iGear PP05M Medical Specialist & PP05W Weapon Specialist
Background:
Two of the most memorable Transformer Autobots from the 80’s G1 cartoon series for me were Ratchet and Ironhide. Unfortunately none of the licensed toy companies released any modern interpretations of these characters, enter iGear. iGear’s PP05M and PP05W pays homage to Ratchet and Ironhide respectively and by all accounts they have done a splendid job, check out the review below!
Name: PP05M
Manufacturer: iGear
Line: PP Series
Sculptor:
Designer:
Scale: Non-scale
Material: ABS, PVC, Die-cast
Release: Aug 2012
Original Price: $110USD (approx. $105AUD)
Height: 175mm / 6.88inches
Name: PP05W
Manufacturer: iGear
Line: PP Series
Sculptor:
Designer:
Scale: Non-scale
Material: ABS, PVC, Die-cast
Release: Aug 2012
Original Price: $110USD (approx. $105AUD)
Height: 175mm / 6.88inches
Packaging:
Both figures are packed in a very solid cardboard box with retro G1 style grid graphics. Shown on the front are CAD renderings of the figures in both robot and car mode which gives you an idea of what to expect inside the box. On the back, very simple graphic layout of all the included accessories and a background bio about each character. Inside, the trays are protected with plastic bags and all the accessories fit snugly in the plastic trays. Overall, very simple and effective packaging.
Accessories:
Starting with PP05M. It comes with 2 extra heads, one of which (the red one) was packed separately in a plastic bag but unfortunately was missing the eyes. As a medical specialist for robots, it comes with a huge variety of tools from screw drivers to hammers, all that’s missing is a tool chest! It also has a pair of welding torches which clip over the hands.
PP05W also comes with two extra heads, luckily no parts are missing here. One weapons which I really like is the live action movie inspired cannons, they look super bad ass. It also has a chrome shoulder mounted missile launcher, and a pair of small cannons which fits over the hands.
Apart from the accessories they each come with above, they also come with some common accessories. They each have a pistol which folds, a sniper rifle, a machete, a laser gun, a radar satellite dish, a pair of disk saws and a bazooka. The disk saw unfortunately didn’t fit very well on my example, but I guess in this case it’s the thought that counts.
Form/Sculpt:
Well, what can I say here about the design and sculpt of this toy that you can’t see for yourselves, it looks bloody amazing! The proportions are very nice and you can definitely spot the G1 influence in the design. There is quite a fair bit of mechanical detail molded into the body parts which keeps it looking interesting. In terms of kibble, there really isn’t much there which is a big plus! The plastic used on the toy feels quite solid although some parts do not fit perfectly leaving a small gap. The feet contains the only die-cast parts, they are fairly small but I guess it helps to balance the toy.
Alt Mode: In alt mode, the toy continues to impress with its retro styling and tight fitting panels. I’m not sure if this van is actually based off a real life counterpart but it looks realistic enough for me. The tyres are made from rubber and roll very well. Transformation between the two modes is a little tricky especially the leg area, but the results are amazing.
PP05W is about 99% the same as PP05M with the exception of the head, shoulder parts and the ambulance lights. This is of course not a bad thing, these are two very well designed and made toys. I do prefer the colour scheme of PP05M over PP05W, the white and red details just works so much better as a toy in my opinion.
Alt Mode: The alt mode for PP05W is no different. It looks great, fits together well and the wheels roll very nicely on the ground.
Articulation/Action:
The articulation for these guys are as good as any modern Transformers toy, licensed and 3rd party included. The head is on a ball joint with limited vertical movement. The shoulders, biceps and wrists have a full 360 degrees of rotation and the elbows are double jointed. The waist and thighs also has 360 degrees of rotation which really helps with dynamic poses. The only joint which I found to be a bit lacking are the knee joints, technically they are double jointed and can fold all the way down but in robot mode one of the car panels on the back of the leg gets in the way, which means these guys can’t kneel down. Apart from this small design flaw, these guys are fun to pose and look great in all standing poses!
Paint/Print:
The vast majority of the parts are left in the native colour of the plastic which works fine in this case as the plastic is nicely textured. The parts that do have paint on them are very tidy, this includes the face, side and back windows of the alt mode, door handles, stripes on the side of the alt mode etc. There is also a small amount of chrome plating on various parts of the toy which all look great. Just a note, these guys do not have the Autobot logo printed on as seen in some of my photos, they are decals I applied, but it is nice to know iGear made a spot especially to fit!
Detail/Features:
These guys have quite a few fun features built into them, some are inspired by the Masterpiece line such as the flip open communicator on the left forearm. On the right hand side however there is a 5mm peg hole for weapons instead.
I’m not sure if this was purposely designed, but the machete has a small hook which allows it to be stored in a few different places on the figures.
I also found a rather cool place to store the sniper rifle – on MP-10 Optimus Prime’s Battle Roller! Just to give you an idea of how well the transformation has been engineered, the size different between the robot and alt mode is huge!
Interestingly, in alt mode PP05W fits perfectly in MP-10 Optimus Prime’s trailer, however due to the extra height of the ambulance lights PP05M gets stuck!
Lastly a few size comparison shots in alt mode and robot mode. In alt mode these guys fit in pretty nicely with United/Generations Sergeant Kup, but probably a little bit too big compared with MP-10 Optimus Prime in this mode.
Conversely, in robot mode the iGear toys look far bigger than the United/Generations Sergeant Kup figure and fits in nicely with the MP-10 Optimus Prime scale. Strange but true!
Overall:
iGear has done a fantastic job with the design and production of these two toys. Most impressive for me is the fact that these are designs made completely from the ground up (with inspiration taken from an existing character of course), and not a copy / modification of an existing toy. If you like Transformers and you like the G1 characters, these two are definitely not to be missed. Sure they are a bit pricy, but who knows when Hasbro / Takara will release these guys in their Masterpiece line, if ever!
The only downside here is the relative lack of customer service from iGear, hence why I didn’t even bother emailing them about the missing eye part for PP05M’s red head! I do like their products but I wish they responded to their customers once in a while!
Thanks for reading as always!
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Filed under: Featured, Reviews, 3rd Party, Anime, Gokin, iGear, Transformers
