Something I find difficult when talking about the so-called third party Transformers scene is finding a fresh angle. It is necessary to acknowledge their dubious legal status, which tends to make any subsequent article an exercise in self-justification. But omit that, and you aren't being honest are you? And then, any discussion about the actual merits of an item runs into one sided comparison with actual Hasbro products. Third party tends to be better than Hasbro stuff, but of course it is. It's not subject to child safety considerations and typically costs loads more. Even with 2026 being 2026. You don't compete by being both worse and more expensive. This having been acknowledged, I find myself dabbling more in third party or non-transformers of late. I think it's just a side effect of Hasbro being Hasbro, and Age of the Primes generally being meh. I do wonder this represents a change in taste, or possibly an ethical decay on my part. But then, Hasbro wants to give J. K. Rowling money these days, so I suppose, fuck it, two wrongs make a right. As a result, Dr Wu's output has become my default "stupid convention purchase". If am at a robot convention, I want a robot. And would like to be something novel and/or awesome, that I wouldn't otherwise be easily able to get. I am just like that. Giant Claw is my latest such indulgence, a slightly chibi version of the Japanese exclusive character Black Zarak, a citiformer in miniature, whom now also turns into a box. I'm gonna talk merit, before talking about the issues. And hopefully find that fresh angle in the process.
The obvious question to ask here is, is it any good? And the short answer is, yes it is. Components here are overtly too small for a child, but it's got a lot to recommend for the size conscious collector. All the luxury touches you'd probably want are there. It's is notably still a headmaster, and the partner robot in gold is there. Both are, just to stress the point, tiny, but they are there. Its robot mode has a pleasing likeness, this colour scheme always looks great, well, except when I photograph it, with nice articulation, and a buttload of accessories. The tail assembly does limit the waist rotating, a modest downer, but there's transformation joints to use there. The fingers are articulated too, as are the gun turrets, which pivot up. The base mode does the job well, although perhaps a touch better than the scorpion mode. Said scorpion does benefit from unexpected joints in the neck and horns, but the bug legs are too small. The box mode is merely adequate, not the best one, but an entirely acceptable as a bonus mode. There’s a certain degree of faff to it, as you tab the accessories in, but it works. So, most things are good. These seem to go for about voyager money plus a tenner, I don’t think you’ll question the value proposition here, if the style appeals. I just kept on having pleasant little surprises when writing this review, its that sort of good.
A lot of my issues here come down to nitpicks. It's just consistently well-presented and engineered, with imperfections usually justified by either the original source, or the cutesy vibe. Problems are often one of contrast, rather than cut corners or bad implementation. To talk about Giant Claw's actual weaknesses properly though, I'm gonna tangent and talk about another toy entirely, Iron Fortress. I picked this up a while back, and while I started a write-up, but it didn't quite come together. See the first paragraph. Iron Fortress was Dr Wu's take on Metroplex, mine being in Metrotitan colours, and was a very impressive piece with three partner robots. But impressive as it was, it was also undermined by it's own complexity and it's eyestrain inducing instruction sheet. The box mode wasn't worth the effort either, which is a bit weird for a guy made of boxes, but if you just wanted a tiny Metroplex, you're golden. Giant Claw is much closer in vibe and hand feels to my first Dr Wu purchase, Evil Dragon, but issues with the paperwork and an occasional fiddly bit do occur. The instructions assume that the toy comes in box mode, which it does not, and figuring that out in reverse isn't ideal. Said instructions also presume the regular release which has a different head design and also doesn't acknowledge the spear accessory for some reason. I figured that out too, but it's not ideal either. TBH, I'm not a huge fan of rifle and spear anyway, because you're having to work with and around those big claws, but I'm not seeing an obvious better way of doing it at this scale. There's also a certain amount of partsforming kibble which is inherited from its source material, and these are quite small parts. I could have lived without those gold panels. As a result, what should be a fairly simple process, shifting between modes, is not as elegant as it could be, but your mileage may vary on that one. Like I said, nitpicks.
All in all, Giant Claw is pretty good. Only failed by the instruction sheet, and the occasional 6/10 design choice. But as it so good, any flaws have a painfully sharp contrast. If they nailed the instructions, maybe going double-sided, Dr Wu would be unstoppable. Dunno if I found a fresh angle there, but hopefully this of use to someone. And yes. If Hasbro did something similar to this, I'd buy it.
