We haven’t taken a look at a major MFT release in a while. The company has been showing lots of previews and test shots of upcoming releases, but have seemingly been waiting until the fall to unleash a flood of product on us the consumer. Today we’re looking at two toys previously released by Magic Square Toys that have now been upscaled and retooled by MechFansToys – MF-45 Fire Engine and MF-46 Crane!
Sculpt
These two were originally engineered and released by Magic Square Toys and praised for their wonderful sculpts and their accuracy to the animation models for G1 Inferno and Grapple. It was no surprise that MFT would set their sites on Magic Square as a new well to drink from. They currently have a handful of upcoming releases that are “borrowing” from Magic Square. As usually the case, MFT has made some changes to the original offerings. The head sculpts derive inspiration from the official Takara Tomy Masterpiece releases, emergency lights were added to the roof of both vehicles, and of course these two have been slightly scaled up in size to stand right around 11cm each.
Paint
There really is not a lot of paint here. Most everything is cast in colored plastic. What paint is applied is done quite well. It’s clean, and evenly toned. Accents on the heads, the eyes, the white shoulder bits, the windsheilds, wheel wells, and the nice silver lights and bumpers.
Articulation
Each has swivel neck, ball shoulders, bicep swivel, single elbow, wrist swivel, waist rotation, ball hips, thigh swivel, single knee, and ball jointed ankles. More than enough to get some nice dynamic poses and hold them well due to the big chunky feet.
Accessories
MFT included some great accessories. You get both G1 Inferno and Grapple rifles packed with each. Fire Engine comes with two scaled down water/extinguisher effects from the official Masterpiece release that can be plugged into the engine’s extending ladder. He also comes with a hose hand attachment that the effects pieces can attach to and a screwdriver tool. Not to be left out, Crane also gets the hose hand and tool, but instead of effects pieces MFT has included swappable crane attachments. A cherry picker style bucket, and a claw catcher with articulated segments.
Alternate Mode
These alternate modes are very reminiscent of the original Generation One toys. There’s some clever new school engineering, but for the most part many of the steps are similar to transforming the robot to crane or fire truck as they were in 1985. Just be careful while transforming. I’ve noticed the joints on all these are incredibly snug and some people are reporting breakages after using too much force. Just be mindful not to apply pressure to small pegs or joints while managing sliders.
Part of the reason I held out on purchasing Magic Square’s releases of these two was because I felt the vehicles were a bit too small for my display. With the upscale, these two look much better amongst a fleet of other legends scaled vehicles.
Value
MechFansToys is always going to give you the most bang for your buck. I bought these two on sale as a set with a preorder incentive for less than $40 shipped to my door. An amazing value for such well crafted toys with tons of accessories.
Score
4.5/5 Wizard’s Stars
It’s an amazing time to be a space saving legends scaled Transformers collector. It’s really something to have so much variety to choose from. If you’re looking for a pure G1 collection with a roster of characters from the first two seasons you can piece together a wonderful display by picking and choosing from only a few companies. These two join a shelf that’s been getting a lot of attention lately as it fills up with monthly releases from NewAge Toys, the occasional Magic Square release I can’t pass up, and MFT offerings that fit my idea of what’s in scale.
Stay tuned as even more MFT new releases are on the way. I’ll be looking at their upscales of Magic Square’s Ultra Magnus and Blaster soon!
Enjoy the full gallery for Fire Engine and Crane below!
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