MegaBox: MB-12 Landbreaker is Something That Exists

So, when I was getting into 52Toys’ BeastBox, something on my radar was the Landbreaker set, a pair of box/construction vehicles that combined. This sort of thing is very much in my area of interest, but I held off due to the price tag, which is the rough equivalent of a leader class Transformers toy. After a while, the price was right, and here we are. And its, well, something. There’s a lot to talk about here, so I’m going to do a paragraph talking about the set as whole, before addressing the vehicles separately, and then combining. If you want the short version: I was predisposed to like this, and while having some preventable flaws, I liked it rather a lot.

 

The two vehicles, Mole on left, Groundbreaker on the right

Aside from the combination thing, which was my main reason for wanting this set, there are a couple of features not found in any of the 52Toys stuff I've previously written about. First off, they have opening and detailed cockpits, reportedly capable of sitting pilots from the modern Diaclone reboot. I don't have the ability have to test this currently, but I suppose that's cool, there is some stylistic overlap there. Then there's the 5mm pegs to connect the limbs to the main body, in a weaponizer- adjacent kinda way, like modern Junkion Transformers. The instructions encourage you to mix & match in ways beyond the two stated combinations, which is fun to do in a sort of "fan mode" way. For example, I did work out that Groundhog can take Mole's limbs and still make a decent box mode, but the reverse does not seem to be the case. Maybe I'm missing something, but I should point out that the other combiner MegaBox are based on the same 5mm port system, so there's options. On the downside, the cutmark problem that Black Getter had is back and still kinda sucks. This is most obvious with the white marks on the blue/grey plastic, which is the sorta thing that should been caught during quality control procedures. Or outright prevented at the test shot stage. The set is a little rough around the edges due to that and a few other minor annoyances. Nothing a bit of touching-up couldn't resolve, and worse things happen at sea, but this ain't a model kit, is it?

Mole, AKA Code 1, is the one I like the best visually, but also the most finicky, and having the worst of the QC issues. As a construction vehicle akin to a high-tech JCB, I adore it. It's hitting all the right industrial notes in safety orange. It's something while not real, has that verisimilitude; it looks like something that could exist, and honestly could be dropped into almost any near future setting without issue. The arms each have 7 major joints, the claw obviously adding more, moving in a very industrial way. It's wheelbase is interesting too. It's the most sci-fi bit of it all, with each pair of wheels being jointed in three places. You can adjust its ground clearance, and the main body is similarly jointed, so the entire thing can rise up like a cobra. The flip-side to that is that the Mole is largely made of joints that feature that blue/grey plastic I mentioned above. Also, I easily get confused putting this into box mode as you can fold it up several ways that feel valid up until the point where it suddenly isn’t.

Groundhog, aka Code 2, isn't as visually pleasing to me, but is more even as an experience. This is because it seems to making the most compromises for the combined form, but is more foolproof and has a lot of character. This vehicle gets around with a single wheel and a set of purely decorative tracks. These tracks are on the small side I feel, fairly disproportionate compared to the arms/legs, but they have these oh-so adorable set of joints so they can be extended and posed. Meanwhile you get a set of limbs with arguably better motion than the above, but topped off with a bigger claw and a chainsaw. And the box mode does not confuse me, and also is achieved in a manner that looks like it could work in real life. As its a simpler design, the limbs just fold up onto the sides, and I can certainly imagine this being delivered on a trailer to building site. So, that's all good stuff, although after messing with for a while, it's quite easy to see that this dude becomes something else. 

 

So, onto to combination. The instructions describe two ways, a combined vehicle form, and the robot form, aka the main event, aka Landbreaker. This is facilitated by another 5mm peg, with the robot mode feeling quite intuitive to achieve. The vehicle mode is less so, it feels more like a happy by-product of the aforementioned modularity, than a distinct form. I'm put in mind of one of those big asphalt laying machines that make motorways though, so it's not without an appeal. The combined robot form is however nice. Possibly greater than the sum of its parts, even. It's not without its weaknesses, a lot ends up on the back, and the leg pilot must hate his job, but the fundamental strengths of both parts come through. I'm going to use that fancy word “verisimilitude” again. It's hard to make a combiner look technically feasible at all, it's very much a super robot genre thing. Landbreaker however looks both unified and almost as sensible as it's individual components. It's got that near-future realism to it, and it's honestly amazing that the designers pulled it off. A big part of that is the "head" which has a webcam-looking sensor on it that moves with a universal joint. It looks like something a construction robot would have, not necessarily humanising it, but thematic and expressive. It also poses like a boss, repurposing all those joints becoming the most unexpectedly agile robot I've handled of late. It's got pretty much everything you'd want or need, even working in the connector as a waist joint and ab crunch. It's still got that serious robotics feel to its movements as its entirely swivels and universal joints but I honestly don't know what more could be added. Mole is largely made of joints, so you can get a lot in the upper body, and Groundhog is far from a slouch too.  It looks great, poses well, and can kick people with a chainsaw. There’s an awful-awful lot to like.

