Toy Wizards Review: MechFansToys VS-02 Head Warrior Wolfman

The juggernaut of the Legends+ scale market continues to roll forward with exciting new releases. We took a look at Mech Fans Toys’ VS sub series a while ago with VS-01 Chivalrouser, which was the company’s first foray into tackling the G1 Headmasters characters. Today we’ll take a look at the second offering in that series the dastardly Decepticon Weirdwolf aptly named here by MFT as VS-02 Head Warrior Wolfman!

Sculpt

As with many MFT releases this item is an upscaled and retooled version of an existing toy. Originally this toy was released by Unique Toys in their Palm Series collection. In a two pack no less, with their version of Chromedome. It’s no coincidence that the first two releases in the VS line are the first two offerings from the Palm Series. What MFT has done here is made substantial changes in both size and the molded details on the figure. The toy is essentially all new. It just follows the original engineering of the Unique Toys offering. Wolfman looks great. Now standing 12.5cm the body proportions are very reminiscent of late ’80s robot designs and especially the thick, boxy designs for the Headmasters anime series of 1987. You will see that anime series influence in the head and face sculpts in this VS series. Wolfman features a slight menacing smirk, which I guess is fitting, but I think I would rather have had a more neutral expression.

Paint

I can’t really complain too much about the paint jobs that MFT applies to their toys. For the most part everything is done well with even tones and pretty clean lines. The company can be commended for the variety of paint work they put onto a single figure. Wolfman has not only a red face, but they even painted the visor a metallic red. That’s a great touch. They also managed to very neatly apply a red face to the teeny tiny Headmaster robot and red eyes to the wolf mode head. The deep teal shade of the arms and thighs is matched with accents on the shoulders, chest and knees and there’s some silver flourishes on the abdomen and shins.

Articulation

He has a swivel neck, some forward and backward tilt movement because of the transformation at the chest, ball jointed shoulders, swivel biceps, hinged elbows, swivel waist joint, ball hips, thigh swivels, a fairly deep knee bend and that’s it for the rest of the legs. Because of the transformation design there’s no further articulation from the knee down. This doesn’t effect posing too much because those big clunky feet act as a great point of stability, but something like a slight ankle rocker would have been handy.

Accessories

This is always a shining point for most Mech Fans Toys releases. Wolfman comes with not one, but two blasters. It’s the same mold based on the G1 toy and appearance in the anime, but it’s offered here in two colors. An off white and the same deep teal as parts of the figure. You can store the blaster behind the left leg of the robot, essentially filling in one of the more hollow spaces on the toy. I use the teal gun for this. He also includes his signature sword. This acts as the tail for the wolf mode and looks great with silver painted details. The head itself is also an accessory, as with all Headmasters a smaller articulated robot becomes the head for the main bot.

But wait! There’s more! MFT loves to include smaller mech suits with their releases. These are knockoffs from the Takara Tomy Diaclone revival line with the same revisionary care put into the sculpted detailing to make them unique. This included power suit is based on one very recognizable and popular science fiction design – the Power Loader from the Aliens franchise! This little guy is phenominal and I really want to track down the Megablocks Alien Xenomorphs that scale perfectly with this.

Alternate Mode

Well, the Generation 1 toy was a brick of a wolf and this one isn’t breaking too much new ground. What I can say about it is that it’s much more slim and sleek compared to the G1 toy. The sculpt really takes cues from the anime appearance right down to the very pointed angular head sculpt. The transformation to this mode is really intuitive with the arms and chest of the robot becoming the upper portion of the wolf. The lower abdominal and hind portions of the wolf are formed by twisting the waist 180 degrees and then splitting the right leg in half to make up the rear legs of the beast and folding the left leg of the robot up and over to create the back and cockpit section. Could it have used a bit more articulation? Sure. Is it very accurate to what was portrayed on screen in the Headmasters TV series? Without a doubt.

Value

Mech Fans Toys is the king of getting your money’s worth. This guy will run you about $25 shipped. Considering the size and quality of the toy, the accessories included, as well as a whole other robot toy in the form of the incredibly cool power suit, that’s one hell of a deal. It’s what makes MFT’s offerings such an attractive package, even when the majority of their products are coming from the work of many others. I look for the best representation for the best value for my collection and often times that designation falls onto the MFT version of a legends scaled toy.

Score

4/5 Wizard’s Stars!

For every in house design that MFT plans on releasing through their Mechanic Studios sub line, there will be four or five of these “borrowed” designs. Upscaled. Retooled. Reimagined. Heavily padded with accessories and pack ins. All packed up and offered at a price lower than most of the competition. The company might not have much favor amongst the other Third Party companies on the block, but fans cannot deny that each new offering becomes increasingly desirable.

Enjoy the full gallery for Wolfman below!