drew me towards the company’s products along with the fact that they aren’t doing stupid IDW crap.. All their releases so far look like their G1 toy counterparts, and Gun Fighter II pretty much just looks like a scaled up G2 Laser Prime.

Most of Gun Fighter II molded colored plastic, but the detailing on the shoulders and chest are painted, as well as a couple of other spots. I think they really nailed the chest and shoulders and it’s my favorite part of the figure.

Unlike Archenemy (Black Convoy), Gun Fighter II comes with two rifles in addition to his sword. While one is the tradition G1 prime style rifle, the other is the double barreled rifle similar to his G2 counterpart. The back of each shoulder has a flip out port that’s a bit tricky to open, and actually has to be rotated 180 degrees and both the rifles and sword can be mounted on the back,

The chest opens up to reveal a removable matrix that falls out very easily. I’m not sure what the matrix is made of, but it doesn’t seem to be plastic, and might be glass or something, as light refracts very beautifully compared to plastic ones.

Articulation is pretty good, but not quite on the level as many of the more established companies. It can do what I call a “Hasbro kneel,” which is a not so convincing kneel that people seem to force and won’t admit to it’s unnatural and awkward appearance. The arms are a bit restricted, though a big part of it is due to the design of the very large shoulders. While the shoulders can extend out a little bit more more range, I do wish they could have implemented some kind of butterfly joint or something to give the arms the ability to do some more dynamic two handed poses. With the exception of of the ankles and elbows, most of the other joints are nice solid ratchets so he has no problem keeping a pose. There’s a bit of a ab crunch so he can do a good looking crotch thrust, and while the ankle front/back range is rather limited, it does have ankle rockers.

The transformation into vehicle mode is fairly straight forward, and feels like a slightly more complex version of the G2 version. Folding the head into the cab seems to have a bit of a clearance issue and I’ve found the easiest way to do it is fold the antenna forward and slightly turn the head when folding it in to avoid this issue. Truck mode does look wonderful and just like the G2 toy, though I do wish the they could have figured out a way to hide the feet a bit more. Both guns can still be mounted on the hood of the truck, or one of them can be stored in the rear. Unfortunately the sword cannot be stowed in the back and looks very weird attached to the hood. I don’t own Archenemy, but I do believe one of the big changes they did with Gun Fighter II is the addition of flip out covers for the back of the thighs in vehicle mode and another cover for the back of the cab that used to be exposed.

Being a newer company, Fans Hobby’s products are for the most part great, but there are still small things that they seem to slip through that other companies would catch. The side mirrors on the cab do not fold down like most other Masterpiece style Primes and often get in the way of the shoulders. The tabs on the forearms also create a clearance issue when holding the guns, and prevent them from sitting flush with the fists. This one’s not a big issue, but it is something I feel like other companies would have figured out a workaround to. My biggest complaint however, are the hands in general. The guns slot into the hands but the hands in general seem to poorly designed. On my Megatooth, the slots were too large and the gun would just fall out whenever i tried to move the arm. On Gun Fighter II, the right hand slot just doesn’t really even work with the sword. The sword peg feels just a tad too big for the hands, and I’m worried it’s going to end up snapping the thumb off somehow. When trying to slot the sword into the right hand, it tend to not even stay in the slot, though at least the hands can hold the swords find without the use of the slot. The left hand slot just seems to be deformed, and when slotted it, the sword is actually at an angle and not parallel to the arm. It’s kind of hard to see in the picture, but the handle of the sword is actually diagonal, and not parallel to the arm. At first I thought this was just a defective hand I received, but looking at multiple reviews of Gun Fighter II seems to indicate that the hand and sword seemed to have been poorly designed. My last issue is with the right fuel tank in vehicle mode. While the left one unfolds flat just fine, the right one cannot for whatever reason and is slightly crooked. It’s a small issue, but still kind of annoying nonetheless.

The best way to describe Gun Fighter II is that he’s a very solid figure. At just under 100 dollars before shipping for a MP10 scaled figure, I think he’s an incredible value for a really great looking Laser Prime thats a lot of fun to play with. The transformation is a bit simple for a 3rd party Masterpiece figure, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing, as I can actually just play with him and not have to spend 30 minutes trying to frustratingly transform something (I’m looking at you, Unique Toys Allen). Fans Hobby’s stuff doesn’t feel quite as polished as say, a Maketoys release, but they are quite a bit cheaper, and you can definitely feel the difference in the quality of the plastic as well. My only real gripe is just how bad the hands are, and I do hope they improve them in future releases. Fans Hobby has been generally receptive of fan criticism, and it’s evident with how often they post revisions of their prototypes on Facebook.  With that said, I do look forward to their Grotesque, and especially their God Ginrai, as I’ve partially been buying all their to make sure it gets released. Look, you really don’t need anymore IDW garbage in your life, but you could always use a Gun Fighter II.