 

In addition to being something that exists, Landbreaker is something that is quite awesome. I don’t know if its the best thing 52Toys has done, I don’t have the experience to make that judgement, and there’s some petty annoyances, but… yeah. This does a lot of stuff right, comparing favourably to Transformers toys, while having that 3^rd party flair, but also very much its own identity. I keep on finding new stuff to like about it. Consider this a recommendation, and if in doubt, there’s a purple and green version.

 

 

BeastBox: BB-48 Desert Assault Squad is Something That Exists

Do I have to explain BeastBox again? Righty, mechanical beasts that compress into boxes? Very collectable? 15+ age bracket? No? Oh, click here then. OK, let’s have a quick chat about a BeastBox I got recently.

 

 

Something which may be a surprise to any international reader is that the people of the UK have an inordinate fondness for Meercats. It's basically a meme, as these adorable creatures aren't native to my wet and foggy home. This is probably down to the "Meercats United" documentary by Sir David Attenborough, and more recently the "Compare the Meerkat" advertising campaign. Please don't ask me to explain that last one, it now includes Wombats. So, with my continuing fixation on BeastBox toys, the Desert Assault Squad was on my radar. Cute and characterful animals are very much something BeastBox does well. And one day, it was on sale.

 

When talking about this set, comparisons to those penguins from my first BeastBox article are unavoidable. The Desert Assault Squad is similarly a team of four mech-animals, differentiated mainly by decals and a single accessory. Like the penguins, they feature magnets to assist with box mode, but unlike the penguins, there's a fair bit in the way of posability and actual transformation. This means that these mecha meerkats have far more going on, but they aren't as foolproof. 

 

Let's talk the individual squad members a bit. Each is a predominantly brown and sand coloured robo-animal, with a gunmetal chestplate and forearm guns. While cute, these aren't necessarily cutesy, almost serious minded. There's little exaggeration here, but each stands on its hind legs in that way people find so charming. These are a quartet of small creatures standing on guard, watching out for trouble, and then shooting it. Posability is an interesting discussion as a result. Each has a very small footprint, so you'll likely be using the tail as a third leg, but it possible to do without it. Articulation generally is mainly a matter if balljoints and swivels, more humanoid than most of my BeastBox, although obviously not as extensive as Black Getter. It's a total of 13 points, with nothing in the waist, but you have enough for a salute. Which is adorable. Transformation into box mode meanwhile is more involved than it looks. The head stows the main body, but the shoulders shift around too, and torso splits in half. It's not strictly speaking difficult, but I will admit to overlooking a mistake, and not realising at first because the magnets held it all together. The resulting box is largely symmetrical, if not totally concealing the nature of its components. I do like the top, which makes use of the breastplates to smooth everything out, and each block has a little letter decal referring to one of the cardinal directions. So you can arrange them like a compass.

All in all? It's a fun little set, with lots of character. It is possibly a bit too finicky for my tastes, but not enough to spoil the experience. Definitely adorable. Definitely something that exists.

Project Tonks: Part 8

Something something magic 8 ball…EDIT: Now with borderline acceptable pictures!

 

 

 

With three satisfactory Tonks completed, and the essentials of a forth underway, the home stretch was now in sight. Tonk 4 would become a refinement of the previous three with respects to the tracks, going smaller, and once more using keyboard keys for the shape of things. The hull and turret design however were a new approach, repurposing a cheap construction toy, the same type/brand as I’ve used for Ork models. This was built up with off-brand lego to make a more interesting shape. Turret rotation here was based on a screwhole, which would have been fine by itself, but added a bit of wire and a touch of hot glue to reinforce the connection. The gun, meanwhile, was built up from a glue lid, a bit of a water pistol, and a bit off an old tank kit. Detailing and painting continued in my usual way, although I’d salvaged a new style of plastic sheeting, which I used for a few panels. As I was out of gold paint, I did the rivets in copper, not that you can tell. Between the hyper-fixation and practice I did this one fairly quickly. I don’t know if I’d necessarily build the turret ring again like this, but its entirely fine, and I like the blue.

 

 

With Tonk 4 done, I moved onto Stage 5: The Tonk Destroyer. Within the rules of Tonks, this in found in the extra section, an alternate playing piece available for games of 3 or more players. The basic concept of a tank destroyer is a fairly self-explanatory one, but to summarise: a tank destroyer is often a vehicle along the same lines as a tank, just removing the turret in exchange for a bigger gun. This was mainly a WW2 thing, often a conversion of a tank proper, but they are still around. On balance, this would be a simpler affair than a turreted tonk, which is why I called it a victory lap. I ended up throwing this together from bits I’d collected for this project, before going all-in on moulded tracks. The tracks where salvaged resin examples by Ramshackle Games, while the gun and blast shield were out of an old robot toy. The body was made from another jenga tile, with one segment cut off, and hot glued on top for a gun mounting. The tracks are smaller than my scratchbuilt ones, which combined with the gun housing makes it look more super-deformed than my other creations, but its fine. It looks very single-minded. I dressed it with bits as I usually do, and added on a crude dozerblade because I was in a 40K sort of mode. It was about this point I realised I could paint this, but I wasn’t sure if I could get it done in time for Tuesday. Then I got snowed-in, OK, decision made. I did it in magenta.

 

Well, its a little ahead of schedule, but Project Tonks seems to have come to a nice conclusion. Time to start thinking seriously about the next project. In the meantime, I’m going to mull over how this all went, and maybe write up a summary. Cheers for now.

 

State of the Blog post December 2023

OK, this is honestly a bit weird. I've been finding myself in a, no qualifiers, good place mentally. I seem to have found some effective coping strategies, and have maybe put to bed some self-destructive habits. As this blog mainly exists as a coping strategy, you might think I'd winding it down, but no. I'm honestly getting good at this modelling business, and found a new interest. This blog is feeling like fun rather than routine. I have a significant buffer of toy articles, and Project Tonks has been refreshing. I am still a work in progress, and likely always will be, but vaguely optimistic equilibrium is not my usual winter mood.

I am however still doing my usual Chrimbo holiday. I may be doing well, but I work in retail. As such the schedule for the Holiday Season looks like this.

Regular posting ends on the December 17^th.

The New Years Special on, umm, new years day?

Regular service resumes on January 7^th.

Project Tonks concludes tomorrow.

Topics in the Pipeline

A new modelling project along the lines of Project Tonks, but that's very much being planned.

More things that turn into boxes.

Many-many Transformers repaints.

 

Until then, have a nice chrimbo!

Resin: The Ramshackle Games Goblin Tank Range (By Fox Box)

 

Wait, wait! This isn't Project Tonks! Tonks adjacent, certainly, but not Tonks. Tonks are about 1:75, these are 28mm scale proxies for 40k. Grot Tanks, basically. So, yes, there's a lot of overlap, the same basic hyper-fixation, but I promise a slightly different experience this time.

OK, so during Orktober, Ramshackle Games, my preferred resin dealership, announced two new vehicle kits, the "Goblin Range Slug Tank" and the "Goblin Range Raider Tank". Notably, these are not sculpted by Ramshackle itself, aka Mr Curtis, but rather Fox Box, a similar sort of enterprise that has a collaboration thing going on. I ordered one of each. Now, I had intended this to be a "pallet cleanser review " sorta project, to fill a weeks worth of holiday, but I had forgotten something in the month or so they took to arrive. Ramshackle Games likes to empty the mould into the box they send you, so I ended up with 4 turrets, 3 hulls, and at least twice the guns you'd reasonably need. Gotta love Ramshackle Games. Its like Five Guys and their fries, regardless of the size of tub you select, you always get a bag of chips. So, as four is the minimum required size for a unit of Grot Tanks, the only reasonable option was to bodge together a forth hull.

I need to make a few comments on the actual models though. The resin seems different from Ramshackle's usual fare, with lots in the way of wafer-thin flash to remove. There's also chunkier bits, as well as bubbles. It's not difficult to clean up, and seemingly less brittle than the usual, but there is stuff to do. The Slug, the unexpectedly duplicated one, also came in two distinct variations, one with the exhausts as a separate piece, and one where it was pre-attached. That was helpful for differentiating them. Otherwise, I kept the trio largely as stock, adding icons and such, before taking a swing at the kitbashed kommander tank. Visually, these are nicely sculpted pieces, with a great selection of weapons. I think I prefer the “Raider” style, but there’s not much it. One observation I would make though is that the models are, like the more recent GW Ork plastics, possibly too unique in their sculpt. I mean imagine three slugs with exactly the same armour patches on them? Its the Squigbuggy all over again. That’s a minor complaint though, and if you’re not trying to customise orkish vehicles when you make ‘em, you’re probably doing it wrong.

With the Kommander Tank, I wanted to get something that fit the look and feel of the resin models. This meant a resin kitbash, and fortunately that's something I have the materials for and have done before. The main body and engine block are Ramshackle Games bits, giving it the same heft as the others, with the turret and one weapon being taken from the spares mentioned above. The tracks where taken off an old Guntank who’d came second in a fight with gravity, and were unchanged. Other detailing like the exhausts were scratchbuilt or kitbashed, as, for some reason, I’ve gotten pretty good at making small tanks. Its the biggest of the four, but given that its got two guns on it and is meant to be in charge, that’s not really an issue. Painting then continued in my usual “Deathskull Rust Bucket” Style, but it was hear I realised that a make-up brush would work on small things as well as big things. This made things ungodly quick.  Although, given the state of my hands, I should have worn gloves.

Overall? I like how these turned out, and these goblin tanks are worth looking into.